A government is a system that protects its people, land, and country. They are to serve the people and to uphold the law, and freedom of speech. To follow natural law, as said by John Locke, a famous British philosopher, to follow life, liberty and the right of possession, one of his famous sayings during the Age of Enlightenment, a huge turning point for European governments. We need something stable, equal, and overall safe for everyone no matter their differences.
When looking at the evolution of government throughout the world, from monarchy to democracy, you may see the inevitable change between the two, the rights, and the statuses of the people in the government, and the people themselves. And the way a leader and sovereign of each acts while in power, whether that is uniform as a country or horrendously unequal as a dictator. Looking at the events following Magna Carta, and the way England’s Parliament was born out of the unfairness their king gave to them, which follows Montesquieu’s philosophy of separation of power. In which there should be different parts of the government watching and making sure the other isn’t breaking any rules or being unfair.
And how they changed their government, whose sole belief was that the monarch was sent by God, and was, therefore, better and high than anyone else. Just as though most historical monarchs had believed, mainly English monarchs, such as King George III, who was the king of england when the american revolution had started, in which he oppressed the colonies, his people, by making them pay unfair taxes, allowing his soldiers to enter homes without consent, and when colonists complained, he ignored them, which of course led to a revolution. As seen from many countries historically and in modern days, that has not always worked for them. And towards the thoughts of Rousseau, a legitimate government needs the consent and support of its people, and that the government needs to be equal. To have a stable, and safe government, is to have equality and peace towards your citizens, and fellow countries. To do that you must look and observe how other governments form their pros and their cons. You must improve from the problems in your nation, especially to please the citizen of that country. Like Rousseau’s philosophy says, the government is held up by the people, once the people are gone, there is no government
We have been dealing with a great famine that has caused all of our crops to die off, due to dry spells around the country. Millions of families are starving because you had the audacity to ignore your people during a crisis. We are dying, and you still keep all the resources and power to yourself, Kim Jong Un. That automatically breaks one of the natural laws, the law of life. (@UN_News_Centre). (IN #DPRK around 10 million North Koreans are suffering food shortages after worst harvest in a decade). You are killing your people for the sake of your comfort. You are doing exactly what King John did in England, ignoring your people’s cries for help. This relates to Magna Carta, as soon the people threatened him to restore a government, threatening him. Finally ending with a parliament that is still used in England today. Soon enough, you will face what King John would have faced. Your people finally have enough.
You are putting us in poverty for your happiness. “We estimate a poverty rate for the country of around 60% in 2018 and high volatility in the dynamics of income at the national level in North Korea for the period 2012–2018.” (Cuaresma et al.,). You have made it illegal for us to leave this horrid country, or for anyone to even get in. Those of us who had the courage to, and failed, was put to work camps, or death. The only few who are ever able to leave are the rich, who barely do. “North Koreans who do attempt to leave the country illegally and are caught can face severe consequences including torture, forced labour, and life-imprisonment in a political prison camp.” (“The North Korean People’s Challenges”). You have taken away our freedom, our liberty, another natural law, which also breaks the social contract, in which you have to have the consent of the people to be able to form a functional government.
You have also isolated us from the rest of the world by controlling what we cant and can’t see, this destroyed our privacy and our right to it. ‘“North Korean people are so cut off and disconnected from the outside world that they don’t even know what the word ‘internet’ means” – Kim Min Hyuk, escaped North Korea in 2006” (“The North Korean People’s Challenges”). So much so that we have no idea what wars have happened, what other countries there are, or what leaders are in other countries. You have lied to us about everything. This breaks common virtue, to put your community or people in front of your wants. You have put your wants in front of your people.
You have brainwashed our people and made us think that you were like a god. You made some of us who didn’t think you were, afraid for our lives, lie to anyone and everyone out of fear. You made everyone think we were in a war, and that we were winning, and that outside Korea, everything else was a wasteland. ‘“We were brainwashed to think North Korea was paradise. We were shown pictures of children dying from famine in Africa”’(Malik). This is against our consent, that breaks Rousseau’s philosophy of consent, and how the people hold the government. You have lied to your citizens and people, just so you don’t seem like fools for not holding any real power in the world. This could change if we followed what the Americans did. An event called the House of Burgesses, in which an attempt at the legislative branch was attempted, we could have separation of power between the government.
As well as killing most of your citizens, you have been striping women of their human rights. You’ve allowed our women to die for their husband’s mistakes, and let them deal with sexual assault, rape, exploitation, and violence to them because they are women. And when they have begged for justice, you’ve silenced them. “punishment for acts of their husbands or other relatives; torture, rape, and other sexual violence in detention facilities; sexual exploitation or forced marriage of North Korean women in China; and sexual and gender-based violence and discrimination”(“Human Rights in North Korea”). This destroys both Rousseau’s philosophy of equality, and John Locke’s philosophy of natural law, specifically life and liberty. These women are forced and have no choice for anything. They are forced into marriages they don’t want, and beaten when opposing them. Their lives are being flushed away, and their voices aren’t being heard. Just like the farmers during Shay’s rebellion. When the U.S had first become a country, they had a constitution called the Articles of Confederation, which of course was very flawed, had allowed for corruption of debt and taxes, in which the constitution did not allow any legal decisions to be made for criminals. And soon, rich people in the state of Massechusesets, which were in debt, put the debt on the farmers. Aswell with the fact that farmers already had to pay more taxes than the rich, which caused them to rebel into violent acts against the court. They weren’t heard until they started attacking, which is what the North Korean people will soon do if not helped.
We will no longer be in the clutches of Kim Jong Un, or his minions following his word no matter what. We will be separate from the government that punished us for nothing, for wanting to be free, for our women to have rights, to know what’s happening in the world, for wanting to be able to feed our children, for the pain that North Koreans have gone through trying to be free in other countries, with better governments, getting away from the pain, the labour and the starvation our government put us through. We are free from the depths of a dictatorship.
North Korea, a new nation, will be having a new, equal, and overall better government. Following a democracy. We will follow the American example of a government. We will follow the standards of life, liberty, right of property, equality, and happiness. We will have a constitutional republic, and a semi-presidential system with an executive, legislative, and judicial branch watching over the president as well as a mixed economy of both capitalism and socialism, tipping more towards socialism, but also having capitalism in the mix be equal. Both men and women will be able to run for president, and the age of running will be 30. Any unconstitutional move a president makes will result in them being kicked out of office. North Korea will not follow its history over again.
Works Cited
- Cuaresma, Jesús Crespo, Olha Danylo, Steffen Fritz, Martin Hofer, Homi Kharas, and Juan Carlos Laso Bayas. ‘What Do We Know about Poverty in North Korea?’ Nature News. Nature Publishing Group, 17 Mar. 2020. Web. 04 Oct. 2020.
- ‘Human Rights in North Korea.’ Human Rights Watch. 02 Oct. 2020. Web. 05 Oct. 2020.
- Malek, Caline. ”We Were Brainwashed to Think It Was Paradise’: Korean Defector’s Escape from the North.’ The National. The National, 29 Mar. 2018. Web. 05 Oct. 2020.
- ‘North Korean Families Facing Deep ‘hunger Crisis’ after Worst Harvest in 10 Years, UN Food Assessment Shows | | UN News.’ United Nations. United Nations, 3 May 2019. Web. 03 Oct. 2020.
- ‘The North Korean People’s Challenges.’Liberty In North Korea . Web. 04 Oct. 2020.
- (@UN_News_Centre). “IN #DPRK around 10 million North Koreans are suffering food shortages after worst harvest in a decade” Twitter, 3 May 2019, 3:19 p.m., https://mobile.twitter.com/UN_News_Centre/status/1124408144644456454.
