From Cornelius Sulla To Kim Jong-Un

Beomjin Heo
From Cornelius Sulla to Kim Jong-Un, power gained by deception-by controlling the thinking style of the people, and power gained by physical or military force are two things that have always been a part of the world’s politics through history. According to Caddell (2004),” political deception may have a close relationship to and impact on military operations” (page 2). these two ideas both give the least positive ambiance, but they have never left the hands of the leaders of mankind. In a world where both “methods” of gaining political authority exist, it is more appropriate to define the relationship between the two, than to compare and prove which is actually “better.” Deception and force have a chronological relationship:
The Philippines, for instance, was conquered by the Spanish explorers for nearly 300 years. The long triumph of this colonization was not like the other cases where the westerners’ technological advancement caused the victory, but it was the huge impact of Christianity that threw the rather innocent natives into the traps of the Spanish. The Filipinos were not forced to refrain from fighting back, but they sincerely believed that they shouldn’t. Shackford (1990) wrote, “Using religious dogman, they were able to convince the indigenous people, which they considered uncivilized and in need of guidance. (p.83). Stopping the historical story here would make readers understand the power of deception, but the entire process of Spanish colonization did not work by deception only. The Spanish set strict rules for the natives to follow and implied punishments for anyone who went against it. The power of force is implied in this dictatorial colonization, and these rules were simply to make sure that the Filipinos stay inside the net of false beliefs. A lot of the native leaders were at first against the integration of an unfamiliar society and the influx of a belief they have never heard of, but it was the military strength they saw in the Spanish army that
The citizens in North Korea have come to believe that their leader is the top of everything, and their “father” with the ultimate power. This may bring up a lot of political theory, but dictatorship, in its most basic sense, is a leader’s deceiving of his people that everything should be done under his orders. Going back to the stated example, many would believe that the North Korean government’s controlling of its people’s minds is what kept the dictatorship, and the “people’s democracy” clear and stable, but it is actually the country’s strict implementation of its laws and its isolation with other nations and other cultures that did the work. In November of 2013, a rumor, with evidence good enough to reach the front page of a South Korean newspaper, spread that 80 North Koreans were executed in front of the public for several reasons: possession of Christian bibles, distributing pornography and quite shockingly, even watching for watching Korean TV shows and dramas. All these various actions lead to the North Korean’s introduction to the different thoughts and ideologies, especially the idea of capitalism. To stop these from happening, or to keep the deception functioning properly, North Korea had to use the dictator’s authority to hold