In July, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un declared possessing pet dogs to be a “decadent trend” from the West.
Along with eating well and living without fear of one’s government.
Oh, not that last bit.
But, apparently — and there are many news stories, if not much exactitude or certainty — he did order all dogs confiscated.
Why?
Well, reports vary. A search of DuckDuckGo will yield much speculation and a few sparse facts.
A South Korean newspaper relayed a leak saying that Un called dog ownership “a ‘tainted’ trend by bourgeois ideology.”
How could dogs have been with us for tens of thousands of years, and may have been key to our species’ success, yet somehow now be “decadent” and “tainted” and “bourgeois”?
And, for that matter, a “trend.”
How many tens of thousands of years does it take to make a trend? On Twitter, it takes just a few minutes!
There is a lot of talk of a COVID-19 famine (on top of the Kim Family Famine that has been trending for decades) and meat shortages. I’ve read reports that the dogs are to go to restaurants. And then there is the business about higher-ups in the Hidden Kingdom’s un-hidden but Un-ridden hierarchy who have been taking advantage of a cultural loophole to display their status with expensive pet dogs from the West.
Un prefers his displays of status, apparently, to be public executions and harsh and abrupt edicts … such as putting all dogs into execution chambers.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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