what does the literary term 'survival as disengagement' refer to?

Question

*the question is discuss 'survival as disengagement' as a Modernist trope, using the novel Passage to India.*

So what does the survival as disengagement part mean?

Answer 1

Let us look at North Korea. The goal of North Korea is regime survival. The Kim family has developed a cult which has evolved into a state religion with The Kim family as the object of worship. The exposure of the North Korean people to reality vis-à-vis the cult is an enormous vulnerability for the regime.

Nicholas Eberstadt states:

"Pundits often observe that Pyongyang is intent, foremost, upon regime survival. While incontestably true, this “insight” is also utterly superficial, insofar as all governments regard their own survival as a paramount priority. What distinguishes North Korea’s quest for survival are the peculiar and punitive conditions that must be satisfied in order to prolong Kim Jong Il’s rule."

What distinguishes North Korea more precisely is the enormous vulnerability the cult foundation has to engagement with the outside world. This leads to the difference in methods of maintaining survival before and after October 2002:

Regime survival by Extortion of Concessions
vs.
Regime survival by Strategic Disengagement

The first is false engagement – agreements entered with no intention of keeping them, and engineering them so that they are easily reversible. The second is close to total self-isolation, except for allowing no-strings-attached support. For example, allowing from South Korea and China, but not allowing WFP aid with the condition of inspections to insure the food went to the neediest recipients rather than political elites or the military.

Note that true engagement of the sort that would lead to reunification or a more open society is specifically excluded in this analysis as it is a completely unrealistic option for the regime. That is a discussion for the next regime.

So the term means that in order for the country (or ruling authority) to survive, the government must keep its people withdrawn from the world in total self-isolation, except for allowing no-strings-attached support. It is only by keeping its people isolated that the government can continue to "brainwash" its people keeping them in the dark and thus remain in power. Outsiders bring in free thinking and new ideas which could lead the people in a differnet direction than the government would like to go (Oposition). So in our example KJI could loose his God-Like status & won't risk that. The only way for his government to survive is to isolate itself from the rest of the world.