Written by Imagine you live in a culture whose politics are totalitarian, whose leader has a cult of personality.
Imagine you have to triple-lock a door and put a blanket over windows so that no one catches you watching the latest Stephen Seagall movie.
Imagine you have a buddy system at school to ensure that you’re never alone.
Or that a cellphone is considered a luxury, but it only grants you access to the state-run media, not to the world wide web.
Imagine how you would be forced to live, if a toe out of line meant a stint at a “re-education center” for you and your family. You’d certainly follow the rules, enthusiastically praise your gracious leader and, with enough political and cultural conditioning, you may even believe the propaganda fed to you.
This is North Korea.
Cult of Personality
Last week, in our series on the 10 Cultural Universals, we talked about how collapsing events might lead to a change in cultural values.
For North Korea, a series of collapsing events culminated in the Korean War and the armistice signed in July of 1953.
The result is today’s North Korea, where totalitarianism and “the Great Leader’s” cult of personality reigns supreme.
This personality cult is rooted in the past, beginning in 1948, when Kim Il-sung took power, and growing with each and every Kim
While democratic leadership has its own brand of the “cult,” the Kim family takes their “right to lead” leaps and bounds beyond normalcy.
Kim Jong Un, for instance, is believed to be the grandson of a god-king. He is called the “father of the people” – that title, accompanied by a song by an all-girl rock band, entitled “We Call Him Father.”
And what happens when a citizen doesn’t praise him as such?
Penalties exist for those who do not respect the regime properly.
And for those who outright criticize them?
Well, there really are re-education centers and much worse to silence dissent.
The Results?
Mina Yoon, who defected from North Korea in 2010, said that the totalitarian system in the country limits individual pastimes.
“The idea of ‘free time’ is not really common. Then, even if you do have free time, there aren’t many things to enjoy anyway.” – Mina Yoon
American journalist Suki Kim who taught English at an all-boys school in North Korea said that the terror is palpable there.
“The level of fear is unimaginable. It’s possible to be both happy and terrified all at once, and I think that’s the case for many North Koreans.” – American journalist Suki Kim
This is how politics can shape culture to the extreme. Next week, we’ll talk about how technology comes into play.
Success Across Cultures 