At President Trump’s summit meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un, our president showed him a video. Here it is. (It’s only 4 minutes.)
The genre of this particular video is the propaganda film. It is very much like the ones Kim shows to his people, except that the rhetorical voiceovers and stirring images convey the virtues of Communism. This one conveys the virtues of Capitalism. Ironically, though, the vision of Capitalism that it conveys is pretty much the same one that is derided in Communist propaganda: the wealthy few living in luxury off the backs of workers while the masses starve.
Do you think that Kim Jong-Un is susceptible to the same kind of propaganda that he churns out to his own people? One would think that he would see through these tactics. And yet, it may be that he thinks in these terms. But if he does, wouldn’t he also believe his own Communist propaganda?
Trump also gave Kim his real-estate developer sales-pitch, saying that North Korea has “great beaches” that could be developed with hotels and condos.
I suppose we will see soon whether Kim Jong-Un is actually a Communist, as he professes to be, or if he feels the allure of presiding over a land of wealth, luxury, and tourism. He may well do so, if what we hear about his self-indulgent lifestyle is correct. Before the summit, Kim wanted to go sightseeing, so his hosts in Singapore showed him the opulence of that wealthy country. That may well have had its effect.
Fortunately, the video didn’t inform Kim that the benefits of Capitalism usually are the fruit of economic and political freedom, of the sort that would soon sweep him away.
I say, “usually,” since we now have the “Chinese way,” as practiced in China and emulated in Singapore, which allows for wealth and prosperity under an authoritarian regime. Kim probably wouldn’t mind that. Unless he is really the Stalinist he purports to be.
Photo: Screenshot from President Trump’s video for Kim Jong-Un, showing Miami, Florida. Video from YouTube.
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