Posted on 12/26/2011 12:11:29 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
In North Korea, young Kim Jong Eun will test age-old reliance on maturity
By Marc Fisher, Published: December 23
At 28 or 29, Kim Jong Eun, the presumed new leader of North Korea, will be the youngest person ever to have authority over a nuclear arsenal.
At that age, neuroscientists say, the brain is still in the final stages of development. Developmental psychologists say there’s a good reason that America’s Founding Fathers set 35 as the minimum age for a president: People younger than that just don’t have the experience or skill to deal with complex decision making. Historians warn that the track record of young leaders is weak. The Bible puts it bluntly in Ecclesiastes: “Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child. . . .”
“Kim Jong Eun is not the same man that he will be in 10 years, or even in five years,” said Sam Wang, a Princeton University neuroscientist and author of “Welcome to Your Brain.” “The ongoing maturation we all have observed in people in their 20s is reflected in changes in brain structure.” The connections in the frontal part of the brain “are not quite done growing and developing. The frontal parts of the cortex are important for restraining impulses and making long-term plans.”
In the ranks of world leaders, the age-old reliance on old age — or at least middle-aged maturity — remains very much the rule.
Most world leaders these days take office at age 50 or older; President Obama was unusually young when he was sworn in at 47.
But there are a dozen or so rulers who came to power before age 30. About half are sons who succeeded their fathers. Their performance, today and through history, is less than impressive.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
P!
Yep bad news.
Back in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s I was an intelligence analyst, in charge of early warning for the Korean DMZ at 18, six months out of high school. Most of my co-workers (both Korean and American) were in the 18-25 year old age group, as were most of the soldiers in the field. South Korea is still there and doing rather nicely, as I understand it.
So, you and your fellow 18-to-25-year-olds were "in charge" of the DMZ, were you?
So, you were free to re-engineer the DMZ, to alter its design, to modify procedures, revise protocols, etc., right?
The phrase "in charge" can have different shades of meaning. I am sure that the master-planners of the DMZ viewed you and your fellow "grunts" as little more than pawns in the "Great Game."
Regards,
As the “hotline operator” early warning intel analyst at I Corps (ROK/US) Group [a field army in all but name, commanded by a senior American Lt. General] my responsibility was to detect any incursions by enemy troops, whether it be a squad, team of infiltrators or the entire DPRK military. Should something occur, I had the power to put patrols on the ground, jets in the air, call in artillery, airstrikes, order the ROKA, 2nd Division, or any other forces to counterattack and then alert my commander and Eighth Army, as well as DoD and the White House. I was there, and you were not, and I know what my job was.
I maintain that highly trained yet emotionally callow twenty-somethings "programmed" to respond (in a circumscribed fashion) to a border incursion or other military event taken from a limited playbook of possible scenarios still do not possess the life wisdom, restraint, emotional maturity, and - if you will - "vision" to, e.g., broker a peace, launch international negotiations, lead a political party, head a trade delegation, frame a treaty, etc. - in short, things that the leader of a country must be expected to do (that is, after all, the point of the article we've both responded to).
Do you dispute that?
Thanks for your service to our country, which I certainly do not mean to denigrate.
Regards,
Amazing - worrying about N. Korea's new leader and they hit the nail on the head on what's wrong with ours.
Off the top of my head: Alexander the Great, Charlemagne, Hannibal, Charles XII, Frederick the Great, Charles V, Augustus, Louis XIV (also known as Louis the Great), Henry V, Peter the Great, Hezekiah and Josiah of Judah, Elizabeth I (sometimes, appropriately, known as Elizabeth the Great).
We've got four to six Greats and an Augustus there, which ought to tell us something.
Methinks the historians in question are full of crap.
Nonsense. Eddie was 14 at the time and wasn't in control. Edward Seymour, presumably the uncle in question, was executed because he lost one of the power struggles between nobles fighting for the control the king didn't have.
For some reason, the name William Pitt the Younger came to my mind.
As an Army vet, I totally understand what you are saying. You had a HUGE RESPONSIBILITY with your duty assignment along the DMZ at a young age.....and your decision-making was important (at that time...the difference between a quiet day along the DMZ or the start of WW III).
Although I served much later...my father was stationed in South Korea during the times you were there at the DMZ...and my father is still quite alive today. No doubt a big part of those front-line soldiers in 2d Inf Div.
Excellent catch. Came to power at 24, right in the middle of the whole French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars period. Handled things brilliantly.
Substitute Obambi for Kim, and you've got an indication of the trouble THIS country is in today. In fact, this whole article is relevant for us today, if you simply do an "edit replace Kim" with "Obama."
Young emperors usually do not last.
Tutankhamen, Alexander, Caligula, Nero, etc. they usually have a short time before someone offs them somehow.
Old age and treachery will overcome youth and inexperience every time..........
There is a way to solve that problem, you know.
Do you recall what unit he was with? My first tour I was at the position I described above. My second tour was at 2nd Division G-2, hence my handle. “ICorpsVet” would probably just confuse people.
The ChiComs will have the final say.
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