Great story, like you always write. I really appreciate this line from the New Lines article:
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With every pivot and oversimplification, every story that strains credulity to breaking point, Park is showing us one of the true horrors of North Korean totalitarianism, something that has nothing to do with rats or trains or mud: a disturbingly fluid concept of truth. It’s looking at a picture that clearly shows one reality and genuinely seeing a different one.
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And then, this essential bit from Hannah Arendt: “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.”
What worries me these days isn't the credulity of the MAGA crowd. After all, that's a given. What worries me far more is the credulity of the Left. We all want affirmation of our precognition about whatever it is that we think will happen - all while trying to avoid any complexity or ambiguity.
Thanks again, Laura. It sounds like it's been a bit of a rough patch at times, but let me assure you that there are a whole bunch of folks out there that appreciate your work
The post-fact era is no joke. It's that thing about how if you hang out in the monkey house you stop noticing how bad it smells. We're all in the monkey house, we're all losing our minds. Some more than others. This is a long way of saying that I agree with you
And thank you--it's was a rough summer and fall work-wise, but things are really starting to look up. Really appreciate this message
Great story, like you always write. I really appreciate this line from the New Lines article:
""
With every pivot and oversimplification, every story that strains credulity to breaking point, Park is showing us one of the true horrors of North Korean totalitarianism, something that has nothing to do with rats or trains or mud: a disturbingly fluid concept of truth. It’s looking at a picture that clearly shows one reality and genuinely seeing a different one.
""
And then, this essential bit from Hannah Arendt: “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.”
What worries me these days isn't the credulity of the MAGA crowd. After all, that's a given. What worries me far more is the credulity of the Left. We all want affirmation of our precognition about whatever it is that we think will happen - all while trying to avoid any complexity or ambiguity.
Thanks again, Laura. It sounds like it's been a bit of a rough patch at times, but let me assure you that there are a whole bunch of folks out there that appreciate your work
The post-fact era is no joke. It's that thing about how if you hang out in the monkey house you stop noticing how bad it smells. We're all in the monkey house, we're all losing our minds. Some more than others. This is a long way of saying that I agree with you
And thank you--it's was a rough summer and fall work-wise, but things are really starting to look up. Really appreciate this message
You got here before me, but the paragraph on the “fluid concept of truth” made the whole Park (and a lot of 2023) story gel into unifying clarity.