Later this month, the New York Philharmonic will perform a concert in the Orwellian nightmare nation of North Korea, perhaps the most totalitarian society in history. As the always interesting Terry Teachout noted in the Wall Street Journal last year, only elite members of the Communist regime will have a chance to actually see the performance, and observed that
Even if such a concert were to be telecast, the handful of North Koreans lucky enough to see it, isolated as they are from the rest of the world, might well conclude that by sending a great orchestra there, the U.S. was showing its support for the tyrants who rule them. That's why I've come to the conclusion that should the Philharmonic choose to play in Pyongyang, it will be doing little more than participating in a puppet show whose purpose is to lend legitimacy to a despicable regime.
Teachout is right, of course. This event will simply play into Kim Jong Ils' grubby little dictator hands. The Philharmonic's conductor, Loren Maazel doesn't seem too worried about that, since, after all, who are we Americans to criticize North Korea? From the Associated Press:
People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw bricks, should they? Is our standing as a country--the United States--is our reputation all that clean when it comes to prisoners and the way they are treated? Have we set an example that should be emulated all over the world? If we can answer that question honestly, I think we can then stop being judgmental about the errors made by others.
Maazel is a decent, if quirky, conductor. But he is being a moral idiot by making such statements. Even if one were to accept wholeheartedly his implication that the U.S. is guilty of a multitude of sins, the level of severity surely makes a difference. And there is simple no way the misdeeds of the North Korean regime and the misdeeds of America can be seen as equal. It is akin to saying a car thief has no moral standing to judge a child molester harshly, since they are both, after all, criminals.
