Imperious Troglodytes

These are truly dangerous creatures. They are a rare presence, but dangerous in their pursuits and intents. They appear as deformed versions of mankind, their minds as twisted as their bodies. Yet they appear also to have great powers of persuasion among their followers. They manipulate by instilling fear in others, of creating an aura of powerlessness among their detractors, and by using their powers to eliminate dissent.

Despite their lack of social attributes and a physical appearance so much at odds with the charisma of amiability and physical perfection that is most admired in society, they are able to flourish, to build a veritable army of dedicated supporters ready to do their every bidding - to salute that individual as their leader-without-peer.

Charles VIII of France crossed the Alps in 1494 like a conquerer of ancient times. His white standards with the lily and crown waved in the soft September wind, displaying the proud inscription Voluntas Dei: Missus a Deo. The rattle of giant drums heralded his entry into Asti in September. His infantry came marching through the streets, seventeen thousand strong - archers and crossbowmen, spearmen and halberdiers, with short padded doublets, wearing the king's colours, and Swiss footsoldiers with their short partisans. The cannon were borne on heavy carriages - thirty-seven bronze cannon, together with culverins and falconets - an artillery force such as the Italians had never before seen assembled. The wagons were followed by a deafening tramp of horses; seven thousand troopers rode past, a glittering and seemingly endless procession.
Flute players heralded the aproach of the royal guards, eight hundred horsemen in full armour of steel or gilded bronze, with tufts of ostrich feathers that nodded above the shining helmets like bright palm fronds as the heavy horses pranced past. After this visible and impressive evidence of the king's power came the king himself, riding on his famous black horse Savoia, under a golden canopy between two files of velvet-clad pages and attendants, who thrust back the gaping crowd.
Even without the golden canopy and the attendants in double file, the king was recognizable at once by his glittering crown. It was fastened securely on his white hat, between black ostrich feathers, and held in place by a wide band passing under his chin. His long, flowing blue velvet cloak lent an appearance of massive dignity to his slight figure and concealed his thin,rickety legs; his breastplate under a doublet of gold brocade arched his sunken breast. His huge head, with its unhandsome, irregular features and long wry nose sat close on his artificially broadened shoulders; his bulging eyes shone with an expression of self-satisfaction that was seconded by the inanely rapturous smile on his big twisted mouth; between that glance and grin the face looked as if it were covered with mucus.
It was a strange campaign. He was leading a powerful army which fought no battles: every city opened its doors to it; it marched unopposed and conquered unimperilled. Piero de'Medici hastened of his own accord to meet Charles and offer him the keys of his fortresses, and while the republicans of Florence swept away the hated Medici regime Savanarola in his pulpit acclaimed Charles as the Sword of God, the new Cyrus and the new Redeemer. (The Tragic Pursuit of Perfection by Antonina Vallentin, c.1938)

Today we have an inherited realm in North Korea led by another of Nature's little secret jokes; a short, fat, self-adoring, tousled-haired, platform-shoed dictator. Ah, but one beloved of his people whose sycophantic choruses of mass adoration resound throughout the land. Or so he believes, or so we are led to believe. One thing is clear: North Koreans, like so many other peoples of the world are a close ethnic, tribal group who value themselves highly and exude a national pride blinding them to the direction in which their Dear Leader has taken them.

Basically that direction is a dire social structure, a ripe harvest for death by starvation. Whereas one famine after another has struck the country, North Korea, by official diktat, spends an inordinate amount of its national funds on arming itself against its enemies who, it asserts, want nothing better than to invade and subjugate it. Therefore, its need to arm, and to arm without stint; nuclear weaponry or be damned.

So it is: nuclear weaponry and be damned. This bizarrely irrational, irascible dictator convinced of his mission and his godliness, demonstrating his conviction so convincingly that his million-strong armed forces and his underfed population of twenty-three million sad souls stand squarely behind whatever death-dealing promises he offers.

Kim Jong-Il's flatulently harranguing bombast has borne fruit in the strangest of ways. Bluff does actually work. With it you can manipulate an entire population through the evocation of national pride. We've witnessed its efficacy with Iran's Prime Minister, we recognize its handiwork with Kim's. And it works too on the international scene - recent events of the last decade attest to that.

It works because this kind of blunt aggression takes reason by surprise, suppresses dissent, creates an atmosphere of helpless inevitability difficult to surmount. Reasonable people find it difficult to believe the scenario and the promises that such threats give fruition to. They believe instead that something they have done through oversight has caused this anger directed against them and if only they work unstintingly to undo the harm they have unleashed all will be well.

This egotistical troglodyte whose very present makes pear trees bloom out of season, and whom Nature salutes by sending evidence of his divine presence is not one of a kind, but is the right person in the right place at the right time, doing the right thing to persuade his various audiences that his threats and provocations are not the nightmarish essence of a diseased mind, but rather a legitimate threat to the world.

Well, he is undeniably mortal, and a very sick one, physically and psychically, but able nonetheless to persuade others of his legitimacy. This is the herd mentality we suffer from, and an insecurity that sane and intelligent people when faced with lunacy allied with threat evince in the face of their disbelief. Yes, it is a nightmare, but it won't go away when we wake up.

Kim has glorified militancy, and his military. He has given them free reign, fed them well, promised them glory. They offer their allegiance to this caricature of a human who has caused too many sleepless nights for the populations surrounding his country. What army wouldn't adore and support with their every breath that ruler who will arm them with the latest inventions of warfare, the most deadly threats to their enemies?

While threatening his neighbours and by extension the world at large, Kim has wined and dined his supporters, given them bread and circuses and one can only wonder are these urban North Koreans ignorant of the deathly fate of their rural counterparts? Can North Koreans really believe that their leader has visited sublime glory upon them by successfully detonating a nuclear device and making the world sit up and take notice?

Will the world feel secure in continuing to prop up this bizarre situation by sending food aid unconditionally to the starving rural population of North Korea while standing by and doing nothing concrete to rescue the world at large from the Kim regime?

Will an embargo on the shipment of "luxury goods" and UN-mandated inspections to ensure that nuclear knowledge does not leak from North Korea to other rogue regimes be sufficient unto our future?