Amnesty International's 2010 publication The Crumbling State of Health Care in North Korea is a startling review of the deteriorating health care situation in the socialist state of North Korea. The report documents the horrifying consequences of North Korean government intervention into the health care market (the North Korean government has utterly failed to "provide for adequate health care and the underlying determinants of health, including food and nutrition, housing, access to safe and potable water and adequate sanitation, safe and healthy working conditions, and a healthy environment") then delivers recommendations to the North Korean government that the organization purports will improve the situation. Unfortunately for the people of North Korea, the solution offered by Amnesty International (a demand that the North Korean government meet "its national and international obligations to respect, protect, and fulfill the right to health, guaranteeing the equitable distribution of health facilities, goods and services, protecting the right of access to health care facilities, goods, and services, and eliminating economic and physical barriers") is a textbook example of false consciousness.
The generic definition of false consciousness (to distinguish the phrase from the typical Marxist definition) is any false belief or view that prevents a rational agent from recognizing the true nature of a situation. False consciousness applies in this scenario because Amnesty International's false view of the North Korean government (the North Korean government is a legitimate, just organization with particular health care obligations to the people within its borders) prevents the organization from recognizing the true nature of the situation (the North Korean government is a criminal organization that seeks to obtain a compulsory monopoly of ultimate decision-making authority within the territory it occupies and will only provide health care to the people within the territory it occupies if it deems the provision of said health care to be a pragmatic tool to further enslave the people within the territory it occupies). False consciousness cannot improve the state of health care in North Korea.
A future blog post shall analyze the details of this Amnesty International report in a comprehensive manner.
The generic definition of false consciousness (to distinguish the phrase from the typical Marxist definition) is any false belief or view that prevents a rational agent from recognizing the true nature of a situation. False consciousness applies in this scenario because Amnesty International's false view of the North Korean government (the North Korean government is a legitimate, just organization with particular health care obligations to the people within its borders) prevents the organization from recognizing the true nature of the situation (the North Korean government is a criminal organization that seeks to obtain a compulsory monopoly of ultimate decision-making authority within the territory it occupies and will only provide health care to the people within the territory it occupies if it deems the provision of said health care to be a pragmatic tool to further enslave the people within the territory it occupies). False consciousness cannot improve the state of health care in North Korea.
A future blog post shall analyze the details of this Amnesty International report in a comprehensive manner.
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