21-12-2011, 05:43 PM
Quote:In North Korea, as was true in Enver Hoxha's Albania, the operative policy for proper behavior is "self reliance". We are assured by the government in Pyongyang that Kim Jong-un will continue with his father's policy of self reliance. Self reliance in a totalitarian state means that after the individual fulfills all of their obligations to the state, they are on their own in finding food to eat when it is scarce, in providing warmth for their family when the electricity runs out, in seeking out a useless herbal nostrum when someone in the family develops cancer.
Have you been paying attention to the Republican Party candidates for president, and to the crowds that attend the debates, cheering on every time a candidate urges the Occupy Wall Street protestors to "get a job!" Have you noticed how much the Republican Party has embraced the North Korean concept of self reliance? This is a political party that is hoping to overturn Obama's health care plan, in favor of allowing the country to continue on its path of destruction, wherein no one but the privileged few and wealthy have access to medical care. This is a political party that refuses to recognize that millions of Americans highly qualified for work can no longer find employment to match their qualifications. Instead, Republicans prefer to characterize the unemployed as lazy. There is certainly no room for sentimentality in the modern Republican Party; Josef Mengele would be proud.
I just want to highlight the core of Numerian's argument: self reliance. I would disagree with Numerian in his tagging exclusively the Republican Party with this tag. It is everywhere.