If you haven't seen it already, here is the extraordinary (and terrifying) video of apparently distraught North Koreans mourning the death of Kim Jong-il.

As ever, one turns to the man who understood the totalitarian mindset better than anyone, George Orwell. The closing words of Nineteen Eighty-Four seem particularly apt today:

He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding ! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast ! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.