Anyone who cares about South Korea would agree that the Korean people should pursue two things to overcome her current domestic disturbances and international crises. First, they should stop factional political brawls immediately and seek a third alternative instead. Second, they should see the future of South Korea in a global, not a provincial, perspective and act swiftly to make the nation safe and sound.
Indeed, it is imperative for us to seek a third way to overcome the binary opposition mentality that plagues our political climate. Currently, South Korea is polarized and divided by two mutually antagonizing ideology groups: the Left vs. the Right, socialists vs. Free World advocates, or those who prefer a people’s democracy vs. those who want liberal democracy. Since both groups treat each other as an archenemy to detest and eliminate, no reconciliation seems plausible.
The problem is that the chronic, persistent internal clashes between these two radically different groups will be catastrophic for the future of South Korea. If we are divided by ideologies, we are likely to end up inviting foreign interference and losing sovereignty, just like we did in the late 19th century. To avoid such inevitable total annihilation, the Korean people must seek a third way before it is too late, in which both groups could exist peacefully based on bilateral cooperation.
Other countries have realized this a long time ago. In the UK, for example, left-wing intellectuals and politicians sought the “Third Way” back in the 1990s because they realized the limit of their traditional political policies. Thus, they were called social liberals. Tony Blair and Anthony Giddens were good examples.
Recently, a Korean reporter pointed out that in South Korea, people frequently used the term, “far right,” to criticize the rightwing people, but they seldom use the term, “far left.” Perhaps it means that our society is not properly balanced and leans to the left instead. However, both far left and far right are equally bad, and thus we need to seek a third way that can transcend both extremities.
Unfortunately, the Korean people are inclined to see things from a black and white perspective, not in alternative ways. If we cannot overcome the either/or mentality, however, we will end up seeing things in binary oppositions, such as us/them, friends/foes, or progressives/conservatives only. However, the world is a colorful place where the distinction between the two is arbitrary and thus, interchangeable. For example, friends can turn into enemies, and vice versa, as time goes on. Likewise, a man can be progressive when young, but become conservative as he grows old.
The second thing we urgently need is our extended scope to see our future from a global perspective and act accordingly and swiftly. Presently, the world is changing rapidly and radically — democracy is declining worldwide and so are representative governments. These days, socialist countries want to regain their former power and influence, and on the contrary, the US seems to have given up its leadership in the Free World. Some people feel that they are now living in an Orwellian society controlled and manipulated by dictators who impose ubiquitous surveillance and censorship. Others worry that we are now on the verge of World War III or entering the second Cold War era.
Those global changes will directly affect the future of South Korea. Soon the world may be plundered by pirates and there are no international police. Under the circumstances, we can no longer solely depend on our allies when our national security is at stake. If so, we should be on our own and prepared for the worst because we are surrounded by hostile socialist countries that may want to claim South Korea as their “estranged” former territory.
Still, however, we seem to neither realize the urgency, nor act fast enough to deal with the impending crisis. Instead, we are numb to the crisis, as if it were banal, and too slow to deal with the tsunami coming from overseas. We should see where we are sailing now and prepare for the storm we are about to face soon. Otherwise, we will be doomed to suffer the heavy blow that will cripple our economy and endanger our national security. Then, we may lose all the precious things we have built and cherished since liberation in a flash.
We may think we are now living in an advanced country and thus safe. To become a truly advanced country, however, economic affluence is not enough. We must also have military strength, decorum and the capacity of embracing others, not to mention credibility and global leadership.
We should urgently find a third way to stop cancerous domestic ideological warfare. We also should realize our precarious situation in the rapidly approaching tornado of international conflicts and be prepared. Only then will our future be bright.
Kim Seong-kon
Kim Seong-kon is a professor emeritus of English at Seoul National University and a visiting scholar at Dartmouth College. The views expressed here are the writer’s own. -- Ed.
