회고回顧/懷古

South Korea, which wants to leave Lee Jae-myung, who is worse than Yoon Seok-yeol, in history

When we worry that President Lee Jae-myung's approval rating is low, they are already discussing impeachment. In Korea, where old-fashioned thinking that practices materialistic politics is prevalent, the president's approval rating has plummeted to the 10% range for those in their 20s (although it was never high), and a significant defection has occurred in Seoul, the metropolitan area, and among moderates. Various polls are even shouting about a reversal where the People Power Party is ahead of the Democratic Party in some surveys of party support.

For citizens who expected a swift end to the internal strife, the Democratic Party's conduct is pathetic, but fundamentally, both the People Power Party and the Democratic Party were in cahoots, so no one can easily condemn anyone. This means that the 'watermelons' (a derogatory term for those seen as traitors within the party) are still prevalent, and only a few well-meaning Democratic Party members are suffering and becoming scapegoats. Since this is the nature of Korean politics, efforts for a fundamental solution are needed, but everyone is talking nonsense. They say that the approval rating in the metropolitan area is due to the decline in the real estate market, and that those in their 20s are the worst generation in Korean politics. All the causes are in the past.

To become a member of the National Assembly in South Korea, candidates and their election campaigns are unparalleled. Without organization and money, one can never wear the badge of a National Assembly member. In that harsh reality, a person who started as a young factory worker, became a provincial governor, then a mayor, and finally president, is a legendary figure, but everyone is desperate to bring him down. By the time today's 20-year-olds reach sixty, this country's value inversion might not just be a national crisis, but could affect the very survival of the nation. That a country without adults to scold political extremism was once called the 'Land of Eastern Courtesy' is nothing but a dazzling and empty rhetorical legend from that era.

Let's look at the problem from a different angle. First, there needs to be strong public support for the idea that South Korean public opinion polls are one of the malicious systems unworthy of trust. The history of public opinion is the history of Iljinhoe, and many must have realized through the so-called 'Moonjo Teollehyu' how difficult it is for a government to emerge that will reform pro-Japanese, anti-national politics, and that even if the democratic camp takes power, their appeasement or the schemes of obstructive forces are beyond common sense. The people who are not at all ashamed of using their tongues to deceive the public are the current representatives of the older generation. This is a shameful and 불안한 blueprint for the future of Korea, not a reason to shake the current government based on their judgments. Shouldn't one also be able to think that anyone who shakes Lee Jae-myung now and prevents reform on their own is effectively allowing the people to take over Yoon Seok-yeol's rebellion and continue its maintenance (?).

The towing operation of third-rate media and second-class citizens

The Lee Jae-myung government began its work in Yongsan, where Yoon's administration had set up camp against the people without even forming a transition committee, amidst a national crisis. However, the public later learned that at the same time, 'planned party leader' Jeong Cheong-rae had prepared to control or direct the government with Team Shincheonji and Team pseudo-media. Years of political maneuvering have set back politics, and Lee Jae-myung's first year in office was wasted on the third-rate public opinion politics of anti-Lee Jae-myung forces. By the time people realize he is wandering among political parasites seeking a host, it is already too late.

The Korean psychology of rather giving power to a dog if I can't have it myself. Those who used the support of the masses for their personal gain, like Moonjo Teollehyu, should feel shame to be considered human.

그러나, 유감스럽게도 대중은 정치에 무관심하다. 부모, 형제, 부부, 부모·자식 간에도 정치는 사회적 터부(social taboo)다. 혈연 간에도 그런데, 남이면 더하다. 이런 사회에서 남녀가 만나 섹스하고 자식을 낳는 것은, 정상적인 사회가 아닌 기형적이고 병든 사회의 생존방식이다. 정치 이념이 민족을 완전하게 분열시킨 집단과 공생하며 개인의 삶을 위해 요식행위에 불과한 선거제도가 투명할 것이라는 믿음도 안일하기는 마찬가지다. 한국인이 나이브한 이유가 바로 여기에 있다. 자신들이 선 정치적 토대가 취약하다는 걸 인지하지 않고 피하면서, 먹고 즐기고 똥을 싼다.

In 2016, the Na Hyang-wook incident, where he referred to the public as "dogs and pigs," may have been the first instance to prove he was an honest public servant, but it was not the last. His dismissal was blocked by law, and Na Hyang-wook, who sued claiming his demotion was too severe, was serving as the head of the Planning and Coordination Department at the National Institute for International Education in 2025. The history of him seeing the public as dogs and pigs is a problem that can only be understood by tracing back to the disappearance of justice in this land since the sweeping away of the Anti-National Activities Special Committee after liberation. At that time, politics annihilated politicians who sought to realize justice, and cut off the limbs of good citizens who desired and strived for justice, making them grunt like dogs and pigs. Therefore, readers should examine whether their own life journeys can escape being dogs and pigs within that context. Na Hyang-wook's perception of the caste system did not include himself and contained the privilege of ignorant cognitive limitations that ignored the root causes of fundamental absurdities in Korean society. There was a need to formally publicize the reversal of status during the colonial period that led to the collapse of the traditional caste system, the history of remaining Japanese people registering in Korean family registers after liberation, and the caste system within pseudo-religions that collected and harvested lost souls from the very bottom of all these statuses. This society, which covered up his remarks, has admitted to being "dogs and pigs" itself.

The people who have ridden this fin-de-siècle situation are second-class contributors who fail to establish the national identity of the Republic of Korea, and the backwardness of the people who cannot endure their convictions in state affairs has become the national identity of the Republic of Korea, so there is no politics for the children's generation to learn from. In a materialistic worldview where rights overwhelm duties, the bad practices of the electoral system have degenerated into a mere formality where election results are not worth listening to, becoming a league for those who need this rite of passage. Therefore, the reason we cannot teach our children politics, cannot teach them character and morality, but instead teach them to live better and earn more money than others, is the survival method given by this society. What politics demanded of parents, and what parents demanded of their children, is the mindset of pro-Japanese anti-nationalists, and for the 20-somethings who inherited that heritage, Lee Jae-myung is not a lotus blooming in the mud, but an object of jealousy to be stepped on and overcome. It is time to ask ourselves whether the education that raised and nurtured us to hate everyone better than ourselves is Lee Jae-myung's fault.

The chronic diseases of the Republic of Korea, education and real estate, are the result of pro-Japanese anti-nationalist factions and pro-American anti-nationalist factions operating the government since liberation. Real estate and education are the paths to social advancement for those in power, and their businesses. Real estate and private school foundations are the fruits they have nurtured, but if the reason why the majority of the people are alienated within that system is blamed on Lee Jae-myung, the public will get angry on their own, and the world will return to the masters who rule the pigs and dogs. The people seem to have excellent judgment, but in reality, they are intelligent slaves. Slaves of life, slaves of history, ignoring it will not change it. We have lived this far without solving the root problems, yet we expect Lee Jae-myung to solve them all at once. Without reflecting on the past few decades of being swayed by pseudo-politicians, pseudo-religions, and pseudo-journalists, they demand success, certainty, and hope from Lee Jae-myung. Those who are rude, disrespectful, and ignorant of their own ignorance are the self-portrait of our people.

Who are we? We are a people who escaped colonial rule, yet became accomplices in genocide, experiencing both the victimhood and perpetration of war, biologically divided, a self-harming group whose very souls have been plundered. There is nowhere to vent our anger except politics. Or we rush to churches that offer a dramatic sense of belonging, meeting God. Therefore, education is not a priority. What do children learn? They learn that there is nothing to learn. Meanwhile, the real estate and education markets, which are business tools for the vested interests, continue to operate on their own. Children are forced to move from one cram school to another, wasting their lives at the very bottom of the ladder. A thirty-six-year-old member of the National Assembly mines a fortune in annual salaries. We have consented to a political climate steeped in the game of fighting daily and siphoning off national funds every election season, so the lives and anger of the people cannot but turn to politics. Fortunately, Koreans are intelligent slaves. Slaves they may be, but they feel a need to swagger and live like others at least once. If the 5 billion won club isn't possible, then at least the 500 million won club, and since even that isn't working out, it has come to the point of overturning perfectly good wage tables. One might even wish for a war to break out, so that the assets of the rich and powerful would be annihilated. How can one's ears not be deafened and one's mind not be bewildered by how enthusiastically public opinion, which fuels this situation, shakes the nation's governance?

Let's escape being victims of ochlocracy.

But the problem starts now. People from all over the world flock to this world of incompetent fools, thinking it's great. They won't just come to visit and leave; they'll come to live, so real estate prices will continue to rise. The AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) era will completely change the ecosystem of jobs and values. Mothers who, with their shallow wisdom, planned their children's futures will collapse when their children go wild and blame their parents. The trivial complaints about not being able to eat, play, or dress properly due to their children's private education expenses will return as poverty in old age, with only illness awaiting them. The future belongs to those who steadfastly followed their own path, not to those who loudly chased only money. In short, Koreans have become victims of ochlocracy, where fools self-destruct without realizing they've lost their limbs.

Koreans were originally a people with virtues of generosity, courage, and quiet resilience ingrained in them, but colonial exploitation turned them into slaves. Na Hyang-wook, who grew up watching those slaves, failed to liquidate that era and instead perpetuated it, causing the loss of their past spirit and noble aspirations. They are now hasty, impatient, and cannot tolerate others' success. Because they failed to prevent pro-Japanese anti-nationalists and pro-American anti-nationalists from running rampant, that custom has become a biological trait of the nation. This can be seen as a case where the qualitative decline in political judgment led to the loss of rational deliberation in mass politics, resulting in collective political self-harm.

In the preface to "99 Pro-Japanese Collaborators" published by the Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities in 1999, director Kim Bong-woo lamented that although the 14th presidential election was the cleanest and fairest among all past elections, the electoral climate was not much different from the past. As an example of the 14th presidential election climate, he cited the 'Busan Regional Agency Heads' Meeting'. He lamented that Kim Ki-choon, who served as Minister of Justice until the last cabinet of the Roh Tae-woo administration under Hyun Seung-jong, led this meeting and made remarks below common sense, such as "We must instigate regional sentiment, bribe the media, and fabricate violent incidents to ensure the election of Minja Party candidate Kim Young-sam." At the time, this incident was seen as a sign of the degradation of the political level and the function and role of law in Korean society, but looking back now, it seems rather quaint. Whether it's Kim Young-sam or anyone else, elections are about money and organization. Wouldn't the quality of politics improve if voters, who are caught up in money and organization, reflected on their choices? Kim Ki-choon's crimes were revealed during the Park Geun-hye administration, and the group involved in the state affairs scandal during Park Geun-hye's time, without exception, wore prison uniforms. The fact that the law changed after Park Geun-hye, leading to a reduction in the use of prison uniforms, is because there has been a shift in the readiness to commit crimes. It is even more absurd that Director Kim Bong-woo lamented and was angry even during the Kim Young-sam era.

The fundamental reason why democracy failed to properly take root in Korea after liberation is that the US military government and pro-Japanese forces combined to eliminate nationalist forces and establish a divided system. Pro-Japanese forces succeeded in establishing a sole government and seizing power by exploiting anti-communism and left-right confrontation, and continuously reproduced their dominance through the division structure. On this historical foundation, Korean politics transformed from a process of persuasion and compromise to solve community problems into a struggle for factional survival and the maintenance of power. As a result, approval ratings and factionalism replaced policies and principles, and even citizens came to accept a distorted political culture as a natural standard, minimizing the faults of their own faction and exaggerating the faults of the opposing faction.

The only thing the Democratic Party, which has not resolved a single past issue, can do now is to muzzle third-rate public opinion politics. And shouldn't voters realize that if the president's duty is reduced to managing approval ratings, all the negative consequences will fall on the people?