Oh Beloved Leader, we hardly knew ye.
When an important political figure dies, as Glen Greenwald explains here, we tend to see it as an opportunity to “put politics aside” and pay our “respects” (which means say only nice things about how great they were. This was true of Regan, Nixon and others. It should also be true for the Beloved Leader, Kim-Jong-Il, who passed away this week.
Kim Jong Il was an important political figure and a unique personality. Some of his political decisions may have been controversial (like starving his own people, holding the world hostage with threats of nuclear war, and generally making North Korea a pit of human misery), but now is not the time to dwell on them. Instead, we should remember the positives: his invention of rainbows and how he helped Korea win WWI with his bravery and cunning. Also his amazing hair. You will be missed beloved leader, if not by people per se, then at least by exporters of high-end cognac, which he enjoyed squandering his nation’s scarce resources on.