단상斷想

The French daily newspaper Le Monde described Korean children as 'the unhappiest students in the world' and the Korean education system as 'the most competitive and painful education in the world'. A Swedish daily newspaper wrote, "Korea's PISA ranking is the highest in the world, but children don't have time to dream about the future." Why should one study? To get into a good university? To earn a lot of money? To become a great person? Because you'll be looked down upon if you don't study? To not fall behind in competition? To receive praise? Because friends do it too...? Should we really study for these reasons? Is my reason for studying among these answers? Let's find the purpose of studying each subject. The ideal human being pursued by the Korean language curriculum is to become 'a person who can communicate and express themselves with others'. Morality or ethics is to become 'a person whose knowledge and life are in harmony'. These fundamental ideas resonate. However, in reality, there is a significant difference between the fundamental ideal and the actual situation. This is because young people today have been led to believe that they can achieve what they want in a world of endless competition and fierce struggle.

When we talk about young people today, there are many evaluations from the older generation that speak in a critical tone about the reckless or selfish lifestyles of the MZ generation (the 'MZ generation' refers to the population group born from the early 1980s to the early 2000s, encompassing both millennials and Generation Z), finding them difficult to understand, vulgar, or individualistic. In particular, the MZ generation is often described by the terms anti-intellectualism or anti-rationalism. That is, it refers to their hostile attitude and distrust towards intellect, intellectuals, and intellectualism, characterized by ridicule that education, philosophy, literature, art, and science are useless and contemptible. Rather than contemplating why their way of thinking is like that or how it came to be, criticizing this trend often comes first.

Among the younger generations, it's not simply spreading as a belief in anti-intellectualism, but primarily as a disregard for specific academic fields or an act of ignoring the pursuit of knowledge about things one doesn't know. This is a vicious cycle where people are so engrossed in education for career advancement that they reject anything other than practical, money-making disciplines as useless or look down upon them. Coupled with the increasingly severe problem of unemployment, especially youth unemployment, those affected are forced to distance themselves from non-money-making fields (humanities, and especially pure sciences among scientific fields) as they are seen as obstacles to their careers. The causes of anti-intellectualism among the MZ generation include factors such as rote learning, individualism, lack of social skills, and materialism.

South Korea has a considerable passion for education, a high Human Development Index, and a national attitude that favors intellectuals. In fact, it is a country with a very high level of public education, so at first glance, anti-intellectualism might seem weak, but that is not the case. Anti-intellectualism is often dismissed as a result of insufficient education, but in reality, it is more appropriate to find the fundamental cause in one's attitude towards knowledge rather than the quantity of knowledge. There are people who are open to learning new things they don't know or are open to the possibility that they might not understand something, but there are also those who refuse to learn unknown knowledge and express hostility towards the very act of someone informing them. Some even exhibit a kind of faith-like attitude, based on an infallibility that they cannot be wrong, believing that any knowledge outside their own views is incorrect and therefore unnecessary to learn.

However, this anti-intellectualism is not a problem limited to the younger generation, but its tendency can be seen in various groups throughout our society. Robert Kelly, an American political scientist and professor (after observing the results of the 20th South Korean presidential election), pointed out that Korean conservatives are in a state of complete intellectual bankruptcy. Intellectual bankruptcy means that "people do not engage in discussions that raise problems to always develop the group, but instead seek to irrationally attack others with fabrication, distortion, and insults by all possible means." It is difficult to see it as an academic idea, and it is a term often used as a rhetorical political accusation. Therefore, no one calls themselves an anti-intellectual, and only those who criticize anti-intellectualism exist. Therefore, before criticizing a specific generation, we need to reflect on the contradictions of our society as a whole and the results brought about by the decline in intellectual capacity. Of course, the emergence of anti-intellectuals due to the brainwashing and incitement of the media and political groups is also a problem that cannot be overlooked.

It is also very common for people to criticize anti-intellectualism by criticizing the public when their views differ from those of the public, but then take the side of the public and adopt an anti-intellectual stance when their views align with the public's perspective on an issue. We need to view this critically.

The anti-intellectualism of the younger generation stems from the extreme intensification of the old-fashioned, college-entrance-exam-oriented, rote-learning education system, which is still enforced despite changing times. In the educational field, subjects with low weight in exams (scores) are neglected, and even for exam subjects, in-depth knowledge and learning methods unrelated to technical problem-solving are no exception. Knowledge that must be known and knowledge that is a waste of time to know are predetermined, and even the knowledge that must be known is forced to be memorized. In this process, knowledge is no longer a nutrient that helps life but merely becomes a target to be hit and an obstacle that hinders it.

As a result, many students do not know the value and joy of studying. And students who are good at studying are likely to be interested in studying itself. From the perspective of the older generation, these students are commendable, but the majority of students who cannot find joy in studying are merely pathetic dropouts who don't listen to adults. Naturally, the gap between the two sides is bound to widen.

The college-entrance-exam-oriented education, coupled with forced book reports or recommended books for teenagers, makes students reluctant to read, and as information is simplified and visualized through YouTube or smartphones, the increase in functional illiteracy is also a problem that cannot be overlooked. The side effects are enormous, not just from an educational perspective, as very few people, even after graduating from university, can properly read or interpret text, hold their own opinions without leaning towards extremism, and maintain fairness. The problems arising from commenting on articles or incidents without verification or fact-checking, interpreting only simple indicators, and treating writing too lightly are already widely evident in popular large communities such as YouTube, internet communities, SNS, and Namuwiki.

Unlike the older generation, the younger generation in Korea self-attributes immense authority to their own opinions. They arbitrarily determine the value of evidence to fit their views. If there is an expert opinion that contradicts their view, they disparage the expert's expertise, but blindly trust the evidence they themselves have gathered or created, despite having no professional ability. (Some YouTube broadcasts clearly show distortion of information and biased thinking – and some people blindly believe them.) Or, they blindly trust the arguments they prefer, even if there is little evidence, while attempting to disparage the evidence for opposing arguments. Furthermore, they exhibit the absurd behavior of first stating the desired conclusion and then later searching for evidence to support it. Due to the influence of information technology, they can always find evidence later, so they often don't even realize what the problem is, even if the inference process is reversed. They are particularly knowledgeable about cases that support their views, but are ignorant of or disparage cases that refute them, inevitably making them prone to the fallacy of hasty generalization. When criticized for generalization, they attempt to suppress the logic by increasing authority through numbers. They try to find sympathizers who agree with their opinions, and to make it easy to find them, they only stimulate emotional aspects and try to incite people with distorted facts. This is often due to the absence of a proper discussion culture, where instead of exchanging proper opinions and sharing views, it often becomes a confrontation that determines victory or defeat in a dichotomous "who is right vs. who is wrong" manner, leading to a trend where serious conversations simply become battles of pride.

Most of these side effects make people unable to grow into individuals with subjective views and insights about writing, instead easily swayed by citations or popularity.

To overcome anti-intellectualism, not only must the public change, but education itself also needs reform. We must move away from traditional methods of teaching vocabulary and literary interpretation and instead develop alternatives that encourage individuals to learn, think, and act on their own. Our society has a duty to understand the causes of this phenomenon, especially among the younger generation who are the future driving force, and to ensure they become pivotal and healthy members of Korea's future society.