'Brainwashing'

‘They wear pride like a jewelled necklace and clothe themselves with cruelty.’ (Psalm 73”6)


When the news of the death of Kim Jong-il broke out recently, the last thing I expect to see is pictures of hysterical mourning of the North Koreans. Is their grief real or staged? May be the answer is ‘brainwashed’.

The word "brainwashing" was first coined during the Korean War, to explain the alarming footage of captured US soldiers supporting communism and denouncing the west after went through "thought-reform" in Chinese prison camps. It works well in a highly controlled environment where intense social pressures make adopting new beliefs easy.

Some techniques used in any brainwashing are isolation, control, repetition and emotions. They work because our brains are not static and keep updating with new information which affecting our minds, in turn influence our behaviours.

When you move a person to a totally new environment, you can filter the incoming data that go into the brain’s inputs and weaken the old ones. With that, you can control the behaviours, hence change the minds. The North Koreans have been isolated for decades. The 'controlled' environment attempts to get rid of inputs that might trigger old beliefs.

Brainwashing also involves surrounds the person with believers, restrict conversations on approved topics, and control what they see and hear. Repetition on that person helps to reinforce new beliefs and ensure the mind is saturated with them. Marching, rote learning, lectures and criticism sessions lasted for hours, days and years are often included in the brainwashing process.

Are all these outpouring of emotions by the North Koreans fake? May be not. Someone once said, "If you rule a destitute country with a personality cult, you must present the people with something to hate. It's brainwashing.'' By controlling all information within his country and virtually no contact with the outside world, Kim controls the worldview of his people. So people actually can be made to believe things what clearly aren’t good for them.

The folly of Man

On the first day, God created the dog and said, "Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years."The dog said, "That's a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I'll give you back the other ten?"So God agreed....

On the second day, God created the monkey and said, "Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I'll give you a twenty-year life span."The monkey said, "Monkey tricks for twenty years? That's a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the dog did?" And God agreed.....

On the third day, God created the cow and said, "You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer's family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years."The cow said, "That's kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years. How about twenty and I'll give back the other forty?"And God agreed again.....

On the fourth day, God created humans and said, "Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I'll give you twenty years." But the human said, "Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me mytwenty, the forty the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and the ten the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?" "Okay," said God. "You asked for it."

So that is why for our first twenty years, we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the next forty years, we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next ten years, we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years, we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.

Life has now been explained to you.

'New Year jokes'

A young man at a New Year’s party turns to his friend and asks for a cigarette. 'I thought you made a New Year’s resolution to quit smoking,' his friend says. 'I'm in the process of quitting,' the man says. 'Right now, I am in the middle of phase one.' 'What's phase one?' 'I've quit buying.'

On New Year's Eve, Daniel was in no mood to drive, so he sensibly left his van in the car park and walked home. As he was wobbling along, he was stopped by a policeman. 'What are you doing out here at four o'clock in the morning?' asked the police officer. 'I'm on my way to a lecture,' answered Roger. 'And who on earth, in their right mind, is going to give a lecture at this time on New Year's Eve?' enquired the constable sarcastically. 'My wife,' slurred Daniel grimly.

Dieting Resolutions:
2008: I will get my weight down below 180 pounds.
2009: I will follow my new diet religiously until I get below 200 pounds.
2010: I will develop a realistic attitude about my weight.
2011: I will work out 3 days a week.
2012: I will try to drive past a gym at least once a week.

New Year’s Day prayer:
'Dear Lord, so far this year I've done well. I haven't gossiped, I haven't lost my temper, I haven't been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or overindulgent. I'm very thankful for that. But in a few minutes, Lord, I'm going to get out of bed, and from then on I'm probably going to need a lot more help.'

How much is too much?

‘He humbles the proud and brings down the arrogant city. He brings it down to the dust.’ (Isaiah 26:5)
How much to pay our ministers is always an emotive topic. If there is one positive and tangible outcome from the GE2011, surely this is the one: it brought about a review of the political holders’ pay packages.

I have no qualm over paying well for our political leaders but I would expect it to commensurate with their contributions to the economy and welfare of the people. It came as a surprise that since the system of pegging our political leaders’ salaries to the top performers in the private sector began in 1994, there is no committee or watchdog overseeing it.  Can we depend on the good conscience and moral judgment of the position holders to sound out if they perceived their salaries are 'out-of-line'? This seems too much to expect from anyone of us for we are all sinful in nature.

This brings to my mind the way most of the mega churches’ pastors are paid. They have let this secular culture seeps into their churches. Increasingly, they see their parishioners as ‘club members’ instead of ‘flock of sheep’ in need of guidance. The pastors are seen as ‘key persons’ bringing in new members who can contribute to the church’s funds. Is running a church or a country the same as running any profit-making enterprise? I hope we take a leaf from history: pride, greed always eventually leads to downfall.

Inflation

Inflation can be good to some but a bane to others. In Germany, due to the past experiences of hyperinflation, any form of debt, especially consumer debt, is frown upon by most Germans. The country’s saving rate was more than 10% during the period 2003 to 2009. For the same period, the Americans’ saving rate was merely 1.5%. The German economy has improved and is in much better shape after it went through a period of painful wage restraint and labour market reforms. Hiring and firing of workers are made easier while welfare benefits have been reduced.

The Germans hardly invest their money in stock market, but mostly in life insurance instead. On the other hand, stock market is important to US, that helps to explain why Wall Street is important to the policymakers. Fewer Germans owned houses, 41% compared to 66% for US. For this, inflation is good for the Americans because when housing price goes up, the value of debt will decrease. For the Germans who are mainly renting, inflation is bad for them. Hence, the Germans are generally more concerned over inflation than the Americans.

For Singapore which has enjoyed mild inflation of not more than 3% for the past decade, the spike in inflation in the past two years to above 5% probably explains why housing price has been skyrocketing for the same period too. For those who are renting, high inflation is a ‘poison’.