Interestingly, the Great Successor, his son Kim Jung-un, studied computer science. Yep, the former flamboyant dictator/film director is being replaced by a programmer geek. Now by biggest question is, what is his language of choice? C++, Java or C#. The answer to that would be most revealing! Of course that assumes North Korea is aware of any languages after Fortran.
Grief displays are heavily cultural for a start. Some cultures require reserved observances, stiff upper lip, what what, and stoic but many view public wailing and tears as a proper show of respect - the greater the social standing the greater the required degree of wailing. This sort of emotion is also somewhat contagious. How often have you been to a funeral of someone you hardly knew but where there with a friend who was a relative, and found yourself moved to tears nonetheless? How many times have you been moved to tears by some Hollywood spectacle wherein you know all the characters to be utterly fictional and the actor playing the deceased hero collected a hansom cheque after the shot and escaped unharmed to act another day? In the case of North Korea there may be other emotions of fear and insecurity exacerbating the grief. Partly by design of the party and partly by threats from outside, North Koreans have lived under siege for decades viewing glorious leader as their sole protector. To suddenly lose him must be like suddenly losing your god leaving you naked and vulnerable and in shock. The dangerous time for the regime is as people wake up from this to find that not much has changed and that they are all still alive - and perhaps Kim Jong Il was not really so very important.
Ya, I know all about grief displays, no English blood in my family. It's just that to me, the mere fact that all this "grief" was rapidly videotaped and broadcast outside of North Korea looks staged, as if an attempt to show solidarity despite the leaders death. Looks as though it was planned well in advance. We all know that very little video footage of anything comes from North Korea - what little is, is very much controlled. For me, the most interesting thing about watching those videos was to ignore the crying people and to look past to get a glimpse of North Korea. It's just something we don't see every day. Interestingly, I didn't see his own sons amongst the crying people. Although, I may have missed them. I'm sure the next footage to emerge will be videos of the successor and I'm sure he'll appear to be strong and in charge.
Insufficient anguish could result "reeducation" The video was taken in the capital, only the strongest regime supporters get the luxury of living in the capital North Korea has come the closest of any society to what Orwell called, in 1984, the literal inability to conceive an unorthodox thought.
North Korean labor camps in Siberia http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/15/world...bor-camps-in-siberia/index.html?iref=obinsite id reckon these fellers aint losing many tears over the tragic loss of dear leader
You might be surprised. Cults tend to do very odd things to people, especially when that person has been brought up in it and knows nothing else. The outside world from their perspective might well seem terrifying.
