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Monday, January 28, 2013

They've Still Got That "From Each" Part, Anyway

That "to each according to their need" bit never seems to work out that well, does it?

No. It never does:

Karl Marx summed up Communism as “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” This is a good, pithy saying, which, in practice, has succeeded in bringing, upon those under its sway, misery, poverty, rape, torture, slavery, and death.

Pakistanis were reportedly prepared to "eat grass" to get nuclear weapons. As North Korean rulers devote their money to nukes and imported luxury goods for the elites, their people can only dream of such a feast, apparently:

News out of North Korean in notorious unreliable, but food shortages in the country have gotten so bad and people so desperate that there are now reports of men murdering their own children for food. These startling reports were compiled by independent reporters commissioned by Asia Press, a independent press agency focusing on Asia, and were published by the Sunday Times.

It is possible that the reports are not true. But the fact remains that the situation is so bad in North Korea that they could be true. How many North Koreans would react to these reports by saying, "Oh, that's just not possible!"

If enough North Koreans believe this is true--whether it is or not--might that despair remove enough fear to storm the palaces? Remember, the army's soldiers aren't that far away from that desperate step and are already hungry. They do have guns and are organized.

UPDATE: Mind you, reports like this have come out before. So some skepticism is in order. These reports could be false. Mind you, the lack of actual cannibalism is hardly a defense of the regime. Life there is bad enough without cannibalism, eh? Life there with full stomachs--just the misery, poverty, rape, torture, slavery, and death--would be bad enough.