Posted on 01/23/2018 10:19:46 AM PST by blam
I have been giving this subject some thought lately. Humans originally lived as hunter-gatherers. They would necessarily have lived in small groups, and cities and towns would be impossible. Since you have to go out and forage for your food every day, a concentrated population would very quickly strip the countryside completely bare and everyone would starve. Only a very sparse population is possible without agriculture.
To invent agriculture (or most any advanced technology) you really need to have people bounce their ideas off of each other. No one comes up with a true brainstorm in a vacuum. You discuss your idea with others, they critique it, and you then think about the critique. Most of the time people give feedback that is negative and idiotic, but once in a while, someone gives feedback that hits you like an epiphany.
My point being: It seems like civilization would have been necessary to invent domesticated food plants, but civilization needs agriculture in order to exist. It's a chicken and egg conundrum.
I mention all of this to point out that foraging won't work. NK has a population density that is hundreds of times more than could be sustained by mother nature. If their crops fail: They starve (unless someone bails them out).
Of course in this case, "foraging" is just a euphemism for "looting".
North Korea has been suffering from a drought since the 1950s. Curiously it has not effected the south.
North Korea is not comparable to Venezuela or Kalifornia, it’s a bogus analogy.
The North Koreans are taken hostage by communism, they are totally capable of being as free and prosperous as their Southern counterparts. They deserve compassion contrary to Venezuelans and Californians who deliberately choose communism and whose pains are purely self-inflicted.
It did sound like they were stripping everything they could find...that’s why I’m so surprised they’re going for more.
And as someone else here said up top, this is winter. There are no crops growing.
Maybe they’re finally eating babies. Not sure what could possibly be left...and that’s got to be a horrible life.
Do as you’re told and work for scraps, or get carted off to a labor camp to work for free.
I’d probably take ol Wormy boy’s approach and run for the border too.
“This year, we have to postpone our farm work due to this ‘extremely urgent’ task of gathering food for the military,” the source said.
Um, I think I see their problem. Well, that, and the whole collective farm thing.
Can’t get much by stealing from people who have nothing to steal.
Except for the more equal ones running the scam.
If it was an exercise intended to intimidate, you would think they would have spent days collecting up the best they had. And yet, half the rounds were duds.
I made no comment about who was at fault for Socialism being followed or other aspects of the two countries.
Rather I maintain that however Socialism comes about, and whose fault it is that it has come about, shortages follow.
As the old Soviet joke went:
Question: What happens if Communism moves to the dessert?
Answer: At first nothing happens...and then you will start to see a shortage of sand.
‘So much for your Big Man,’ said Merry. ‘We’ll see the Chief later. In the meantime we want a lodging for the night, and as you seem to have pulled down the Bridge Inn and built this dismal place instead, you’ll have to put us up.’
‘I am sorry, Mr. Merry,’ said Hob, ‘but it isn’t allowed.’
‘What isn’t allowed?’
Taking in folk off-hand like and eating extra food, and all that, said Hob.
‘What’s the matter with the place?’ said Merry. ‘Has it been a bad year, or what? I thought it had been a fine summer and harvest.’
‘Well no, the year’s been good enough,’ said Hob. ‘We grows a lot of food, but we don’t rightly know what becomes of it. It’s all these “gatherers” and “sharers”, I reckon, going round counting and measuring and taking off to storage. They do more gathering than sharing, and we never see most of the stuff again.’
‘Oh come!’ said Pippin yawning. ‘This is all too tiresome for me tonight. We’ve got food in our bags. Just give us a room to lie down in. It’ll be better than many places I have seen.’
The hobbits at the gate still seemed ill at ease, evidently some rule or other was being broken; but there was no gainsaying four such masterful travellers, all armed, and two of them uncommonly large and strong-looking. Frodo ordered the gates to be locked again. There was some sense at any rate in keeping a guard, while ruffians were still about. Then the four companions went into the hobbit guard-house and made themselves as comfortable as they could. It was a bare and ugly place, with a mean little grate that would not allow a good fire. In the upper rooms were little rows of hard beds, and on every wall there was a notice and a list of Rules. Pippin tore them down. There was no beer and very little food, but with what the travellers brought and shared out they all made a fair meal; and Pippin broke Rule 4 by putting most of next day’s allowance of wood on the fire.
‘Well now, what about a smoke, while you tell us what has been happening in the Shire?’ he said.
‘There isn’t no pipe-weed now,’ said Hob; ‘at least only for the Chief’s men. All the stocks seem to have gone. We do hear that waggon-loads of it went away down the old road out of the Southfarthing, over Sarn Ford way. That would be the end o’ last year, after you left. But it had been going away quietly before that, in a small way. That Lotho-’
‘Now you shut up, Hob Hayward!’ cried several of the others. ‘You know talk o’ that sort isn’t allowed. The Chief will hear of it, and we’ll all be in trouble.’
‘He wouldn’t hear naught, if some of you here weren’t sneaks,’ rejoined Hob hotly.
‘All right, all right!’ said Sam. “That’s quite enough. I don’t want to hear no more. No welcome, no beer, no smoke, and a lot of rules and orc-talk instead. I hoped to have a rest, but I can see there’s work and trouble ahead. Let’s sleep and forget it till morning!’
— JRR Tolkien, The Scouring of the Shire
I've thought of that, also. However, what would be left of Seoul after the Nork's huge artillery attack? Plus, the new Allies would have decimated NK and there wouldn't be much left for an infantry invasion. Then maybe, once the first artillery shells fly, the Tomahawks and bombs fly immediately. Maybe Seoul wouldn't get hit as hard as we uniformed think.
It's all speculation on our part since neither of us know the DOD game plans for the different scenarios regarding NK. And no, I don't believe Trump would use nukes unless Kimmy is stupid enough to expand from conventional warfare.
With this latest news, if factual, I would bet on the latter. If you remember, there were a number of attempts on Hitler. The problem was that he had his SS and Gestapo types who were loyal. Wonder how many of the top NK military are actually loyal or just afraid of Kim's ruthlessness?
Also, would Kimmy want to go out in a blaze of glory by using his wmd's? He may be that crazy.
It could be fake news, but it does take time for droughts and shortages to affect the population. Plus, we don't get immediate intel from North Korea. Our satellites can only tell us so much. Wee have extremely limited human intel on the ground. The defectors are helpful, but they don't know all that Kimmy has going on. He has compartmentalized his chain of command for his own survival.
Good point.
A golden opportunity to drop firearms, GTA missiles and antitank RPGs throughout the NK countryside...
But... but... but...Fat boy can fire off volleys of multi-multi $million rockets.
obviously, fat boy isn't going hungry...
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