How totalitarian regimes remain in power

This is a shocking first-hand account by Jean-Baptist KIM, a former "official spokesperson" of North Korea - on how propaganda and naivete are carefully cultivated within that country. Unfortunately, despite believing his disclosures, this fellows susceptibility to be a "useful idiot" must make one pause about the veracity of his interpretation. Nonetheless, it is a cruel indictment of North Korea and many other totalitarian regimes operating with careless impunity and UN complicity around the world. How sad that a noble ideal of "power of the proletariat working classes" is being so abused.

A key trait of such propaganda is controlling communication and silencing/repressing anyone who does not accept or parrot the "party line". The "Official Policy" is determined by government through control of various departments - education, health care, police and justice system. Anyone rash enough to voice an opposing opinion to someone they do not know or trust are harshly disciplined or disabused of the idea. (Does this sound vaguely familiar yet?)

In a similar vein is this account of journalistic collaboration in willfully ignoring the plentiful evidence in plain sight of all during the Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33 by the Moscow correspondent of the New York Times. Today (Nov 22, 2008) marks the 75th Anniversary of that terrible legacy created by Josef STALIN and his New York Times patsy, Walter DURANTY (see photo). As a committed socialist, DURANTY rarely let the opportunity pass without cheerleading many of Stalin's plans and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize almost entirely on the basis of his reports from Soviet Russia.

In fact DURANTY coined the famous phrase:

"You can't make an omelett with out breaking a few eggs"

He used it to describe the harsh methods employed by Stalin. It was a variant of "the ends justify the means" philosophy of ideologues and tyrants down through history.







Finally, the National Post has also printed brief profiles of famous Soviet hero, Mikhail KALASHNIKOV on the occasion of his 89th birthday. The AK-47 assault rifle bearing his name has sadly become the weapon of choice for many guerrillas around the world because of its reliability and functionality.