"A man who dreads trials and difficulties cannot become a revolutionary. If he is to become a revolutionary with an indomitable fighting spirit, he must be tempered in the arduous struggle from his youth. As the saying goes, early training means more than late earning"
About this Quote
Revolution here isn’t romance; it’s a hiring filter. Kim Jong Il frames hardship as the entry ticket to political legitimacy, turning “trials and difficulties” into proof of worth. The line works because it recasts suffering not as an unfortunate byproduct of history but as a deliberate forge. If you dread difficulty, you’re not merely timid - you’re disqualified from the moral category that matters: “revolutionary.”
The subtext is recruitment and discipline. By insisting the “indomitable fighting spirit” must be “tempered…from his youth,” Kim elevates early indoctrination into destiny. Youth becomes raw material for the state: moldable, surveillable, loyal by construction. The proverbial closer - “early training means more than late earning” - pretends to be folksy wisdom, but it’s also an argument against reform or conversion. Don’t trust the latecomer, the newly persuaded, the adult with a private inner life. Trust the one formed before skepticism can calcify.
Context sharpens the edge. North Korea’s political theology depends on revolutionary pedigree, constant readiness, and the myth of a besieged fortress. A leader who inherits power rather than seizes it needs a story that makes inheritance look like earned steel. This quote supplies that story: struggle as credential, endurance as virtue, and obedience as the natural outcome of “training.” It’s rhetoric designed to make sacrifice feel not only necessary, but flattering - a way to turn deprivation into identity and compliance into pride.
The subtext is recruitment and discipline. By insisting the “indomitable fighting spirit” must be “tempered…from his youth,” Kim elevates early indoctrination into destiny. Youth becomes raw material for the state: moldable, surveillable, loyal by construction. The proverbial closer - “early training means more than late earning” - pretends to be folksy wisdom, but it’s also an argument against reform or conversion. Don’t trust the latecomer, the newly persuaded, the adult with a private inner life. Trust the one formed before skepticism can calcify.
Context sharpens the edge. North Korea’s political theology depends on revolutionary pedigree, constant readiness, and the myth of a besieged fortress. A leader who inherits power rather than seizes it needs a story that makes inheritance look like earned steel. This quote supplies that story: struggle as credential, endurance as virtue, and obedience as the natural outcome of “training.” It’s rhetoric designed to make sacrifice feel not only necessary, but flattering - a way to turn deprivation into identity and compliance into pride.
Quote Details
| Topic | Perseverance |
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