<story><title>Stopping All Stations – The Pyongyang Metro</title><url>http://www.earthnutshell.com/stopping-all-stations-the-pyongyang-metro/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tobbyb</author><text>Surreal and intriguing. There is a palpable sense of fear and unease on people&amp;#x27;s faces, not a smile to be seen. A gloomy insight into a whole other world. And questions assumptions about human behavior.&lt;p&gt;Its frightening to think how easy it is to suppress a whole population for years and decades on end. The romantic image of courage, revolution and human freedom comes to naught here. Status quo, acceptance and survival seems to be the more natural human state.&lt;p&gt;There is the natural reluctance to put one&amp;#x27;s head above. And for good reason, anyone foolish or brave enough to put their head above in this all knowing state will be put down swiftly, and perhaps brutally to be made an example of. How does change happen here?&lt;p&gt;Organizing anything in this state of pervasive surveillance is nearly impossible and should be a wake up call for those sleepwalking into one.&lt;p&gt;The only way we know from history is implosion of the prevailing power center or outside support motivated more by massive self interests than human freedom or kindness, compromising the road ahead.&lt;p&gt;Surveillance, secret courts and dubious processes are meekly accepted but change can become very difficult once these infrastructures are put in place, operational and at the complete discretion of whoever happens to be in power. A warning for all of us.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rdtsc</author><text>It could be cultural as well. I remember showing pictures of my childhood in Soviet Union to people in America and they&amp;#x27;d comment how gloomy and sad everyone looked -- even at birthday parties. The thing is we weren&amp;#x27;t gloomy and sad (well not all the time even though we were poor). We just didn&amp;#x27;t smile in pictures. So not saying people are not scared and oppressed there. We know they are. But some of the reactions could be cultural as well not all due oppression.</text></comment>
<story><title>Stopping All Stations – The Pyongyang Metro</title><url>http://www.earthnutshell.com/stopping-all-stations-the-pyongyang-metro/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tobbyb</author><text>Surreal and intriguing. There is a palpable sense of fear and unease on people&amp;#x27;s faces, not a smile to be seen. A gloomy insight into a whole other world. And questions assumptions about human behavior.&lt;p&gt;Its frightening to think how easy it is to suppress a whole population for years and decades on end. The romantic image of courage, revolution and human freedom comes to naught here. Status quo, acceptance and survival seems to be the more natural human state.&lt;p&gt;There is the natural reluctance to put one&amp;#x27;s head above. And for good reason, anyone foolish or brave enough to put their head above in this all knowing state will be put down swiftly, and perhaps brutally to be made an example of. How does change happen here?&lt;p&gt;Organizing anything in this state of pervasive surveillance is nearly impossible and should be a wake up call for those sleepwalking into one.&lt;p&gt;The only way we know from history is implosion of the prevailing power center or outside support motivated more by massive self interests than human freedom or kindness, compromising the road ahead.&lt;p&gt;Surveillance, secret courts and dubious processes are meekly accepted but change can become very difficult once these infrastructures are put in place, operational and at the complete discretion of whoever happens to be in power. A warning for all of us.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>vonmoltke</author><text>&amp;gt; There is the natural reluctance to put one&amp;#x27;s head above. And for good reason, anyone foolish or brave enough to put their head above in this all knowing state will be put down swiftly, and perhaps brutally to be made an example of. How does change happen here?&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Organizing anything in this state of pervasive surveillance is nearly impossible and should be a wake up call for those sleepwalking into one.&lt;p&gt;I saw this sentiment expressed by another poster yesterday and almost responded, but this seems like a much better context.&lt;p&gt;I, personally, agree that pervasive surveillance is a bad thing and that the power of government should be carefully restricted.  That said, what is the path from &amp;quot;pervasive surveillance&amp;quot; to &amp;quot;be[ing] put down swiftly, and perhaps brutally to be made an example of&amp;quot;?  North Korea&amp;#x27;s state has the willingness and power to chop down those who stand up; how would one of the nations &amp;quot;sleepwalking into [a state of pervasive surveillance]&amp;quot; get away with it?&lt;p&gt;I can certainly see, and articulate, dangers involving minority targeting.  Similarly, I can articulate the dangers of isolated cases of abuse of power.  I cannot, however, articulate a path for a liberal Western nation to become North Korea (or even China) without delving into tinfoil hat territory.</text></comment>