The Nose: Defriending On Facebook, North Korean Chic & Beliefs
The Nose rounds up the week in pop culture.
Everything contains its own opposite said the philosopher Heraclitus. From Freud and Erikson we came to understand this in terms of forbidden impulses. In his 2011 book "Boomerang," Michael Lewis dwells on the notion that Germans -- despite or because of -- their cultural obsession with order and cleanliness are also drenched -- through their sayings, idioms, folktales and riddles -- in the imagery of feces.
I wonder if that explains the current American fascination with North Korea. The death of Kim Jong-il has touched off waves of exploration -- some of it humorous -- among people who ordinarily wouldn't give a ... whoop about a totalitarian regime halfway around the world.
But North Korea is the opposite of our open, confessional society, where you can become a celebrity simply by having no boundaries. The Kim family are the anti-Kardashians. They have interesting secrets they're not willing to share with anyone.
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E-mail from Liz
This program is a valentine to unhappy ppl w too much time on their hands. Boring extraordinaire.
E-mail from Barbara
I think your panelist misses the point of why despots from other countries covet American stuff...
it's NOT because they want to have our culture. It's because they want THEIR culture with OUR stuff.
North Koreans may want the trappings of our capitalist society, but I think it is a misnomer to push our western culture down the throats of the middle east, the far east or anywhere for that matter.
Thanks,
E-mail from Amy
My solution to the unfriend problem is to be extremely selective in friending. Friends of friends, coworkers of my girlfriend, and family members fall into the "danger zone" and will sit in the purgatory of my inbox until they prove themselves worthy.
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