Listening to a Stalin speech was a risky affair. Every so often his address would be punctuated by 'spontaneous' applause, which seemed to go on for ever. Quite literally more time was spent applauding than actually listening. The comrades' hands were falling off, bruised and bloody from interminable clapping, yet, with rictus grins, they continued nonetheless. Why? Because a group of eagle-eyed apparatchiks circled the hall, watching for whoever caved in first. Duly noted, the offender would never to be seen again.
Same with North Korea. I often wondered how the peons would quite literally shed buckets of tears when some tyrant or other ascended to the Great Gulag In The Sky. I mean, few people express their emotions with such intensity even when a loved one dies, let alone for some tyrant who's made your whole life a misery. We know now of course that that country's judicial code ordains that anyone identified as showing insufficient grief will be flung to a pack of starving dogs, or will undergo some other innovative form of execution. The beatings will continue until morale improves.
All of this reminded me of Netenyahu's address to the American Congress a few years back in which he was interrupted no fewer than 29 times by 'spontaneous' applause from his worshipful subjects. And while there was no danger of the less enthusiastic ones being shipped off to the gulag or used as mortar target practise, the motivation was similar. To demonstrate obeisance and fealty to their powerful rulers. A truly shocking demonstration of servitude by the 'representatives' of a once proud nation.
Same with North Korea. I often wondered how the peons would quite literally shed buckets of tears when some tyrant or other ascended to the Great Gulag In The Sky. I mean, few people express their emotions with such intensity even when a loved one dies, let alone for some tyrant who's made your whole life a misery. We know now of course that that country's judicial code ordains that anyone identified as showing insufficient grief will be flung to a pack of starving dogs, or will undergo some other innovative form of execution. The beatings will continue until morale improves.
All of this reminded me of Netenyahu's address to the American Congress a few years back in which he was interrupted no fewer than 29 times by 'spontaneous' applause from his worshipful subjects. And while there was no danger of the less enthusiastic ones being shipped off to the gulag or used as mortar target practise, the motivation was similar. To demonstrate obeisance and fealty to their powerful rulers. A truly shocking demonstration of servitude by the 'representatives' of a once proud nation.







