JuxtaPosit

Juxta:

Although we are of almost the same Latitude:

 38th Parallel, the "DMZ"   

Approximate Latitude: N 38° 34' 35.3748"

South Korea                                                 North Korea

Sacramento, CA

Approximate Latitude: 38°33′N 121°28′W 

West Sacramento                                         Sacramento

Posit:

Are we permanently bound to different attitudes? 

I'm not so convinced that luck is a factor for much of anything, but this doesn't stop me from feeling "lucky" to have been born on the southern side of the 38th Parallel.  Had I been born a few miles north latitude in the "Bad Korea", my life would be, well, inconceivably MUCH different.  

Having been adopted and raised by the most caring and loving parents, does again incite feelings of "luckiness" for me.  However, this, like the location of my birth, again was not my choice. We are all at fate's (and our handler's) whim when we are children.  Later in life, when we are able to make decisions for ourselves, we are able to manipulate or maybe even change our fates.  In contrast, from birth and beyond, a North Koreans' fate is at the whim of their dear leader, and even adulthood offers  no escape from this.

The other day I watched a National Geographic Explorer documentary episode about North Korea, wherein Lisa Ling reports a glimpse into the lives of the country's citizens, as she follows an eye doctor into the country as he attempts to perform 1000 glaucoma cloud blindness reversal surgeries in one day.  It's explained that patients' blindness is most likely caused by malnutrition, and the victims are of all ages; children to elderly.  I think it would be difficult to give a "spoiler" to this film being that it is a documentary about "real" life, so I will provide a synopsis.  The most shocking aspect of this film is what happens after the patients lift the bandages from their eyes. The results of the surgery are immediate and sight is restored within 24 hours of surgery.  EVERY single one of the patients immediately uses their newly functioning eyes to find their way up to the picture of the deal leader (one is required to be hung in every room) to give thanks to to him.  We're talking, an televangelist faith-healed person, kind of zeal; giving praise and thanks replete with wailing, crying out of their newly functioning eye(s), and failing their arms.   It is dumbfounding to see that none of these patients thanks the doctor or his team for curing them of their blindness.

Oral Roberts- healing televangelist 1962

Emo King Jeff Buckley does Leonard Cohen better than Leonard Cohen.

Cilian Murphy as Tom Buckley in Red Lights (2012)                                                       (This is kind of a shitty movie- If you want to see Cilian in something better, watch The Dark Night Rises.  If you want to see De Niro in something better, watch Silver Linings Playbook.)

It's shocking for us to see how the cured patients blatantly deny giving credit to the true "miracle worker", and instead attribute their being healed to the dear leader.   Although now able to see, they're seemingly still blind to reality.

Is this blind faith in the dear leader simply due to fear mongering and brainwashing?  Could it be determined who, if anyone, is secretly giving praises not to the "dear leader", but to the doctor instead?  Well, in defense of to the cured people's actions, if the threat of being sentenced to a concentration camp loomed as a consequence for not showing adequate amounts of displays of loyalty, I'd most likely choose to kiss some dear leader ass too.    

After a series of hypothetical events in which the great leader was deposed, North Korea joined the world wide web as we know it*, and the people began to enjoy freedoms such as we enjoy here in Sacramento, would there still be people who praised the great leader?  It seems that to worship the dear leader as a near deity with blind faith, is an integral aspect of the North Korean national identity.  Without the dear leader, without  the totalitarian state making every single decision for them, would these people be capable of conjuring up individualist ideas and becoming freer thinkers?  Or would losing their leader, their faith, leave them with no ability for self-reliance?** 

TED TALK by Hyeonseo Lee who was born in North Korea and fled to China in 1997:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/14/opinion/lee-north-korea-refugee/index.html?iid=article_sidebar

Undoubtedly, if the above mentioned hypothetical events did take place, the first ones to rush into North Korea to "help" all of these (newly) Godless people would be missionaries.  Wouldn't this just be substituting one blind faith for another?  Isn't all faith blind?  According to my notes on "being Christian", the qualifying factor is that you must have faith first, in order to rightfully identify oneself as a Christian.  Is the path to hell paved with good intentions?  I guess that's another blog.