When is it Too Late?

I've watched two documentaries on North Korea recently and I am still amazed at how isolated from the outside world it is, how a dictator can be so feared and loved as a God, how they can create something like the Mass Games to show their perfect unity as a country:

This is incredibly beautiful, but when I think about how those dancers in the games practice more hours a day than they get education, and how their only dream in life is to perform for the General, I get the chills. Also, the images changing behind the dancers in the background? Those are people holding cards, thousands of people, turning them around at the exact same time - I kid you not. Watch the documentary State of Mind. 

I understand their hatred of our country - I understand not wanting to disrupt what they see to be perfection. But I also understand that their choice to stay isolated and pure as a country is only one man's choice, and that is highly disturbing. Would people choose to stay if they were exposed to the rest of the world? If they were allowed to have outside news sources? Internet? Cell phones?

There are a lot of people who want to go and 'open their eyes' - to show them what the outside world is like and get North Koreans to defect. I would love to have all of the people understand their options and have a free choice for themselves how they want to live their lives. But I'm also saddened by the hard truth that most of those North Koreans would be so alien to the rest of the world, the Western world specifically, that they would actually choose the life they had. They have generations of isolation, fear, and hatred - that doesn't just disappear with a laptop and some BBC.

I had a conversation with someone recently and we discussed whether or not it would actually be more detrimental to expose these people to the rest of the world, since they are so deeply brainwashed. If it would be more harmful, when or in what capacity could they begin to be exposed to the outside? I certainly don't think the solution is to let them remain isolated, but how could you ease someone into experiencing an alien world - and freedom?

When is it too late? When is it too late to turn someone around? When is it too late to turn your life and perspective around? I'm going to stay positive and say never, but an example like this makes me wonder.

As a side note, I think it's pretty clear that the country has some issues when the leader of the country holds the title Supreme Leader, Chairman of the National Defense Commission of North Korea, Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army, General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission of Worker's Party of North Korea.

I can't even do two part time jobs without feeling overwhelmed. 

Change and the Rational World

If fear weren’t involved, would anyone resent change? Would we laugh easier at the unlikely and take a chance with the impossible? There are many people who don’t like change, don’t like a shifting, unknown, unreasonable environment and will defend emphatically that they are actually the type of person who enjoys life that way. I, however, am convinced that fear is the lone culprit in this matter. 

Of course, I make the distinction between committed and flighty when referring to change. Enjoying change doesn’t have to mean that a person hops from job to job, from lifestyle to the next, from location to the next. But it does involve shifting your life when it becomes clear that improvement, or an evolution, is calling. Stagnation is not the natural state of the universe. 

And as for rationality. I’ve always found that I have a pretty intense love of irrational humor. Surrealism, irony, and complete nonsense can really get me going. And it certainly has to do with my mind being a excessively logical. To say something nonsensical, irrational and perhaps plain silly, evokes a deep mental giggle. I find it releases the tension of my strict thought, and allows my deeper self to come up for air, as it were. I know I haven’t yet found the balance between logic and emotional expression in my life - I’m still heavily weighted in the logic end of the spectrum. But I’ll get there. And I’ll still be laughing at the absurd. What my balance will provide is the ability to focus my irrational amusement into tangible, creative ideas. Creativity is deeply embedded in our playtime with the limits of reality. 

And as for change - I am a big fan. There are a number of things that are comforting to hold on to, and things that must stay consistent in order to have a smooth ride through life. But anything that gives me the opportunity to see life from a new perspective, to learn something I never realized, to challenge myself to overcome a fear that I have - I welcome it. Not always without struggle and fear, but as long as I continue to respond to my instincts, which are infinitely curious what would happen if life could be improved by this or that, I’m invoking change. Setting this intention has made all the difference. 

It’s nice to realize that, in spite of all of my other insecurities, there are some real strengths that I do have. It’s hard to see strengths in the midst of fear and feelings of inadequacy. But even the desire to see myself more clearly is a strength - not all people even let that desire out. It's hidden in fear and defended under the guise of ‘this is just who I am’. And certainly I fall into that category for some things in my mind. I express that I just ‘am’ certain ways and try to maneuver my life to work with the ways things are. I’m seeing, though, one at a time, where I’m incorrect and those things can actually be removed from my persona. Life instantly looks different when I am able to do so. 

What it has taken is the confidence that I want to make the most of myself and my experience. And then, to admit that this confidence is a strength. Although it doesn’t produce instantaneous results, it’s with me for the long haul. The short term obstacles aren’t committed to me, so as they come across my path I will reject being halted and stagnated. I’m going to keep on moving, even if I have to put some force into it and swim around in the muck of my own fear and self-loathing for awhile. I’m swimming across, not treading water, and that certainly is different. Flailing around in place and shouting that I'm on my way to the other side isn’t the sort of irony that gets me going. 

And of course, the love and support of those around me is key. To see how I impact those I love and allow myself to have/be a mirror and view myself from an objective perspective is extremely powerful in my growth. Change arises whenever a new person comes into my life. Each new connection I make teaches me more about myself. In fact, always seeking new connections and deepening those I already have might just be the most important catalyst for my evolution.

Tweed.