alarmed

I watched a documentary on the National Geographic Channel yesterday. It reported a trip of an eye surgeon (German, perhaps?) to North Korea, to carry out 1000 cataract operations. The programme provided much background information about North Korea - which I will take at face value - but also afforded the Doctor's team to see a little stage-managed view of life in North Korea.

One element which received quite a bit of coverage was the devotion of the North Korean people to their leader, Kim Jong-Il. One woman, interviewed before her operation, was heard to say that the saddest thing about having cataracts was that she could never look at (pictures of) the great leader. This is the same leader who has signally failed to feed his people (the cataracts are in no small part due to malnutrition; the inability to treat them with local medicine in stark contrast to the nuclear weapons programme); this is the same leader whose borders are absurdly fortified to prevent people from escaping; this is the same leader who condemns entire extended families to brutal prison camps if any member of the family fails to express suitable praise to the leader.

The climax of the film was the day when everybody's bandages were taken off, and they were asked if they could see. Many were truly healed. There was much clapping and rejoicing. And the centrepiece of each person's experience, as soon as the bandages were removed, was to rush to the picture of the leader, to bow, to prostrate themselves, and to say how happy they were that the great leader had enabled them to be healed. The great leader got all the kudos - the film editor didn't show us anyone thanking the surgeon, or even acknowledging him. The great leader had done this and it was marvellous in their eyes (somewhat literally).

That made me feel sick. But it alarmed me too, because it paralleled so closely the discourse some people will engage in when attributing things to God. Found a parking space? Thank God. Nice weather? Thank God. Cure for cancer? Thank God.

Now, you might say that the North Korean people have been brainwashed (or frightened) into replacing reverence for the living God with reverence for their great leader; that a natural trait in humanity has been perverted and misdirected by the North Korean regime. But an observer outside both communities might tell it differently. Is the thanksgiving which overflows to God a piece of conditioning, born of "God is good" "All the time" dialogues, or is it the truth flowing from deep within us?