circa October 24th 2006
Tim:
So how do you reconcile your support of {North Korean President} Kim {Jong-Il} with your principles of...
1. Promotion of popular democracy at national to global levels.
2. Libertarian and anarchic opposition to statism and especially to dictatorial governments. Especially ones which don't mind their people starving, such as Ethiopia 1984 and DPRK several years. Especially the very meanest and most repressive and most aggressive governments, DPRK taking the prize at first out of 168.
3. Anarchic revolution and regime change in support of this.
4. Opposition to arms buildup and nuclear missiles and regional destabilization and arms races.
5. Truth regarding imputations of governmental motivations of offense vs defense.
Mike: Tim, You've given me a lot to think about. Here are some knee-jerk reactions to your worthwhile questions.
1. I do not "support" Kim. I do want democracy (of a kind we don't have here save in our heads) to become the norm worldwide. Democracy will never come from without a country, only from within. On his move to get nukes, I cannot say anything against that (even though I'd like to live in a nuke free world) while my country has been playing God for years with the largest nuclear arsenal on earth.
An interesting question that comes to mind is how are despotic rulers kept in power? Those that allow their population to starve. Why do they starve in the first place? And actually with Ethiopia, it's an interesting albeit digressing question of what caused the famine in the first place.
With the Saudis it's easy to see that it's the US backing the royal family in repressing their own people. Now do I want to see democracy there? Yes, but we won't talk about that because the powerful have shaped this discussion so that we talk about North Korea. Now I believe democracy would come in time if not for the powerful. If Kim isn't powerful enough then there must be some hidden power keeping him there. Hmm, not sure if that makes much sense. But in an indirect way, the US could be keeping him in power-retarding revolution by being the monster Kim must protect the people from. All leaders use the other guy to scare there population into obediance, if there weren't a bad guy, we'd have to create him.
As an anarchist I supported East Timor's liberation struggle, and I support Palestinian state-both moves toward self-determination. Remember, small steps. Unfortunately a lot of the people in those liberation struggles either fell under the yoke of neo-colonialism in the form of neoliberalism and global market capitalism (South Africa, Jamaica) or went Islamist in their rejection of all things Western (Algieria).
When the craziest, most powerful man in the world lumps you in a category with two other countries, one he's turned into a horror, and the other he's threatening with the same, I'd say most rational people would call it defense. Do you have any other info on that?
Peace,
Mike
