Abiola looks at Korean selective outrage, i.e., why Koreans can seemingly get hysterical toward the United States and Japan but restrain themselves when it’s China or North Korea. An interesting contrast to Joshua’s cultural explanation.
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15 Comments
it’s very simple. about 700 years ago, koreans accpeted the fact that chinese are the superior one. to koreans, chinese are number 1, koreans are number 2 and japanese are distant number 3. koreans are very happy being number 2 bc it’s better than the being number 3. koreans should realize that they were never number 2. they stopped being number 2 when shilla destroyed paekje (kudara) and koguryo. koreans, lets forget out who is superior to who. if we play the game of who is superior and who is inferior in east asia, we will be number 3 by wide margin. koreans, lets be contend with whatever we have today bc we have pretty good thing going. lets be proud of whatever we have today bc it’s something to be proud of. stop comparing korea to china or korea to japan.
at least we have are own border, our own language, our own writing system, and still our culture, non absorbed to the Chinese…yet anyway.
Both explanations ring true–the one on Foreign Dispatches I’ve heard variations of many times before.
It would take a wise leader indeed to end the psychodramas (and the culture of victimization and overweening sense of entitlement) and none seems to be on the horizon.
“if we play the game of who is superior and who is inferior in east asia, we will be number 3 by wide margin” Especially because it does not have to be a zero-sum game as some in Korea see it–there can be collaboration on a par with the EU in Northeast Asia with a little maturity and vision.
It’s simple: pride.
Its not a matter of wronging korea, it’s a matter of saving or helping it.
Japan colonized Korea, replacing their backward, repressed society under the yangban with a modern, industrialized one. Of course, there was a lot of pain along the way, which didn’t help, but that is not what hurt the Koreans the most: it was the fact that Japan did to them what they couldn’t manage to do themselves.
Likewise the U.S. Of any country in the world, Korea should be the most pro-american. Instead they’re one of the most anti-american. Why? Because the U.S saved S.K. from the north, and continues to provide a blanket of security. Again, the U.S did to Korea (and continues to do) what Korea could not do for themselves.
Unlike China, which couldn’t give a shit about Korea. Or North Korea, which is openly hostile.
One could hope that flushing the bluehouse of the pinko’s might change the climate in Korea.
The US should stop all business with Korea for just one day and see what happens.
hoju_saram,
While (in my mind) there is no question that the colonial period did help Korea in some ways, there is no way to prove what would have happened had the Japanese not come. Nobody has any clue what they could have or would have done if left to their own devices.
Off topic though…carry on.
Some pseudo-intellectuals in Korea think that two Koreas can unite under China. I don’t what these people are smoking. KJI will only allow the unification under Communist dictatorship.
And, I do think there are many Chinese/NK spies in South Korea right now, bankrolling media people to write anti-American and anti-Japanese articles. You know how these media halots love money.
After new president comes in next year, Korea will do 180 degree turnabout and become pro-American country again. Extremely pro-American.
I have been saying that for last four years. This Commie Korean stupidity is in its last cycle. Korea will change radically this year and the next.
It’d better, or it will be squeezed out by China and Japan.
The arguement about “spies” spreading propaganda through the media is as logical as fan death. This seems to be another example of Korean people refusing to accept responsibility for their own bad behaviour: lay the blame on someone else.
What was the newspaper article the other day…? Lamenting the fact that child abuse was no longer a crime caused by foreingers.
Get real.
As long as the “pinko” (and especially anti-foreign)attitudes prevail in the people in this society (adjumas, taxi drivers, discount retailer cashiers, etc.), this country will continue to drift far behind Japan and China.
Korea, Hub of Asia…my ass.
selective outrage, huh? you mean only korea do selective outrage? really?
‘how dare they try to tell us what we can say! this is about our culture of free speech! I AM OUTRAGED!’ expat during mohamed cartoon fiasco
‘………….’ same expat during the incarceration of a euro man who denied the holocaust
‘how dare they kill three thousand people in the wtc. I AM OUTRAGED!’ expat during the wtc
‘…………’ same expat reading up to a million iraqis killed by bush
‘how dare a korean open a nazi bar! I AM OUTRAGED!’ expat during the opening of nazi theme bar in korea
‘………..’ same expat during jap pm’s visit to war criminals
selctive outrage? i’m sure the expat and abiola know all about selective outrage.
how many times do i need to expose the expat for the hypocrite that he is?
‘KOREAN NEW NAZIS! KOREAN NEW NAZIS!’ whined the ugly expat
How many times can pawi nulji set up strawmen with fake quotes and all his usual contortions and embellishments and still fail to mount a convincing argument?
Is there a logical fallacy known to mankind that is not a mainstay of your rhetorical arsenal?
More urgently, is there a remedial reading, writing and thinking program that can bring you up to high school speed and spare you embarassment and us the torture of your ignorant troll spittle?
It’s pretty simple, actually. Japan forcibly occupied Korea for half a century. The U.S. military somewhat picked up where Japan left off, moving right into the most prime real estate in Seoul, Yongsan, just as the Japanese were being kicked out. The U.S. is not occupying Korea, but the military presence and location of its most prominent base is unnatural for this long.
There is also a tinge of jealously as well since the U.S. is the world’s largest economy and Japan is number two. Koreans are generally more competitive than people of other cultures.
As for asking why South Koreans don’t hate North Koreans (more), that’s pretty f’ing simple : same race, same culture, same family (Koreans have a much longer view of family/ancestors than us round-eyes generally do). Is the deference of NK somewhat illogical ? Yes. Is it completely insane ? No.
As for China, it’s perhaps China’s history of not caring much about Korea (Genghis Khan was a foreigner, not Chinese) that makes Korean not worry so much.
I am not saying some vocal Koreans are justified in their elevated dislike of Japan and the U.S.. It is, however, better understood in the context of history and culture.
MigukNamja wrote;
“It’s pretty simple, actually. Japan forcibly occupied Korea for half a century.”
History is not that simple. A quote from the Joins.com article.
“we again confirm that 91 years ago we surrendered our country to the Japanese colonial government due to our hopeless ineptitude. On Aug. 29, 1910, the imperial government of Japan promulgated that it had taken over the entire government and administration of Korea, and Wednesday was the anniversary of the national humiliation. In studying this history, let us find out who chased the fish - annexation - into the net. Choson, or Korea, suggested annexation to Japan first.”
http://service.joins.com/news_.....id=1894172
Even Makenzie wrote in th preface of “tragedy of Korea”
“No unbiased observer can deny that Korean owes the loss of her independence mainly to the corruption and weakness of her old national administration.”
It’s ridiculous how little respect for truth many Koreans have when it
comes to admitting their own country’s failures.
I thought this thread ought to be bumped for its relevance.
Round-eyed West Germans felt the same ethnic affinity for their eastern neighbors. I recall my college German teacher, an ethnic Turk-German, rooting enthusiastically for Katarina Witt to win the gold because she was German, too.