[KIM SEONG-KON] The middle against both extremes

Whenever something big happens, for example, if a Korean athlete wins a gold medal in the Olympics, Korean television companies always get overexcited. They virtually disregard all other news in order to highlight the big event continuously. Then they cancel regular programs, including popular soap operas that housewives cannot live without, in order to rerun the big event again and again until viewers become sick and tired of it. Words like "moderation," "temperance" or "restraint" do not seem to exist in the vocabulary of Korean broadcast companies, which obviously do not know the famous maxim, "He who drinks a little too much drinks much too much."

Such extremism can be found in schools as well. When we are young and vulnerable, we should be taught to see the world without prejudice or preconception. That is why students are introduced to many aspects and views of human civilization and history at school. While reading and learning about the world from different perspectives, young people can gradually develop the ability to make their own value judgments. This process is what we call an "education."



As intellectual guides, therefore, teachers should only aid in the process of intellectual maturation of their students. They should not brainwash students with certain political ideologies or turn them into their political disciples. Unfortunately, however, some radical teachers in our country today still try to mold the vulnerable minds of our students and pollute their innocent souls with obsolete Marxist ideology. Recently, a middle school teacher took his students to a pro-North Korea/anti-America political rally. Surely he crossed the line as a teacher who should teach from a neutral stance. Intoxicated by self-righteousness, however, these radical teachers claim that they are "educating" their students to build a better world. According to these teachers, we can make a "better world" through a social revolution that overthrows the rich, privileged conservatives. Conveniently, this "noble cause" justifies using any means, including brainwashing vulnerable young students or bringing children to their demonstration sites.

There is a saying that something is not right if a man is not a leftist in his 20s, and if he remains a leftist in his 40s and 50s. In South Korea, however, quite a few people in their 60s and even 70s still remain stout leftwing activists. It seems that these radicals can never escape their intellectual puberty saturated with pseudo-heroism. However, history has proven that both socialism and communism are debunked Utopian pipedreams.

In a popular television drama, "Bones," a former radical leftist regretting her turbulent past writes to her daughter: "Without understanding, compassion, and love, you can`t change the world; a dogmatized political ideology only kills people and destroys the world." Yet our extreme leftists still seem to be full of vengeance and hatred, and are destroying the world with their violent social revolution that will inevitably kill many people as collateral damage.

Extreme rightists and corrupt capitalists should be admonished as well. When referring to Marxism and industrial capitalism, Thomas Pynchon poignantly criticized the two ideologies, writing, "Underneath, both are part of the same creeping horror." Indeed, both Hitler and Stalin were nightmarish tyrants who massacred many innocent people for their extreme political ideologies. Why then do our leftists still naively believe that they can build a socialist paradise on the Korean peninsula?

Like a pair of wings, moderate left wings and moderate right wings are necessary to maintain the balance of a society. Indeed, nothing is wrong with left or right until they are pushed to the extreme. For example, many intellectuals and writers are moderate leftists because they take the side of the underprivileged, rather than the wealthy and politically powerful. Perhaps the greatest problem lies in our social atmosphere that does not allow the middle ground and forces us to choose one of the two extremes.

As for me, I trust neither extreme left nor hardcore right, and neither radical progressives nor corrupt conservatives. For example, I once signed the petition to abolish the National Security Law and then withdrew my signature after realizing we may still need the law to protect our nation from communist infiltration. Later, I also signed a petition in protest against the Roh administration for steering the nation in the wrong direction and then withdrew my name after finding out the protest was sponsored by paleoconservatives. I feel sad watching the hostile confrontation of the extremes in our country: between belligerent radicals vs. hardcore conservatives and extreme left vs. extreme right.

In his celebrated essay published in the 1960s, Leslie A. Fiedler emphasized the importance of "the middle against both ends." In Korean society, however, there seems to be no place for moderate people even in 2010. When they went out into the street, our ancestors walked unflappably in the middle of the road, believing the old saying, "The superior man walks on the wide road." We need to learn from our ancestors` wisdom to avoid extremism and encourage those who walk down the middle of the road.