From Pine View Farm

“Look! Over There!” 2

At Psychology Today Blogs, Fathali Moghaddam attempts to understand why North Korea is throwing a temper tantrum. He thinks it might be one of those Games People Play*:

As a psychologist, Kim Jong Eun (probably in his later 20s when he came to power) believes strongly in the power of displacement. He knows that the North Korean people are living in terrible poverty and deprivation, while he and the rest of the ruling elite enjoy just about every luxury. Ordinary North Koreans have a lot to be unhappy about and they could easily turn their anger at the ruling North Korean elite. The solution found by the ‘psychologist’ Kim Jong Eun is to use displacement and turn the anger of the people against external targets. This explains the daily threats of war against the United States and South Korea, and dire warnings to the people of North Korea that ‘the Americans are going to attack soon…all eyes on America!’. Anyone who questions the idea that ‘the Americans are about to attack’ is immediately branded an ‘American spy’ and punished, sometimes with death.

The ‘crazy’ threats made by the ‘Great Successor’ will continue until he and his supporters feel that the succession has been completed, and there is no threat of rivals rising up and grabbing power.

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*Great book, by the way.

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2 comments

  1. George Smith

    April 11, 2013 at 10:32 am

    Kind of like where we are, only more brutal and worse consequences. Look, over there, cyberwar men will attack our banks and turn off the electric!

     
  2. Frank

    April 11, 2013 at 11:24 am

    Another little fact I learned recently was that North Korea has a history of rattling swords when the annual spring US/South Korea war games take place.