Anyway, Orwell was an honest man who wanted to say something about the Stalinist regime of his day. He said it most effectively in his satirical novel, Animal Farm. There is a film version (1999) which I happened onto last evening. My wife and I sat in amazement as scene after scene reminded us, not of Stalin, but of the original and present dynastic regimes of North Korea… and actually this cycle is repeated in many places of the planet.

- the original corruption needing addressing

- the desire to end that corruption and bring justice in its place

- the bringing down of the corrupt society

- the hero worship, shifting empasis from the genuine needs of the people to the growing neurotic needs of the leader

- the slow replacement of the old corruption with a new and worse corruption It’s all there, in North Korea, as we speak.

And Christians, myself for one, pray, “Lord, stop this man! Bring him down!” Praying believer, does your mind travel beyond his fall (and all leaders eventually do fall) to what shall be on the other side of a regime change? We know Jesus shall be King over all the earth.

“Jesus shall reign where’er the sun Doth his successive journeys run,

His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, Till moons shall wax and wane no more!”

What a glorious day is coming! All those who rejected His rule will themselves be rejected eternally. The world will be put right side up!