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N Korea is Confucious, not Stalinist ?

Sukotto

先輩
9 Jul 2003
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This is interesting and something that shows my utter
ignorance (I was raised in America - the mid-Northern part - afterall).
The suggestion alone, and that I'd not heard of it,
shows that I could not argue one way or the other.



Recently in an article written by a one Christopher Reed
in an article (in the print version of the "Counterpunch" newsletter)
titled "Is Stalin or Confucious the Guide? Secrets of the Garden of Bliss"


author cites Bruce Cumings, a professor of history at
the University of Chicago (and probably America's foremost
authority on Korea - Reed states) (Cummings is author
of the two-volume "Origins of the Korean War" [1981 and 1990]
and "Korea's Place in the Sun, A Modern History" [Norton, 2005])



"My position," Cumings writes, "is that North Korea is closer
to a Neo-Confucian kingdom than to Stalin's Russia. With
its absurdly inflated hero worship and its nauseating repetition,
the North Korean political rhetoric seems to know no bounds;
to a person accustomed to a liberal political system it is instinctly
repellent. But is has been there since the beginning."
 
Likening totalitarianism to Confucianism is one of the worst and most nonsensical analogies anyone could ever think of.

Confucianism is all about individual virtues and respect for authorities in all areas of life, not just politics. It is also a religion.

Totalitarianism on the other hand is a political state system whereby the Government controls everything public or private in the lives of civilians - and has absolutely nothing to do with individual virtues and 'respect' for authorities.

No doubt that by using the prominent set of ethical beliefs of Confucianism that originated in China in linking with North Korea's totalitarianism contains political motives of the US, in criticizing China's backing of North Korea in the Korean War. China's backing has nothing to do with the inherent ethical beliefs as China at that time was far different from the Han Dynasty and onwards when Confucianism flourished. China at the time of the Korean War was near two thousand years later and had a Maoist-Communist government, an authoritarian regime. It was this type of regime that was a factor of the backing as it is rather similar to the totalitarian regime in North Korea, not Confucianism.
 
儒学

Supervin said:
No doubt that by using the prominent set of ethical beliefs of Confucianism that originated in China in linking with North Korea's totalitarianism contains political motives of the US, in criticizing China's backing of North Korea in the Korean War.
The authoritarian virtue which denies any equal relationship demanding absolute obedience to the above in order to justify exploitation by the rulers, that is what is common between totalitarianism and neo-confucianism (a weird "interpretation" of what Confucius said.)

Japan also was contaminated by that ideology to some extent during Edo era, but the damage was limited to the ruling class that was about one tenth of the whole population.

An interesting comparison is, that idealistic Marxism turning to dictatorship Leninism/Maoism in reality just like Confucianism in practice.
 
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