People often think that the path to democracy is a simple one; just bomb the crap out of the Supreme Leader/ First of His Name/ King Of The Andals etc etc and voila, instant democracy… it’s a fanciful tale that is too readily believed by the masses, propagated in part by war movies which dehumanize America’s enemies.
The reality is far different, judging by the aftermath of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria. By now we should know that intervention leads more often to chaos, terrorism, slavery, rape and the death of millions of innocents. Whether this is the true intent of the purveyors of war or a tragic and unexpected outcome matters not when the track-record has been quite so horrible – and I haven’t even brought up the wars of the generation before ours.
Jason Calacanis is the founder of tech review website Engadget and a big investor in many prominent tech unicorns including Uber and Tesla. It seems this topic came up during a dinner conversation he had with a friend of “North Korean descent”. He wanted to know what his followers thought about the ethics of sacrificing some North Koreans for almighty “democracy”.
Having dinner with a friend of North Korean decent. We discussed the scenario of 10% of NK citizens dying in an attack that resulted in NK becoming a democracy. Morally, would this be acceptable?
— jason (@Jason) December 7, 2017
During the last Korean war, which technically has not ended, about 20%-30% of the entire Korean population was massacred thanks in large part to indiscriminate American Napalm bombardment. (It would have been higher if General MacArthur had gotten his way, perhaps ironically providing some impetus for the North’s frenzied development of its nuclear weapons program). 10% of just the North’s population would be a fair… nay, a fairly optimistic projection, not considering the North’s new-found military capabilities and ability to project their nuclear arsenal towards US soil.
Thankfully a decent majority of his followers thought it would be better for everyone to leave the despot alone.
In fact, his utilitarian dinner-time tweet caused quite the reaction…
silicon valley rich people are so far removed from socio-political reality that they believe
a. the murder of 2.5 million north korean citizens could conceivably be part of a “fair trade-off”
b. the best way to decide if this is a “fair trade-off” is via twitter poll
— (abolish) prison mike (@mrhotdogfingers) December 7, 2017
I think it’s that the question is repugnant
— Casey Lombardo (@CaseyLombardo) December 7, 2017
He eventually had to clarify his position on the matter…
To be clear I’m not advocating this!
— jason (@Jason) December 7, 2017
Though perhaps his position has changed over the years…
It’s time for world to unite & overthrow this group of maniacs: North Korea: Working With Uranium at Vast New Plant http://jc.is/c64bWP
— jason (@Jason) November 21, 2010
it depends on the specifics,
Would you want to live under “sharia law”,or a North Korea dictator ?