We grew up being taught to play nice.

In most folk stories we were told as children, helpless, innocent but conscientious beings eventually won over the evil, who were unfair, greedy and conniving.

But as we grew older, we gradually learned that nice guys tend to finish last. More or less, playing by the rules often left us defeated, cheated or behind.

As we step into the “real world,” we grow to learn that being nice can actually get us nowhere.

It seems more so these days that the world is surrounded and led by those that, based on our juvenile standards, would be closer to wolves than lambs.

A divisive businessman -- touting authoritarian populism that goes against the humanity, liberal democracy and global capitalism that modern societies have considered sacred values -- has been elected to a seat that can move and shake the entire world order.

A relentless politician -- bracing to challenge constitutionalism while tuning out historical truths of imperialistic atrocities -- is on course to become his country’s longest-serving postwar premier.

At home, a ham-fisted affair of plutocracy between political and economic leaders has thrown the country into months of lethargy, with their prerogatives still defended by many for having led profit and growth.

What indeed appears to be fundamentally futile is the fact that all of this is being done under the umbrella of democracy, a value that has been pulling the world along for decades and disciplining those who dare sidestep moral norms.

Having pursued the noble values that held us grounded at times we were personally tested, we are indeed seen to be entering a time of doubt, questioning whether what we have believed to be the utmost truth since our childhood warrants any further devotion.

There is also this nagging voice inside that makes us hesitate to define our own as being truly altruistic, whether we are innocent enough to throw unbridled criticisms, and whether we are truly free of guilt in our meager ordinary lives.

The sentiment was well illustrated by Al Gini, professor of business ethics at Loyola University in Chicago, who said in his previous book that the most glaring example of academic oxymoron are the terms “business ethics” and “moral leadership.”

As businesses operate under the “dictum of legal moralism,” he wrote that everything is allowed that is not strictly forbidden.

He went on to explain, citing surveys, that workers are as ethical and dutiful in doing their jobs as their bosses and companies are perceived to be ethical.

But a business, although it reaps profit through products, is inevitably a people’s business, reliant on relations, as it cannot be an isolated entity that is unaffected by the demands of individuals and society, he added.

These pretty much sum up the task we have at hand, as we are placed in a dilemma between tackling ethical lapses and the sense of survival to continue on with our economic fulfillment.

But it is because of that, that we must turn to the last bastion of restraint as we wade through the time of extremes.

Although democracy and capitalism seem to pale in the face of declining egalitarian prosperity, it is the best we have.

The rule of law has provided the yardsticks for democratic capitalism, and legality must remain unwavering from self-interest or even public sentiment.

Legal interpretation and application should be tight, equal and powerful, and in order to achieve that, it should be respected and upheld at all times.

It is also because of this, that we demand those in any type of power to operate under the potency of virtues, for without followers they would have nothing to lead.

It is not just to play nice, but to avoid co-destruction, at the least for sake of our next generation growing up to the same folk tales of the good disarming the evil.

By Lee Joo-hee

Lee Joo-hee is the business desk editor of The Korea Herald. She can be reached at -- Ed.


koreaherald@heraldcorp.com