‘Costly Signaling’ and North Korea

Why does an impoverished regime like North Korea expend so much time, energy and money on its mass spectacles like the Arirang Games, which features awe-inspiring levels of coordinated movement and synchronization,  and its equally well synchronized and lavishly equipped military parades? Obviously they are meant to send a message, to signal something. But to who, exactly?

A theory coming from the study of evolution suggests one possible answer: Costly Signalling Theory (CST). This proposes that the best way to understand why a male peacock has such elaborate and redundant (from the point of view of natural selection)  plumage is that its very ‘uselessness’ signals the birds superior fitness, its capacity to be in excess of the bare necessities of survival. When translated to human society, CST suggest that many aspects of culture, such as art, dance, music performance - all individual and collective activities with no apparent or obvious social pay-off - are actually vital dimensions of social cohesion.

In a previous post I suggested that a useful anthropological model through which to consider what, on the face of it, seems the wholly irrational behaviour of North Korea  is Clifford Geertz’s concept of the ‘theatre state’. The rulers of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea are dedicated not primarily to the usual goals of security and economic well-being for its citizens but rather to the maintenance and execution of power by organizing for its citizens performance and participation in ritual and spectacle.The role of such mass events within this ‘theatre state’ ensures a high level of social conformism, and therefore the survival of the regime..  

But the dilemma facing North Korea’s leaders, as in any community, is how to distinguish those individuals  who are genuinely cooperating within their social unit from those who are ‘free riders’, that is, individuals who are simply giving lip-service, that is, just the appearance of cooperation. One way to counter this potential deception is through organizing  costly signaling activities. For a signal to be ‘costly’ it must incur some kind of personal risk or evident disadvantage, or carry no immediate or obvious individual benefit. Such signaling is therefore difficult to fake, and is quality-dependant behaviour that proves an individual’s commitment to their community or society.

Costly signalling is characterized broadly by three elements: synchrony, repetition and order. The first involves synchronizing the individual with others through collective behaviour, such as group musical performance,  singing and dancing, or regimented marching movements. Repetition  is central to all ritual, and involves acts of imitation, and actions are often repeated  to the point of deliberate  internal redundancy, that is, far beyond the level needed  to simply get a message across. As a result of synchrony and repetition, a pronounced sense of order will emerge. 

Let’s consider how a Pyongyang military parade functions as almost a paradigm of costly signaling. It is very far from just  a demonstration aimed at the world stage, as it plays an absolutely vital role internally, in the maintenance of the regime.  A fundamental aspect of a parade  is the synchronizing of all participants, not only the soldiers  doing the marching but also the audience watching. The individual is strictly subordinated to, even subsumed within, the group. Repetition is centra to a parade, and occurs on the level of visual signs like identical military uniform and khaki and camouflage colours, and the massing of huge numbers of individuals moving together in the same direction, coordinated around atypical movements like the ‘goose-step.’ The marshaling of common themes, styles and signs  demonstrate a pronounced, even pathological, interest in communicating order. The material and physical provisioning required to prepare for the event, the time and effort expended in preparing and participating in it, entail  both a huge individual and group cost. The deployment of multiple skills, the organization of the many elements and participants,  all the while adhering to a rigid thematic and stylistic convention,  signals a seemingly faultless level of social cohesion and conformism, and this functions in a feedback loop within which a demonstration of total control serves to activly consolidate such control..