Kim Jong Il has died, apparently of ''fatigue'' (according to the broadcast I saw on BBC Asia at 5 o'clock this morning). The words of Gandalf spring to mind: ''a great evil has departed.'' I don't know about you, but I won't be praying for his soul. The man was despicable; he held his people in dire thralldom and want, murdered whole families because of a dissenting member, and had innocent Christians put cruelly to death. May he feel the full force of Divine Justice.
I wonder what ramifications his death will have for future politics in North Korea? The news put me in mind of Winston Smith's discourse on the ''spirit of man'' during his time with O'Brian in the Ministry of Love, that you cannot build a civilisation upon lies, grotesqueries and the intoxication of power. Do pray for the people of North Korea.
Indeed, a most cruel dictator has died and gone to God's judgement seat: i shall pray for the korean people, that their life may now get better. One good foretoken: the son and heir of the Kim Jong II has said that he does not feel insane enough to follow his father in power.
ReplyDeleteIf I were a priest, I would insert Kim Jong-Il in the memento of the dead. I would even go so far as to say the votive requiem for him. We will all tremble before the judgment seat. Requiem black reminds us of the unknown response of the Pantocrator upon our passing.
ReplyDeleteMr. Kim was indeed a very evil psychopath who perpetuated his father's cynical manipulation of Confucianism into a depraved character cult. Yet, depravity is not monochromatic. Many times I have used another person for superficial emotional satisfaction or a foil for later schadenfreude. Many times I have lusted in my heart to the point where the lust completely destroyed my charity towards another equally insecure man before me. At that point, I merely gazed at a side of meat.
We are all insecure and vulnerable, and all in turn exploit the insecurities and vulnerabilities of another person at one point or another. Aren't these sins also disordered, albeit not to the depths of Stalinism?