Dystopia Is Hard: Difference between revisions

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* The reign of homicidal maniac [[The Caligula|Caligula]] was followed by the more moderate and successful reign of Claudius, following the former's assassination when his guard found his rule unbearable, though Claudius was at least initially treated as a puppet emperor.
* North Korea was able to survive after Kim Il-Sung finally died of heart attack, but it still plays it straight: the country is utterly crippled by its excessive military spending, with the result that its military is thriving while everyone else tries to get by on what remains. The capital Pyongyang is the only city that gets any real help from the government, everywhere else barely has enough of what is needed.
** At least some reports suggest there has been mass starvation in North Korea in the past fifteentwenty years, with hundreds of thousands—or more—deaths resulting.
*** Also, don't forget the "[[Human Resources|long pork]]". All of that [[Sarcasm Mode|wonderful, wonderful]] [[No Party Like a Donner Party|long pork]].
** It is important to note that the Communist state of North Korea has managed to endure without any real institutional change, which should go as an example of just how much a government can get away with so long as it maintains the support of the military and keeps the population so repressed that organized opposition is impossible. However, North Korea's policies and lack of reform do mean that it is heavily reliant on aid from the outside world (including its enemies the U.S and South Korea ironically) to survive.
** North Korea's international economic strategy at this point is essentially to [[Batman Gambit|extort the rest of the world into sending aid to its populace by threatening to kill them, then intercepting and selling the shipments]], [[Crapsack World|while using the populace as human shields to ward off potential invasion and buying off the countries that wouldn't care as much about the collateral damage]].
** It has been [http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2011/09/21/324835/nothing-to-envy/ argued] that North Korea survives because the ''rest of the world doesn't want it to collapse'': China fears that a collapse would bring millions of refugees in its northern provinces as well as ultimately leading to a US-aligned unified Republic of Korea on its' border, South Korea fears the logistical nightmare that re-assimilating the North would create and the rest of the world fear [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|creating an even worse humanitarian catastrophe by letting the regime fall]]. At this point, North Korea may not even ''need'' to bully the rest of the world into keeping it on life support: [[Thanatos Gambit|the feared consequences of its regime's death]] [[Vetinari Job Security|have become a threat by themselves.]]
** AsAfter ofKim 17Jong-il died in December 2011, thehis so-called "Dear Leader"son Kim Jong-ilun istook deadover. Even thoughAlthough hisat sonthis Kimwriting Jong-unhe's isbeen supposedin topower befor hissix replacementyears already, thereit's iscome aat questionthe oncost whetherof hepurges willand executions of even close befamily onemembers, and ifis turning to nuclear blackmail of the rest of the world now that North Korea has finally got a working atomic bomb ''and'' ICBM. Even so, forit's unclear just how longmuch longer North Korea will survive in its current form. There's no question that North Korea's regime will collapse. Instead, the question is merely when and how.
* The only reason [[Nazi Germany]] lasted as long as it did was because [[Adolf Hitler]] was very, very good at convincing people to ignore logic and observable evidence, and because the loot from invaded countries all went to Germany. By the end of [[World War II]], the economy and government was in shambles. Even if Germany had won, the regime probably would not have lasted very long, especially once there was no longer a war to distract people's attention.
** Nazi Germany only really functioned in two modes: preparing for a war and fighting a war. Repeat. End result; the "thousand-year Reich" lasted 13 years.
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