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Nejčistší Rasa (2010)

by B.R. Myers(Favorite Author)

3.93 of 5 Votes: 5

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Vydavatelství Ideál

review 1: Fascinating. The bizarre propaganda that gets fostered onto the North Korean people would seem downright hilarious if the global ramifications weren't so serious. And all the neat pictures in this book are worth the cover price alone. Myers writes in a style that is at once both engaging and academic. That's a rare combination.THE CLEANEST RACE may be disappointingly brief, but nonetheless it totally changed my perception of North Korea.
review 2: "Held together not by a mere bond between a leader and his warriors, but by the family tie between a mother and her children, who share the same blood and breath, Korea will prosper forever. Let the imperialist enemies come at us with their nuclear weapons, for there is no power on earth that can defeat our streng... moreth and love and the power of our belief. Our Great Mother, General Kim Jong Il!" So reads the back jacket of B.R. Myer's look at the North Korean regime through its propaganda machine. I recently read two very good books about the experiences of North Korean defectors ("Nothing to Envy" and "Escape From Camp 14"), but I felt as if the authors had just barely scratched the surface into showing just what type of state North Korea really is, and my questions about the regime continued to multiply. How exactly did Kim Il Sung's personality cult come to be and why do the people believe it? Why is it that most North Koreans that cross the border into China return by their own free will, even during the famine years in which one fifth of the country's population starved to death? What exactly is the deal with this seemingly nonsensical "Juche" philosophy anyway? (slight spoiler: you're not supposed to make sense out of it, Juche philosophy was not written to be understandable. It's merely a sideshow) Most people in the west view North Korea as a bizarre Stalinist satellite nation which bases itself off a combination of old Confucian and Marxist-Leninist philosophy and stands on the far left of the political spectrum. B.R. Myers argues that this mainstream view is incorrect. North Korea is actually is a far right uber-nationalist and racist state that shows more resemblance in ideology to Hirohito's Japan and Hitler's Third Reich than to the Soviet Union or Mao's China, and whose maternal Parent Leaders are said to be both the very embodiment of all the essential "Korean virtues", intellectualism openly not being one, and the almost mythical "motherly" protectors of the Korean race: the purest and most child-like race to ever occupy any space on planet earth. B.R. Myers's book does an excellent job of dissecting the historical and cultural roots of North Korea's propaganda, as well as its psychological purpose. The result is an eye opening look at how the oppressive regime within the Hermit Kingdom has been able to enjoy widespread support from the masses, even as they starved. While defector stories are probably more riveting to the average reader, I'd highly recommend this fascinating book to anyone that wants to gain an understanding of the North Korean regime. less

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