EPT***
Kim Jong Il was the queerest character of all, and he enjoyed a good spectacle more than anything. The Arirang games and his movie museum give you an idea of his solipsism and lunacy. It's easy enough to characterize Kim Jong Il as a tyrant and a despicable human being. Kim commanded the fourth largest army in the world and pushed for further testing of missiles to threaten Japan. While traveling across Russia he airlifted live lobsters to his train every day. His people are starving so he can live like a god. He's the prototypical dictator.
I've been fascinated with the Vice Guide to 'X' after first seeing their guide to North Korea. It's a bit juvenile and goofy, but also interesting and exhilarating at times. I still can't believe they got into North Korea and didn't get killed. There's something about the music that brings out the fire in me. Marching to battle...delicate pink flowers, espionage. It's all quite dream-like.
Although some improvements have been made, the country is one big ghost town. The people have little food or clean water, and are reliably shorter north of the DMZ than their southern counterparts. Not all that much is known about North Korea, and what we do know about it is incredibly telling. Not many foreigners have been to North Korea and come back. Some have defected, while some have snuck in and a few have only been there as foreign delegates/ministers to see the mass games.
Kim Jong Il's father is still the president even though he's been dead since 1992. Now that Kim Jong Il has passed, his son and/or uncle are in charge. Their traits are unknown to us except that they very well may be even more extreme than the great general.
![[image loading]](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WZ7SYAwezcE/TurVxQ3ZGrI/AAAAAAAABFQ/ZLDBLfmwT-g/s1600/cn_image.size.hitchens-2004-contributor-image.jpg)
Christopher Hitchens. I feel the same as Windsor Mann, who said "It’s hard to say anything about Christopher Hitchens that hasn’t been said already, but it’s even harder to say nothing." What can I say when I think of him? Usually tears fall from my eyes to my heart, growing a flower of strength and courage. He was my hero.
As a young boy he moved around dead naval towns in Britain and his parents got him to Oxford. His father was a navy commander who died from the same cancer. His mother was a bit of a free-spirit romantic who ran off with some bipolar nihilist to make a suicide pact and die in Athens.
![[image loading]](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JH-LKk9khV8/Ts7AqdkAo8I/AAAAAAAABEM/FAwJ3WnNas8/s1600/20111124_20111006_3466981%25281%2529_w_w.jpg)
Often thought of as a contrarian or having drifted away from the left and ending up as a neo-con, he rejected these labels continuously and propounded that his enemy was always totalitarianism. He thought of himself as a liberal-interventionist according to his old friend Ian McEwan, a secular humanist, and I'll add "Jeffersonian" or maybe "Orwellian", from two of his greatest influences.
Christopher himself went to North Korea and later regretted his article on the subject lacking the brutal reality he wished he could have expressed. He used his impression of the country as an analogy to religion and heaven (endless and unquestionable praise of the dear leader), also pointing out that it's one short of a trinity.
Hitch can make some pretty awkward interviews pretty humorous, the second part is even better
Arguably one of his most important speeches
Till his last days he fought against religion, arguing that it was a poisonous force in the world that only destroys and dominates. Always refreshingly reasoned and logical, he was also a hero for secular humanism, and for democracy. Though I think I'll miss him for his defense of homosexuality the most.
![[image loading]](http://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/Images/2011/12/18/20111218153913247734_20.jpg)
Vaclav Havel. The man who made change and revolution possible through writing and dialogue. He shared a despise with Christopher for totalitarian governments and control over speech. I think he was much more beautiful and Mandarin in his philosophy and politics than Christopher, who mainly used a more edgy, witty, bulldog style of arguing.
Vaclav led one of the first pushes for a free Europe and was a great dissident in the way of peaceful protest. He led the struggle against Stalinism through his plays which were later banned. When the Warsaw alliance invaded the country he went on Radio Free Czechoslovakia to give a commentary. After the Prague Spring was shut down he became more involved in protest and politics, and his plays were banned. In 1977 he co-authored Charter 77, a charter of human rights for Czechoslovakia. For writing this he was repeatedly jailed.
He continued to be a great figure in modern times on the subject of democracy and humanity. I admire his great wisdom and most importantly his dedication and principles. Many of the eastern bloc were betrayed by leaders who said they wanted democracy but turned their backs on their own people. Vaclav was one of the few who stuck to his beliefs and to his ideals. The messages he gave are of the utmost importance and worth paying attention.
***
These three characters are all quite related in their ideas, and the fact that all three died in one week was very shocking. They represent a struggle that has been going on since humanity's birth: the will to dominate and the will to liberate. It feels like a great generation is growing old and fading away, and as has proven through history the young will guide the human civilization to the future. On Christopher and Vaclav I ask, who is there to take the role they left? Who will take arms against this century's evils?
"Truth and love must prevail over lies and hate."
