I Forgot to Send a Card

Yesterday, North Korea celebrated one of the country's most important holidays: the birthday of their supreme leader, Kim Jong Il. The festivities included synchronized swimming.

In case you had any doubt just how frozen in time this despicable regime is, just take a look at this three part Vice Guide to North Korea. I thought such dystopian worlds only existed in novels like 1984 and Brave New World.

North Korea has brought Orwell's fiction into existence: a world of crumbling buildings and a dehumanized populace who are either imprisoned, fearful, or racists dwarfs.

Actually, I didn't want to send a card anyway.

Brave New World

"But do you like being slaves?" the Savage was saying as they entered the Hospital. His face was flushed, his eyes bright with ardour and indignation. "Do you like being babies? Yes, babies. Mewling and puking," he added, exasperated by their bestial stupidity into throwing insults at those he had come to save.
---BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley

I came across this passage today while reading the dystopian 1932 novel by Aldous Huxley. The exasperation and frustration toward the masses drugged and conditioned into ignorant bliss is a pain I feel all too often. Every day there is something new to be outraged about, and it takes discipline and a deep breath to prevent cursing at those whose minds I'd like to change.