VegasRefugee wrote:
In listening to an NPR piece on the subject, the citizens of the DPRK believe, at least outwardly that they are living in paradise. they LITERALLY believe it. They have been living under a totalitarian regime their whole life, brought up to believe they are at war with the US. The DPRK govt tells the people that the supply ships carrying food for the people were sunk by the US and that's why there is no food.
I did some searching through NPR and couldn't find anything on that subject, so if you have a link to that program I'd prefer to read/hear it myself. If they are outwardly living in paradise long reports with statements like this make no sense:
The country's traditional highly centralized and tightly controlled economy has broken down under the stress of chronic shortages of food and fuel. Citizens increasingly have sought employment in the informal economy. Most citizens must supplement limited amounts of government-subsidized rations with food purchased in markets.
There is also torture and starvation going on
en masse. A local journalist who visited NK said the conditions are appalling. Sure, there is propaganda, but I question whether North Koreans really believe this, which is why I'd like to hear the report (I'm very skeptical of media reports too, and don't make judgements on one or two reports). The Iraqi government can tell Iraqis everything is "great" too, that they are really in paradise, but will they believe it? One report from the NPR isn't good enough for me, and I haven't even heard that report. So excuse me, but I'm a skeptic.
Mormons believe that every negative incident involving Mormonism is caused by the "hatred" of "the world" towards "the one true religion".
How are tehse two situations any different psychologically in respect to the information campaign? I'm not talking about the atrocities committed by the DPRK. But using the mountain meadows massacre as a yardstick I doubt, given a speculated continuation of Mormon control, ALA "Deseret", that things would be just as bad. Starvation, yes. Exploitation? yes. Deseret not coming to fruition avoided the possibility of bloody brigham becoming an even bigger dictator.
This is all speculation. You're not dealing with the facts. And the fact is that Mormons capitulated to the US government. So much for the purported "theocracy". How it might have evolved has nothing to do with the reality of how it
did evolve. I am aware of what went on in the 19th century as I have Bigler's
Forgotten Kingdom: The Mormon Theocracy in the American West, 1847-1896 (USU Press, 1998). See his "epilogue" especially for how Mormonism eventually evolved.
Do you mean information campaign, or
disinformation campaign? On this subject, your daughter is entitled to hear or read ALL that she wants, and with you as her father I doubt she will be the subject of hearing only one side. What you should be careful of is that she doesn't grow up hating Mormonism.