Evil Genius

A State of Mind

I watched at the behist of my mother who just couldn't wrap her head around the fact that someone would refer to her (the USA) as "Imperialist America".

This is the first time any foreigner has filmed in North Korea and they do so in a very nuetral manor. It follows the lives of two young girls (11 and 13) as they prepair for the Mass Games which is a huge event in North Korea. It is 'the' communist metaphore, all for the state.

I have to say that it was amazing watching this.

Website wrote:About the film

Following on from the 2002 RTS award winning documentary ‘The Game of Their Lives’, VeryMuchSo productions were granted permission from the North Korean film authorities to make a second documentary. An observational film following two young gymnasts and their families for over eight months in the lead up to the Mass Games- involving a cast of thousands in a choreographed socialist realism spectacular- the biggest and most elaborate human performance on earth.

Entitled ‘A State of Mind’, the film provides a rare glimpse into what is one of the world’s least known societies. North Korea is sealed off from outside influences. It borders China and Russia to the north, and to the south there is a 4km wide impenetrable border with South Korea. The country follows its own communist ideals, a strict philosophy known as the Juche Idea wrapped around the worship of the Kim dynasty – Kim II Sung, their Eternal President who died in 1994 but remains Head of State, and his son and successor, Kim Jong II, known as the General.

Feel free to rent it, netflix it, or whatever. I recommend everyone watch it.

The most striking was a moment in the film when one of the young girls goes with her grandfather who visit their war museaum. She asks "Is this the plane that dropped the bombs?" to which her grandfather replied "No, these dropped insects and plagues".

To which my grandfather responded, "Bullshit". Really impresses upon you how different our worlds are, and yet in watching it how very similiar it was.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist -- and I'm not saying we actually did some of this stuff -- but I think inherent dismissal might be too quick a judgment.

The United States had an active bio-weapons program and chemical weapons program up until the 1970s. We developed and weaponized a LOT of really nasty biological and chemical weapons including VX Gas (which we got from the UK), anthrax, and various strains of crop and livestock destroying agents.

We know that the Soviets were willing to use biological agents (though typically they were debilitating agents rather than lethal ones) on Germany during WWII. We know that the Japanese developed and deployed biological weapons during the same war. Hell -- even the Brits had a plan called "operation vegetarian" (really) to drop Anthrax on German pastures to infect the beef supply and kill off horses and other livestock.

Why is it so hard to believe that we might have used biological agents on the North Koreans... on Cuba. We say we didn't do it - and I'd like to think that's the case, but Vietnam proved how much we can really trust our government... is this really so out of the question?

I'm not saying we sprayed North Korea with a SuperFlu or Small Pox or something along those lines, but a nasty strain of Tularemia or Equine Encephalitis could do massive damage to the North Korean economy and military capability without killing anyone.

The truth won't be publicly available for a long time... even the least sensitive documents remain classified today.

Just food for thought.