Early days, but I’d be interested to know whether this thread has headed in the direction you expected or not?
If I’d reflected upon it more carefully at the time, then the honest answer is yes, probably. I think the thread title probably doesn’t help and I also think you should never be too bothered about a bit off piss taking, especially on here, so it certainly doesn’t bother me. I think it would be grossly hypocritical of me if it did, and taking yourself too seriously is definitely a deadly sin in my eyes.
I do think it’s a valid point of discussion because previously, despotic regimes were always prone to be overthrown eventually. This was almost exclusively down to military defeat, military coup, or the people rising up (I’d say it’s quite rare that it comes from within the subsisting government itself).
In this instance I’m struggling to see how any of these things can happen despite the people being treated appallingly overall. I think, over time, the mechanisms for any of those things happening in NK have been subject to greater and greater control. I suspect the family has closely studied history and drawn lessons from it, as well as being aided and abetted by advances in technology.
The old adage that regimes fall slowly at first, and then very quickly may not be possible here, because the first part is never allowed to happen. The grip on information and the upper ranks of the military and politics is so tight, and so brutal, that the conversations that can ferment a revolution simply do not take place to an extent that would make that feasible. NK having nukes will also be part if the equation too.
As I said in the OP it’s a terrifying possible vision of the future for mankind, where regimes, having learned the lessons from the Nazis, Soviet Communists, Gadaffi, The Shah of Iran, Saddam Hussain etc… reach a point of such control over the population, the military, the means of production and consumption and the information space that they become insuperable.
Power is a difficult thing for human beings to give up, once they’ve tasted it. This family has evolved and developed with the overarching aim of retaining power at all costs, and seemingly passing it onto the next generation, and looking at Kim Jong Un’s daughter was what provoked me to start this thread. She will already be intoxicated by the allure, trappings and possibilities of power.
In one sense the Kims are no different from the Plantagenets or many other Royal dynasties over time, but in other senses they absolutely are. So far, there has been a unity of purpose in the family from leader to leader, in contrast with the internecine disputes around the Plantagenet succession. There has been a ruthlessness towards any form of dissent or deviation from that purpose within the family which has served to protect the Kim’s succession.
Never say never, of course, but I’m honestly struggling to see how this utterly evil, power hungry and malign regime can be even rendered vulnerable, never mind overthrown - and it’s certainly an object lesson to us all about the possibilities for mankind if the democratic institutions and rights that we can take for granted are undermined.
