The Interview - The Streisand Effect in Motion.

How do you make a picture go from 'not watch' to 'must see'?  Give it global attention.  It's called the Streisand Effect.  Years ago when Barbara Streisand called attention to how Google maps had included her house, she tried in vain to have the information removed from public view.

Sony Pictures (C) 2014

The Streisand Effect is now officially defined as a phenomenon whereby an attempt to hide, remove, or censor a piece of information having the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely via the Internet.   

I never planned on seeing "The Interview".  I am not into the stoner buddy movies.  However, it's like being compelled to watch what people thought was worth threatening others over.  This was it?  It was like watching the antics of high school boys who obsess over the usual things of their lives, drugs, sex, success and how to be more successful, get laid the most and then doing it the "American" way.  Weave that in with CIA intrigue, a Leader that people are afraid of because of his access to nuclear weapons laced with emotional daddy issues.  A fantasy assasination plot with bitten off fingers.  I think none of these are really spoilers for the movie, because it's much like "Christmas Vacation", where you know every time you see it; the cat still gets torched and people still laugh.  It's absurd.

In the movie, you see the battle of censorship to have the removal of mythology of the leader.  Absurd myths, such as, President Kim Jong-Un doesn't have an anus.  It's this over-the-top nature that this movie takes that quite possibly is viewed as a personal attack of laughter.  We are laughing at the situation, the means, Sony pictures, fear, nukes, the CIA, the North Korean hackers and ourselves.  I never had any plans of watching this movie.  Yet, thoughout this movie, all I could think of was how "The Marriage of Figaro", a comedy, written by Pierre Beaumarchais helped to fire up the French Revolution.  

It's a dangerous movie in North Korea, because they could see their leader is not a God.  They could see that all they are led into is just 'honey-dicking'.  Because words still hold power and that is why they weren't laughing with the world.  So, why was the movie pulled from theaters?  Quite possibly for one reason.  Perhaps they believe their own caricature of  North Korea's Kim Jong-Un.  If they believed he was as unstable as their fictions version, maybe they were being socially responsible by pulling the movie from theaters, but at the same time, they are validating the insanity of Kim Jong-Un.  

For the west, who is incredibly used to the satirization of EVERYTHING, where there is nothing sacred, and not used to remaining silent, it's a culture shock.  When we don't like something, we joke about it.  Create movies that blow up our governments.  We don't view it as profane.  With our imaginations, we create new worlds to escape from in 120 minute segments.  Dreaming for a moment that the world is either worse or better.  

Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw said, "When you tell people the truth, you have better make them laugh, or they will kill you."  

We were laughing so hard that we couldn't hear the silence of North Korea.  In a world where everything is a form of propaganda for profit or power, not even a comedy is overlooked.  Now that the "Interview" is released into the world, what impact might this have on the people of North Korea?   Perhaps that is the next act in this play.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays to Sony Pictures, President Obama, President Kim Jong-Un, Seth Rogan and Pierre Beaumarchais.  I wonder, what is the real revolution?  

In Times of Uncertainty...of Possible War

The image, by DigitalGlobe taken on 2 April 2009 of North Korea's launch pad is no longer the same...it just truly became the launch heard round the world...as it launched at 11:30 this morning and flew over Japan, landing in the Pacific Ocean.

For a long time, the stability of Kim Jong II, has been in question. Normally, I don't blog about politics, but since this act is past ignoring...having an impact all around the world, there is the global gasp that this launch was attempted. Whether it was out of egotistical pride, a show of force, or just another attempt to belly up to an overcrowded table of nuclear armed entities.

Diplomacy from China, Russia, the United States, Japan, and many others were totally ignored. So like the rest of the world, I too, hold my breath as I hear the patrols of the day suddenly go silent. It is different now. Now I am a civilian, with a forced invitation to watch from this front row seat to see first hand how this will all play out.

Am I leaving South Korea? No. Will there be war? This is something that remains to be seen. Will there be enough cool heads that prevail over this aggressive act? If all it took was the assassination of one man to start World War I in Sarajevo, what will the untimely launch of an ill-fated rocket cause? The world is watching.

All this, while you were sleeping...yes...we are still alive.

Thoughts about the situation in Korea...

As I was up in Seoul, going about my business and trying to meet with some friends (ah that is another story)...life seems to be oddly normal considering the political firestorm that is going on between North and South Korea. The media has stated that we are on the brink of war. Yes, there is a cold war feeling that is ever present.

However, as we do know, there are no winners in using that kind of option...of course you all know what I am talking about...something we don't want to even contemplate...that thought of course is anything having to do with the use of nuclear weapons. For decades the US and the USSR (now Russia) lived with the 'red button' and the world had great hopes when the wall fell. The hope of all Koreans...whether they are in the North or in the South...is that one day they will be unified.

There is even a temple, Buinsa Temple, that is dedicated for prayer for unification of Korea. Unification of the North and the South is very much a part of the fabric of this culture, as it was in Germany...and having been there when they were two separate states, I can tell you that the feelings in this present time echo the past.

However, as I walked around the streets of Seoul on Saturday night, the youth were trolling the streets...revelling in their youth (as young people do)...and there was no thought of what the world leaders were doing. Perhaps in search of a good Soju bar, or a chance connection...or perhaps this is simply the calm before the storm. Even today in Daegu...there is not much talk of war. Though the world talks of it, through the media, and politicians...the everyman of the street is calmly going about the day doing what they do.

The consequences of even thinking of what a war would do to this peninsula...well it would devastate both sides. Though I am starting to notice things like how gas masks are located by the elevators of the building I work in. The remaining bits of my past life, in another world, where I realize the world will never be quite the safe place I would love it to be...but you can't be fearful of living. You just have to go out there...after all it isn't how you die...it is how you live your life...and I have never been comfortable with sitting in a corner.

Life in South Korea...Life anywhere...is risk....there is no such thing as security...my dear friends...that is all a painful illusion.

Some risks are just more visible than others...