Rationale - The following task is a magazine editorial based on a concerning global issue, the threat of totalitarianism.

Rationale

The following task is a magazine editorial based on a concerning global issue. This editorial is to be published in a current affairs magazine (Time, Newsweek, Der Spiegel, The Economist) and it is focused towards an adult audience concerned with the threat of totalitarianism. Working on the subjects of an all-powerful state as shown in the books “1984” and “Brave New World” and the threat this is to humanity, this editorial will attempt to compare the levels of control in North Korea to those of the books previously mentioned in order to expose the absurd despotism and to concern people about the threat this is to humanity. The editorial will be titled “The Dormant Threat: 2 Generations of totalitarianism in North Korea”.

The Dormant Threat: 2 Generations of totalitarianism in North Korea

After the recent elections in France tackled the threat of the rise of a totalitarian extreme-right leader-much as the actual president in Austria in 1999-the world wonders how the european focus limits itself on the western hemisphere, disregarding over 50 years of the most rigorous totalitarianism in North Korea. Since the rise of Kim il Sung after the liberation from axis-power Japan in 1945, the control over the people of this far eastern country has risen past state intimidation into psychological control, past the worst dystopian nightmares exposed in Orwell’s ‘1984’ or even Huxley’s ‘Brave new world.’ North Korea has been forced to live under an isolationism in which all forms of culture other than the cult of the great leader-Il Sung (portrayed since 1994 by his son, Kim Il Jong) have been suppressed.

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North Korean people live under close surveillance from the government which has no problem in condemning to death he who speaks against the great leader, even in his own home. The schools-only public-follow the teachings of the Juche Idea, which instruct them that “The Great Leader is always right”. The whole country, in fact, revolves around the same doctrine in order to control every level of society. The Juche manifesto managed to create a nationalist spirit at the same level as that of nazism in a country where people don’t mind starving as long as it is for the great leader (the country requires high levels of humanitarian aid against starvation). The people are blinded to ignore that the government spending on unnecessary defense, or 10-lane freeways, in a country where cars are scarce, exceed any forms of social spending, and even basic necessity items. Yet with such rigorous control, and an isolationism from all other ideals and cultures the country will long mantain its fanatical policies of hate towards the West.

In a country where capital crime is a word against the Great Leader and the government control is based on the worst levels of despotism, how can the West be blind past their own frontiers and ignore the dormant threat soon to arise from the pacific peninsula?

Analysis.

This editorial exposed an overview of the totalitarian control in North Korea, exposing several ideals in this form of politic which may easily be contrasted with “Brave New World” as well as “1984”. I did this in order to view the possibility of connecting these forms of government-fictional and real-to make people conscious of the graveness of the situation in North Korea.

To compare the scenarios, let us firstly connect “Brave New World” and North Korea. The ‘Juche idea’ which controls the society may be compared to the ‘fordism’ in “BNW”- they both are a supreme manifesto to control the people, not only to a physical extent but also psychological control, instilled since childhood. Regarding the icon-a government puppet to give the people some one to believe in, to pose as a role model for all ages. The Great Leader- Kim il Sung, has the same basic description as Ford in “Brave New World”- a dead absolute leader, of collosal proportions, who gave birth to the ‘world order’. The article also explains the rigorous measures of physical control, in which the people undergo surveillance and any sublevation is payed with the death sentence. This can be connected to the way in which the government measures are applied in Orwell’s “1984”: Force and intimidation are needed to mantain society stable. Finally, we see the loss of dignity, values and emotions exposed in “Brave New World”;in short, a loss of humanity-is connected to the manner in which the people of North Korea die from a lack of basic needs, yet, don’t mind, as long as it is in the Great Leader’s interest.

I believe I have managed to correctly expose a comparison between the 3 fictional and non-fictional forms of control. The objectives set appropriately link the books and the government of North Korea and probably achieve what was the most basic idea: to concern the people of the nations of the West with the situation of the Asian nation so that they react against the absurdness of having a threatening government type which resembles so much what great authors could only conceive happening in the most fantastical and unreal scenarios.

Andrés Jiménez, 11-3