North Korea, an exaggerated version of 1984 and V for Vendetta

Introduction

After reading 1984 and V for Vendetta someone might appreciate how amazing is that fantastic reality is. A world where the continents are united against each other, an anarchist against a government that is slaughtering people unfairly, everything sounds fantastic and far from nowadays life, but in fact reality is quite over fiction.

In order to compare this two titles I needed a third point, something from nowadays that can make these universes comparable, and understandable, and there is nothing in our times that is more similar and even more interesting that the situation in North Korea.

But how is a nowadays country compared to these pieces of literature?

To start, it is hard to believe it, but in North Korea is the country that controls all the media, same as in 1984, everything people see, everything people hear from the news is controlled by the government there. It is so drastically controlled that even the results of the matches played by the soccer team of the country are manipulated, and are changed to a beneficial result in order to keep people happy. And this is directly related with the ministry of truth in 1984, even when theirs is only manipulation of the register of news from the past, is the same manipulation where headlines are changed.

In addition, North Korea’s government has control over the internet in that country,  everything from movies to music is controlled by the government, people cannot see or listen to something that is created in other country, because this can make people think there is something better outside, only a few people from other countries could make it to get into North Korea, and according to testimonies, agents from the government will check everything, cellphones, laptops, or any other device where you can have a movie or something you can show to the people.

As we can read in 1984 there is an entity often mentioned, “big brother”, who is supposed to be a type of leader for the people in Oceania, there are pictures of him everywhere although he never shows himself. This can be compared with the current leader of North Korea Kim Jong-Un and also the previous leader of the country Kim Jong-Il bythe way they promote their leadership through propaganda, which is very disturbing, they not only had pictures of themselves but paintings of exaggerated situations where they are presented as saviors 

But it’s not only in those aspects that these fictional versions of reality can be compared with nowadays reality. There is something worse where reality is even more astonishing that fiction. In 1984 the main character is tortured by the government and also executed in the end, also in V for Vendetta they would execute gay people, but it gets surprisingly more shocking when we talk about North Korea. In May of this year, North Korea’s previous Chief of defense got executed just because he fell asleep during a meeting, and if that’s not shocking enough his execution was horrifying, the army of the country shot him with anti-aircraft gunfire in front of Kim Jong-Un. At the moment there is a register of 15 executions there.

Although these aspects are only some of everything that can be compared with 1984, the most alarming is the fact that people there do not know about what is going on in the world, people just think that their country is a world power that is holding a war against the United States and what is worse, they make people believe they are winning. Which is similar to the war of Oceania and Eurasia. In addition the alliance created between Oceania and Eastasia is similar to the alliance formed between North Korea and China.

In addition, the government made people believe that they sent a man to the space, and they only broadcasted old videos from Russian Space Station and NASA.

As both 1984 and V for Vendetta show a country controlled by the government, they also share an ideology of anarchism, V and Winston are the carriers of this ideology and both of them are defeated in the end by the huge government that controls everything, and the huge difference is that in 1984 O’Brien focus in killing Winston’s ideology, before executing him it is important to make him forget that he is against the system. On the other hand in V for Vendetta, the protagonist, V, dies in the end, but his ideology remains untouched, also he has influence in people’s beliefs, something different from Winston who only has his ideology and her lover but he does not reach the masses. Nevertheless, why is this relevant to the main topic? Because is in that point where we wish that reality overcome fiction. In North Korea is almost impossible to have a different way to think, even if someone disagree with the maximum leader he or she might be executed.

So this lead me to think what is the main requirement to change this state of dictatorship? Especially in a country that hides everything from and for the world, can an ideology change an entire country in order to stop the abuse of power? According to V for Vendetta, yes, 1984, maybe, North Korea, no, no one in nowadays reality has the resilience to promote an idea that is different from a threat that is big enough to keep an eye in every single person of a                                                                                       country.

On the other hand, there are also some differences between North Korea’s reality and 1984, for instance, transparency is an important difference mainly because the entity called “big brother” in 1984 never shows up, as far as I know is just a picture that represent maximum vigilance, but on the other hand, Kim Jong-Un is an exhibitionist, he appears in every single event of his country, he gives public speeches and most important it is visibly him who directs the entire country, also in 1984 there’s only one party while in North Korea has three, obviously directed by the same leader but different parties in the end.

But after all these aspects, what does mix these three realities? And the answer is, the way they keep people happy, or on the other hand, horrified.

In 1983 executions where public, obviously same in V for Vendetta, and also in North Korea.  Executions are considered a public event, something that people must see as a punishment for having a different way of thinking, or looking for a better way of life. In addition this almost sacred image of a leader gives people something to fear of. Additionally, 1984 take this aspect to a whole different level, getting rid of any sense of pleasure of despite the ones related to celebrate  the government achievements.

On the other hand, in order to keep people happy both, 1984 and North Korea, use the same method through media. Showing People something they must feel proud of , the country winning a battle, someone winning an important competition, or being awarded for something related with war, all of these end up in a country hating something for no reason, just because an ideology is imposed to them every day, people end up acquiring it and hating everyone from the other side.

In which aspect is this compared directly to V for Vendetta?

I left this topic for the end because it is not a similarity, is a difference, Especially from the point of view of “Heroes”.

In 1984 we have Winston, a man sick of everything that is around him, the incapacity of thinking freely developed the ideology that he wanted to promote, and it gets reinforced when he meets Julia, someone who has the same ideals that he has but in a different way. They take no action, they only hope there is an opposite entity to the government that it will do something to end with all the manipulation at some point, but in the end nothing happens. In V for Vendetta we have V, someone that is a victim of the system, who is directly related with the tortures that the government did, in short words, he is an experiment of the system, and this is what triggers his ideology and he do something about it, he start with his revenge and not only that, he injures the high entity of the government, he attacks and is successful. In addition, at some point he tries to have an impact in people same as the government and he does it, he becomes the entity that has the same power than the government. 

 To summarize this point, something that came to my mind, is that V and Winston where victims of the government, both had a spark that created the ideology they had, but the greatest difference is that Winston gets executed, if he passed all the torture O’Brien applied on him, he would become V in some point, this is, from my point of view, what these titles tried to show, how an ideology can gets ripped from its roots and how can be eternal, that is what V for Vendetta explained with the phrase “ideas are bulletproof”.

And related to this my next question is do we have “heroes” nowadays?

From the point of view of some, we do, but none of them in my opinion can make a significant change in times like these, we have people complaining about wars, about religion, about governments, both none of those people would cross the line in order to face a bigger entity, it’s like a dog that barks a lot but never bites, only a few people become true pioneers of revolution, but people is always in fear, we fear the big entities, people complain about religion but no one will stand in front of the pope to scream that all the institution is wrong, people complain about governments but no one is capable to unite people against a system that abuse power, people complain about war but they do not want to fight, and is obviously necessary, to stop war people needs to fight.

To summarize, three realities, same government systems, different times, and how fictional realities try to explain how an ideology develops from zero to the end, and further, and the sad part is how this ideology cannot be developed in a country that actually exist in our times, how an entity from fictional realities actually exist, and managed to rip every different ideology from the root, that even in the most negative vision  in 1984 and V for Vendetta there was an ideology at least, but in North Korea there are just people convinced to follow their leader to death, even if they do not have an option that is only something they believe, there is always another option.

References

Orwell, G. (1983) Nineteen Eighty-Four. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcout.
 

Moore A. and Lloyd D. (1988). "V for Vendetta". New York: DC Comics.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/05/13/n-korea-executes-defense-chief-for-falling-asleep-during-meeting-s-korea-spy/  

http://www.itv.com/news/2015-10-08/inside-north-korea-where-straying-from-the-script-is-not-an-option/