I think that the North Korean mentality of hating Americans and loving their authoritarian leader is based primarily on propaganda, much like the activitity we did last week. The North Korean government indoctrinates their people, their young, their educators, and their elders through an intense propaganda regiment. I think a key element of this is language.
Language, be it written, spoken, or body language, can be used to change an individual’s thinking. Although there is more to the current situation in North Korea, language still plays a big role in the way the North Korean government want their citizens to think. In the video we watched there is a scene where the factory that the mother works in has an electrical outage. When the managers have a meeting concerning what was to blame, one woman is quick to blame herself and her incompetence as a leader while another man blames the “Imperialist” Americans, ignoring their own government’s inability to provide resources for their people. (Although Gullickson did point out that America refuses to continue sending resources to North Korea because of their nuclear development program.) It appears in the whole video, this despising of Americans. It appears they talk and think like this because all over the video there are posters with slogans against the Americans, and songs (remember the cute little girl) about the “kneeling Americans”. Also, there is a scene in the video of a person giving a session to new teachers about how to teach the children about their “Great Leader” and his boot story.
Of course, I cannot make the assumption that North Koreans are being “brainwashed”. Who am I to say so? But I will assert that that much propaganda promoting hate against Americans is pretty unnerving, wouldn’t you agree?
October 9, 2008 at 2:57 am
Remember that in TOK you should give your own voice. So you are “one to say so.”