**Posted by Phineas
[1]When you’re the boy god-king of the world’s largest prison camp masquerading as a nation, you can get away with weird, petty stuff [2] like this:
If you are a man in North Korea, we sincerely hope you have a round face. It’s the shape that will work with your new haircut.
That new haircut is reportedly called the “Dear Leader Kim Jong Un [3],” modeled after—you guessed it—North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s impenetrable block of black hair atop his chubby cheeks. The style reportedly became a state-mandated guideline [4] about two weeks ago, though experts familiar with the country have said there’s no evidence a new hairstyle rule has gone into effect [5].
According to the article, this isn’t something new for North Korea: Kim’s father, the late, demented Kim Jong Il, launched a state campaign against long hair on the grounds that it sucked the nutrients from one’s brain.
Really.
Anyway, a TV campaign was launched and “journalists” would go to people’s homes to confront them about their overly lengthy locks. This being North Korea, I suppose they were lucky not to be shot or fed to the dogs [6].
Back to Kim III, and regardless of whether this is true, it’s another illustration of why limited, constitutional government is best; when there are no limits to the powers of the rulers, there are also no limits to what they will do the the ruled. North Korea is just the extreme example that clarifies the point.
(Crossposted at Public Secrets [7])