Wake-up call

You will have probably heard this before. This is what plays in Pyongyang, North Korea, every day at 6AM, as a wake-up call for the people there. The manipulation others are subjected to is often obvious to us. Now if you’re naive, you’ll look it up and say “oh yes this is the song Where Are You, Dear General? written by Kim Jong Il, but they have to play it through their old speakers so it sounds distorted and creepy”.

And if you can truly believe that, you will have an easy life, but you’ll also be the sort of guy who reported his neighbors in march 2020 for leaving their home twice a day. I can’t really express the degree to which this sound horrifies me. It’s something you would expect from a dystopian Swedish art house movie. I’ve also seen people describe it as “the end credit song of an 80’s movie after the lead character died”.

But what it is, is demoralization. It’s supposed to break the spirits of the people who have to hear it. The fact that you can find some song by the Pochonbo electronic ensemble that vaguely sounds like this is of course just an excuse. It’s a dominance signal. They’re going to play the most bleak depressing surreal track every day at 6 AM, you have to hear it and there’s nothing you can do about it. It induces a state of learned helplessness.

But it leads me to ask myself: What do we get? What’s the dominance signal we receive? What’s shoved down our throats? I think you can figure out the answer. To start with, you have to consider that waking up to this sound goes contrary to every human instinct. It abhors you at a very fundamental spiritual level.

And yet, if you were to ask the people in Pyongyang, they would never dare to say to you that they hate it. They probably don’t even realize they hate it. They experience it as some sort of test of their moral character and so of course they’ll claim to love it.

They tell themselves they love waking up like this. And when they experience a sense of irritation by it, when they wish they could have had just five more minutes of sleep before waking up to this, perhaps because they had a pleasant dream, they will feel guilt. That’s part of its purpose: It’s supposed to be a burden you carry, that you never dare to acknowledge to yourself, let alone to anyone else.

So what is pushed on you through your environment, that abhors you and droves of other people like you, at a deep fundamental spiritual level? What do you feel guilty for finding abhorrent? What creeps you out? What can you just never get used to? What seems to serve no clear purpose, other than as a kind of cement that binds the various elements of society loyal to the regime together? What does your government shove down your throat, that makes you feel utterly powerless and humiliated?

34 Comments

  1. The Kim Dynasty is interesting because they’re old style despots similar to the Kings and Emperors of old, just with modern technology. There’s no pretensions, the Kim Family is Divine and they deserve to rule and do whatever they want because they’re the chosen ones. Kim is just a modern Caligula, a troll king reveling in his power as he humiliates his people, making them dance and sing as he levels upon them petty cruelty after petty cruelty.

    In the 21st century most despots don’t want to be Caligula, people say mean things about Caligula and an Emperor can be held responsible and even punished! Our masters would much prefer to allow a mechanistic system to torture and humiliate the peasants for them; so they can instead can spend their days touching their underage girls and boys in-peace. Even at their worst, modern men are gayer and weaker.

    Functionally, trooning at children isn’t any different from Caligula locking the granaries just so he can laugh at the hungry. It’s a humiliation ritual.

  2. Equality would probably be up there. People are clearly not equal, but that is pushed as being the case by TPTB.

    They may be better or worse at some things than others, but they’re not all the same and equally capable of doing the same things.

    Nor are all people born as attractive, or wealthy. Which are both statistically the only reliable indicators of ‘success’ in our society.

    It’s also a short step from there to relativizing everything as being the same. And from there you’re off to cuckoo land where a woman is the same thing as a man depending on how they ‘feel’ etc.

    • Yes, I’m afraid all this talk of ‘equality’ is probably demoralizing propaganda.

      TPTB tell people they’re equal, and that how well people do in life is just a function of their relative innate merits, but we all know that just a load of balls.

      It’s easy to see that the rich/aristocrats don’t do a lot better because of their merits, but instead because of their wealth/class.

      Imagine, one day at work, the bosses tell you that the new ‘diversity hire’ is your equal, even though (through no fault of their own) they don’t have the necessary English skills to comprehend what’s going on, and they make a mess of things when they stand on the toilet to take a dump, etc.

      Are they your equal?

      Hmmm. . . Not when it comes to workplace English literacy exercises and toilet training at any rate.

      But you have to accept that they hold the same level as you in the hierarchy and not make any noise about how any differences translate into performance, or you will be publicly shamed as being a racist.

      The fact that migrant labour drives down the wages and conditions of people in your class doesn’t enter into the debate of course. . .

      And gradually standards slip, until the whole thing is rotten.

      And you wonder to yourself: What is even left of my country? Who are all these people whose ancestors didn’t build this place who I’m instructed are now my equals? What do we actually have in common?

      And so your patriotism starts to die, which TPTB are happy about, because they’re neoliberals who have no patriotism, nor any loyalty, decency, or honour. In fact, those things just tend to get in the way of them feathering their nests and the nests of their masters, so they hate them and are keen to break them down.

      Hence the need for demoralizing propaganda.

      • And if your success in society, or lack thereof, is represented as being based on your personal ‘merits’, or ‘all your own fault’ if you fail, then it’s harder to revolt.

        • Nothing makes me feel powerless and humiliated through the authorities that I once respected and have come to hate.
          We are living in truly historic times and everything is going topsy-turvy, upside down. I’m ok with it.

          • Nothing makes you feel powerless and humiliated?

            You’ll have to tell me your secret!

            That’s a degree of acceptance I haven’t reached yet 🙂

  3. Being forced to apologize to the fat hairy freaks in HR and sign continual performance improvement plans because I fail to attend my required Z.O.G. globo-homo corporate ESG bow down to the tranny faggots sorry sessions, but the company refuses to fire me no matter how much I wear a red cap into work each day (they banned MAGA hats, but not red hats) but I cannot resign because of my globo-homo corporate share option golden handcuffs.

    • P.S. Because I work in an at-will state, I negotiated that I get to keep my share options if I am fired without reason or fired for misconduct (to avoid dispute), but their lawyers wrote in reply however excluding termination for gross misconduct (which I agreed). Hence why I do not wear the MAGA hat.

  4. This phenomenon is occurring at a cosmic scale. The constraints of material reality themselves, serve a similar purpose for those who created them. But most people will never reach the point where they even notice it, in part because our memories are wiped each time we are reincarnated, and in part because we are conditioned from birth not to do so. And most schools of spiritual thought in this world will not lead you in the direction of noticing this problem, either. It would be apt to describe this place as a sort of ‘hyperdimensional north korea’.

  5. Rainbow propaganda on every possible opportunity. On literally all products, flag poles, logos, windows etc.
    But I don’t feel guilty at all for seeing it as what it is.

  6. I don’t find what the regime does or says difficult. The problem is that everyone believes what they say. The other evening the subject of someone’s holiday in Iran came up and I wasn’t prepared for the level of hate that was expressed. Perhaps I should watch TV so at least I will know what to expect in future.

  7. The virtue signaling ‘acknowledgement of country’ that precedes work meetings and official announcements/speeches around here:

    “I’d like to begin by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the land on which we meet today. I would also like to pay my respects to Elders past and present.”

    • Having to stand up to sing the national anthem.

      Having a picture of King Charles in Government buildings, the deceased Queen on our currency, and the Union Jack on our flag.

      Most of my ‘education’.

      • Mandatory bicycle helmet laws

        Being scanned at the airport

        Having everything fun banned – guns, fireworks, drink driving, being a passenger in the tray of a ute, or on the roof of a landcruiser, having a fire, etc.

        Mobile phones

        • Being forced to say ‘Sir’ or ‘Ma’am’ to senior paramilitary officers.

          Getting your phone tapped by secret police.

          Invasive security clearance procedures.

  8. Agreed. You feel powerless and humiliated when you fundamentally agree with the things they are doing, even as they are clearly harmful or stupid. Once it’s seen clearly as an adversary, even tiny resistance gives the feeling of power and pride.

    • My upbringing literally made me mentally ill and I had to spent a couple of month locked up at a mental ward in my youth. Luckily I had no access to weapons during my psychosis.

    • I’m sorry to hear that. Hopefully, you’re feeling better.

      Hurting people through action, or inaction, is obviously not a place anyone wants to go.

      Not even if the government wants you to.

      Screw the government.

        • Excellent, I’m glad to hear it.

          And I feel you, there are things I don’t talk about.

          There are things I can’t talk about.

          And there are things I’m not allowed to talk about.

    • On balance, I’ve also had a fairly miserable life, but when the government tried to get me to hurt people, I refused.

      Fuck the government.

      Stay well and keep your head up man.

      Dignity, loyalty, honour, decency, mercy, compassion. . .

      You may have suffered, and the government may forget these things, but they’re still worth practicing.

  9. Rest in peace Otto Warmbier, I can’t even begin to imagine the sheer terror that this poor young man was subjected to.

    • Rest In Peace Otto Weininger, for having the soul of a true Warrior, who was able to transcend the flesh and confess to “admissions against interest”.

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