Now that Kim Jong-il is dead and his son installed on the throne, we have the third generation of the hermit kingdom’s Juche-inspired dynasty to deal with. I knew some North Koreans in China, and saw first-hand what the regime did to its people. North Korean refugees of about my age and younger were much shorter than they should have been. North Koreans are ordinarily quite tall for Asians, but many of the young men and women I saw working in Beijing’s Korean restaurants as servers were severely stunted from malnutrition during adolescence (Beijing has the largest population of Koreans outside of Korea, and many North Korean refugees go there to find work). Hopefully the regime will pay for its crimes some day, but now that the Kims have nukes we may have to wait a while for that.
Nevertheless, the Kim family provides us with a modern example of how hereditary rulers tend to decline over the generations. Typically, the founder is a very energetic, masculine warlord who comes as a conqueror, sword in hand. As his reward, he has his choice of the most feminine, beautiful ladies of the land, but usually has the sense to breed an heir with a woman of some substance. If all goes well, the successor is a responsible type who is content to follow in his father’s footsteps and complete his father’s work. However, the corrupting influence of power starts its work immediately, and the young heir grows up accustomed to beautiful women, fine food, liquor and all the other trappings of wealth and power.
He has children with a delicate beauty (in Kim Jong-il’s case a dancer named Ko Young Hee), and produces effeminate sons that further dilute the masculine vigor of the founding patriarch. If things go well, the next generation at least has the savvy to rule the realm, but as courtesans and their bastards multiply, intrigue, corruption and incompetence eventually overwhelm the regime, paving the way for another stern, disciplined warlord to march in and seize power.
The following pictures demonstrate a clear progression from manly alpha conqueror to effete omega descendant. One can see something of the family resemblance down the line, but Kim Jong-un, the latest scion of the Kim dynasty, is a sorry specimen compared to grandfather Kim Il-sung:
Kim Il-sung (alpha):
Kim Jong-il (beta):
Kim Jong-un (omega):
It has been suggested that sexual reproduction provides balance to the species, preventing either sex from becoming too distinct and risking the health of the population. It appears that here we have a living example of an infusion of feminine characteristics – from the women preferred by powerful men – sapping the vigor of the ruling caste. Perhaps sex is the great equalizer, forever churning humanity from top to bottom.
