Have we Americans learned the right lesson from the North Korean hacking of Sony?

As you probably know, North Korean hackers got into the computer system of Sony - a company that makes Hollywood films.

They did this because the North Korean government objects to a movie developed by Sony, which was going to be shown, in which Kim Jong Un was going to be assassinated (murdered).

President Obama criticized Sony for not showing the film (theaters in America were worried they might be attacked if they showed the movie) but I don't think Obama realizes what we all, in the USA, should learn from this situation.

1) We claim to value unlimited free speech - even free speech that attacks innocent people and can harm others.  Even John Stuart Mill - one of the strongest advocates of free speech - did not think this was right.

2) We think we can impose our values on the rest of the world.  Because extreme 'free' speech is allowed here, we think we can use this speech to attack religious prophets and leaders from around the world. Well, now we know folks can bite back. We should have learned this a long time ago.

Most of the world does NOT share American values. Our internet companies and search engines and now our entertainment companies are learning that what goes on in America will not be tolerated in other parts of the world, where they view our lifestyle as extreme, self-indulgent, unethical and petty.

3)  What happens in America does not stay in America any more.  It used to be that what was said and written here pretty much stayed within the borders of the USA. Now, in this 'globalized' world, what we create goes world wide and we obviously do not consider how the rest of the world might feel about what we send out into the world.  Obama seemed to think it was Ok that Sony made a film about the murder of a foreign leader. I am not so sure that was "OK". Our entertainment industry needs, perhaps, to consider the fact that the USA is one nation in a global community and just as one of us would not say anything overly offensive at a cocktail party (for fear of being hit in the face) maybe we should consider using the same approach with the other countries who share this planet with us.

But of course you, the foreign reader of this blog, must already know that the USA simply never learns any lessons.  For example, 30 years after Vietnam, we started more Vietnams.  We just don't learn things here. So this big lesson will be lost and our communications companies will continue to alienate the rest of the world.

Dennis Rodman's disgraceful behavior in North Korea

  (The photo is from the Washington Post)

It is difficult to explain what 'disgraceful' behavior is. Disgraceful behavior is usually 'wrong' behavior that people strongly disapprove of.  In fact, disgraceful behavior is so wrong, that it kind of makes people feel sick or disgusted.

Dennis Rodman used to be a basketball player in the NBA.  He won 2 championships with the Detroit Pistons and 3 with the Chicago Bulls.  The Chicago Bulls team on which he played in 1998 was the best basketball team ever.  They won 72 games and only lost 10. That was the team which also had Michael Jordan.

Since leaving the game of basketball, Rodman has had trouble making money and had gone into debt (he owed money and was almost thrown in jail for not giving his ex-wife money to help take care of their child).  For some strange reason Rodman now claims to be best friends with Kim Jong Un - the dictator of North Korea. Perhaps he is making money, somehow, through his 'friendship.' (A dictator is a person who runs a country by himself - he creates the policies and laws and he has total power.)

Here is an article about his disgraceful behavior:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/wp/2014/01/08/dennis-rodman-sings-happy-birthday-to-kim-jong-un-video/

Vocabulary to help you understand the article:

a meltdown - this is when a person loses his temper and becomes very angry and starts yelling. Rodman began yelling at a television host who asked Rodman to talk to Kim Jong Un about freeing an American who is in a North Korean prison for no good reason.

outrage - extreme anger

an exhibition - a show

surreal - like a strange dream

people joined in - people began singing too

faded a bit - the singing became weaker

heartfelt - sincere, real, emotionally true or real

a Marilyn Monroe moment - this old actress once sang "Happy Birthday" to US President John Kennedy - it is believed they were having sex with each other during this period of time.  I don't think Rodman, however, is having sex with Kim Jong Un :P :P :P  But, who knows!!!!? Maybe Rodman will do anything for money.

self-instigated - nobody asked him to do this, he chose to do this himself

the most heated reaction - the most angry reaction

lapsed into - fallen into; if a person lapses into something, he begins doing something

an unintelligible tirade - a long, angry speech that did not make any sense or which could not be understood by most people

a missionary - someone who wants to spread his religion in a foreign country. Kenneth bae made the mistake of trying to go to North Korea for religious reasons.  Now this Korean-American is in a North Korean jail.

was to blame - Rodman seemed to state that Kenneth Bae deserved to be in jail in North Korea, instead of criticizing Kim Jong Un for throwing him in jail.

distancing themselves - if you distance yourself from someone, you make it known that you disagree with the person and have nothing to do with him.

hoops diplomacy - spreading world peace through basketball; a hoop is what the basketball has to go through for points to be scored

expletive-ridden - filled with dirty words, filled with curse words. An expletive is a dirty or curse word.  "ridden" means filled with.

tainted our efforts - hurt our efforts to create peace with North Korea

to articulate something - to say something

remorse - sadness for something a person did in the past

naive - very innocent to the point that a person doesn't really understand the world

Dennis will be Dennis - this means that Rodman has acted like a crazy person in the past and there is no way to control him

blinded by a flash of North Korean money - the head of the NBA believes that Rodman and the other players are receiving lots and lots of money from North Korea, but he thinks it might be fake money (counterfeit money).  If a player is blinded by the money or the flash (the color or light from the money) of the money, he just sees the money and he is not thinking about whether what he is doing is moral (good) or not.

he refused to dignify Rodman's outburst - this person from the government is saying that what Rodman said on TV was so crazy that he will not even comment on it, because commenting on it might make it seem as if the statements were not crazy.

antics - crazy actions to make himself popular

upstaged his career - the crazy things that Rodman did almost became more famous than what he did as a basketball player
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