{"id":2062,"date":"2014-12-21T00:12:40","date_gmt":"2014-12-21T05:12:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/teachingnonviolentatonement\/?p=2062"},"modified":"2014-12-21T00:16:26","modified_gmt":"2014-12-21T05:16:26","slug":"terrorists-win-the-interview-north-korea-and-the-tragic-irony-of-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/teachingnonviolentatonement\/2014\/12\/terrorists-win-the-interview-north-korea-and-the-tragic-irony-of-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Terrorists Win: \u201cThe Interview,\u201d North Korea, and the Tragic Irony of Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"A<\/a>
A North Korean and United States flag.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Unfortunately, we will not be able to watch Kim Jong-un\u2019s assassination on the big screen this Christmas. We will not be able to cheer as the brutal dictator\u2019s helicopter explodes in the air \u201cwhile Katy Perry\u2019s \u2018Firework\u2019 plays on the soundtrack.<\/a>\u201d We will not be able to fulfill this Christmas Day fantasy by watching \u201cThe Interview\u201d because the terrorists have won.<\/p>\n

The FBI now claims that Kim Jong-un\u2019s government is behind the act of terrorism<\/a>. In retaliation for the movie, a state-sponsored North Korean cyber-terrorist group called \u201cThe Guardians of Peace\u201d hacked into Sony Pictures and leaked sensitive information, including internal emails, future Sony films, and sensitive employee records. \u201cThe Guardians of Peace\u201d also threatened movie goers with a \u201c9\/11 style attack\u201d on every cinema that shows the movie.<\/p>\n

After the threats were made and many theaters decided to pull the film, Sony Pictures canceled the release of the \u201cThe Interview.\u201d Sony said in a statement<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Sony Pictures has been the victim of an unprecedented criminal assault against our employees, our costumers, and our business. Those who attacked us stole our intellectual property, private emails, and sensitive and proprietary material, and sought to destroy our spirit and morale \u2013 all apparently to thwart the release of a movie they did not like. We are deeply saddened at this brazen effort to suppress the distribution of a movie, and in the process do damage to our company, our employees, and the American public. We stand by our filmmakers and their right to free expression and are extremely disappointed by this outcome.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Washington and Hollywood are also in an uproar:<\/p>\n

\u201cWow. Everyone caved. The hackers won. An utter and complete victory for them,\u201d tweeted<\/a> Rob Lowe. Jimmy Kimmel claimed<\/a> that pulling the movie was, \u201can un-American act of cowardice that validates terrorist actions and sets a terrifying precedent.\u201d Steve Carell said<\/a> it was a, \u201cSad day for creative expression.\u201d Senator John McCain stated<\/a> that \u201cyielding to aggressive cyber-terrorism by North Korea\u2026sets a troubling precedent that will only empower and embolden bad actors to use cyber as an offensive weapon even more aggressively in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

And White House officials<\/a> are exploring retaliation, \u201cWe have options\u2026you freeze the account at banks and you tell the institutions \u2018you\u2019re either going to do business with the United States, or you can do business with North Korea.\u201d<\/p>\n

The terrorists may have won the battle, but the United States will win the war!<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the way the United States is telling this story. I\u2019m sorry. I just can\u2019t go there.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong. Despite my unwavering belief in nonviolence, there\u2019s a part of me that wants to blow Kim Jong-un up into a million pieces. Not because I think we\u2019re his victims. Not because we can\u2019t watch a particular movie on Christmas Day. Not because I think he poses a serious threat to our freedoms. No, I want to blow him up because he\u2019s a brutal dictator who terrorizes his own people in concentration camps<\/a> where 10,000 people die every year. North Korea has one of the worst human rights<\/a> record in the world, which includes public executions, forced prostitution, slave labor, forced abortions, religious persecution, and arbitrary detentions.<\/strong> If anything good comes out of this conflict, it is that we will learn more about the atrocities the North Korean regime inflicts upon its own people. They are Kim Jong-un\u2019s true victims.<\/p>\n

But alas, Sony and the US Government are claiming to be North Korea\u2019s victim, and North Korea is claiming to be our victim. Each side mirrors each other in playing the fearful victim. Nations who feel like fearful victims respond to threats and violence in one predictable fashion \u2013 retaliation.<\/p>\n

The United States is retaliating against North Korea, whose \u201cGuardians of Peace\u201d retaliated against us for making a movie that North Korea think<\/a> is, \u201can undisguised sponsoring of terrorism as well as an act of war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kim Jong-un is clearly a fearful man who keeps power by bullying his own people, indeed, his own family<\/a>, but he\u2019s not as crazy as we might think. While Sony doesn\u2019t speak for the US Government, \u201cThe Interview\u201d does give expression to a dominant theme running throughout our culture \u2013 that the world would be better without this brutal dictator who terrorizes his own people, constantly threatens the US with nuclear warfare, and that the only way to get rid of him is through violence.<\/p>\n

We in the US want to emphasize differences between us and them. We claim the mantle of morality because we have freedom of speech and freedom of artistic expression. So what if that freedom leads to the depiction of the death of a brutal dictator! But let\u2019s not kid ourselves. This conflict isn\u2019t simply about freedom of speech or expression. It\u2019s about politics. \u201cThe Interview\u201d asks the question: How should we deal with brutal dictators who pose a nuclear threat in a post 9\/11 world?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This conflict is fundamentally about political violence. And the truth about violence is that it puts us all on the same moral level because violence has a certain moral logic. We all believe that our violence is good and defensive, while the other\u2019s violence is an aggressive form of terrorism. North Korea and the United States are enslaved to this logic of violence. Whenever one nation perceives the other as a terror threat, it retaliates with escalating cycles of violence and threats of violence.<\/p>\n

As Jean-Michel Oughourlian states in his brilliant book, Psychopolitcs<\/em><\/a>, national rivalries follow this pattern of retaliation and violence. We believe that our enemy is \u201cconsidered an evil to be eradicated, and of course, the other side\u2019s position is the same, a mirror image.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this sense, we are all members of \u201cThe Guardians of Peace.\u201d With a sense of tragic irony, we all believe that the best method to eradicate evil and to guard peace is to retaliate with violence.<\/p>\n

The tragic irony only continues once we realize that the movie was set to be released on Christmas Day \u2013 the day when we celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace. We don\u2019t need anymore \u201cGuardians of Peace.\u201d We need more people who will follow the path of the Prince of Peace.<\/strong> This path means that instead of guarding peace with violence, we lay down our weapons. It means that instead of participating in a cultural fantasy of killing our enemies, we pray for our enemies. It means instead of being offended by our enemies, we find creative ways to love them. As Oughourlian claims, it means that \u201cInstead of spending astronomical sums on arms, let us spend instead on roads, hospitals, schools, houses, businesses to create jobs and so on. Instead of financing war, let us purchase peace.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unfortunately, we will not be able to watch Kim Jong-un\u2019s assassination on the big screen this Christmas. We will not be able to cheer as the brutal dictator\u2019s helicopter explodes in the air \u201cwhile Katy Perry\u2019s \u2018Firework\u2019 plays on the soundtrack.\u201d We will not be able to fulfill this Christmas Day fantasy by watching \u201cThe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1651,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[443,533,531,329,321,530,532,205],"class_list":["post-2062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-barack-obama","tag-kim-jong-un","tag-movie","tag-politics","tag-terrorism","tag-the-interview","tag-united-states","tag-violence"],"yoast_head":"\nTerrorists Win: \u201cThe Interview,\u201d North Korea, and the Tragic Irony of Christmas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Unfortunately, we will not be able to watch Kim Jong-un\u2019s assassination on the big screen this Christmas. 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