Speech on the occasion of the Anniversary of Kim Jong Il's commencement of work in the Workers' Party Central Committee Kim Jong Il – Philosopher Chairman -KFA Croatia

 

Speech on the occasion of the Anniversary of Kim Jong Il's commencement of work in the Workers' Party Central Committee

 

Kim Jong Il – Philosopher Chairman

 

Dear comrades,

I am honoured to participate in this event commemorating the start of work of the great leader comrade Kim Jong Il at the Central Committee of the Workers Party of Korea. Being here is very humbling for who am I to talk of such a great man? And among people who know more, have closer relations to his country and who have visited it, no less. I feel like I have, like so many young people here in the West, years of my life on insecurity, on studying too long, on silly arguments. Yet moving into professional life, a role model appears before me, the role model of chairman Kim Jong Il.

In his Eleven Theses on Feuerbach, Karl Marx famously said “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.“, those words being significant enough to even be inscribed upon his grave. We might ask ourselves, once the world has been changed, what then? Marx's direction was eventually followed and in 1917 the Russian Empire was transformed into the first Marxist state, the Soviet Union forever changing the world under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin. Kim Jong Il's predecessor, the great leader Kim Il Sung similarly changed Korea forever, achieving a great victory for both Marxism and the working people of Korea. But it wasn't only one victory, it was victory after victory! Two most obvious ones being the victory against the Japanese and the victory against the American puppet regime in the south of Korea. Kim Jong Il had large shoes to fill. Yet, he stood up to the challenge. He continued leading Korea into victories. He overcame all obstacles, cared for the people, preserved Korean independence in a rapidly changing world and even brought it to new hights. Korea became a nuclear power that the world has learned to either fear or respect. As a response, its enemies started making up all sorts of horrible lies which we gathered here today hope to expose. Kim Jong Il has proven himself on the world stage as a capable man of action. But we also know him as a great theoretician of Juche, the ideology of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. While it was originally conceptualized by Kim Il Sung, the most authoritative text on it has since 1982 been Kim Jong Il's On the Juche Idea. On top of being an ideological text, it is a great work of philosophy as well, positing a view of the human being as possessing independence, creativity and consciousness. It is incredibly sad how widespread the rumour is that Juche is a deviation from Marxism and something separate. Anyone who has read On the Juche Idea knows this isn't true since in that text comrade Kim Jong Il makes frequent references to Marx, Engels and Lenin and clearly positions Juche and his own thought in the same tradition. Its relation to Marxism is most clearly expressed as follows:

 

It can be said that the history of the communist movement spanning a hundred and scores of years is a history of working class leaders creating and developing revolutionary ideas, a history in which these ideas have been applied to transform the world. In the mid-19th century Marx and Engels propounded Marxism. Thus they highlighted the historical mission and a path of liberation that had to be followed by the working class that appeared on the arena of struggle and stimulated the fight against capital, ushering in the rise of the international communist movement. Lenin developed Marxism and advanced Leninism in accordance with the new historical conditions whereby capitalism had entered the phase of imperialism, with the result that he inspired the working class and the rest of the people to the struggle to destroy imperialist strongholds and to achieve freedom and liberation. This marked the beginning of transition from capitalism to socialism.

Our leader created the great Juche idea after acquiring a deep insight into the requirements of a new era when the oppressed and humiliated masses of the people became masters of their own destiny. Thus he developed their struggle for independence onto a higher plane and opened up the age of Juche, a new era in the development of human history.

The revolutionary idea of the working class emerges as the reflection of the mature demand of history and the revolution in their development.

 

It is clear then that Juche is a continuation of Marxist thought adapting it to particular material conditions in which Korea found itself in instead of being something radically new.

As the world was changed, it seems like the need for interpretation emerged again and Kim Jong Il is a remarkable example of a philosopher of a new age. With great eloquence he managed to express the cause of Juche for which his predecessor fought. Maybe I am just partial to look at him this way since philosophy is my area of study. Yet there are lessons to be learned from Kim Jong Il seen in this way.

What is philosophy? That is a highly contested issue, but the etymology of the word at least tells us that it is the love of wisdom. What is wisdom? Again, I will not try to give definitions here, I don't know if it is possible and it goes beyond the scope of this speech. But most people agree that it is a kind of knowledge gained through experience. The great leader did not gain his knowledge by dogmatically following the words from the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Kim Il Sung. He was their student, constantly questioning what they drew attention to and using them to seek after the truth. Nor did the great leader come to his position born into it like a monarch. He worked for it, gaining experience by both working in the field and studying in his office, climbing through the ranks by showing his competence Most people agree that wisdom is related to knowing what to do, when to do it and in which way. Kim Jong Il teaches by example that we should not lock ourselves in ivory towers. He went into the world and actually used his knowledge because he knew how. Philosophy should be distinguished from meer eloquence, from sophistry. It should aim towards some good. Kim Jong Il constantly strived for improvement, both of himself and of his state, constantly serving the people and the development of history.

 

Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy ... cities will never have rest from their evils,—no, nor the human race, as I believe,—and then only will this our State have a possibility of life and behold the light of day.

 

So Plato wrote in his Republic. As a chairman, I dare to say that the great leader Kim Jong Il joined the rank of statesmen who lived up to this ideal and he also set foundations for other to follow.