An End To Fabricated Heroes

Came across an interesting opinion piece today.

Written by a professor of English from Seoul National University, the article An End to Fabricated Heroes (The Korea Herald, 8 Oct 2008) sort of explains why Koreans are never satisfied with their leaders.

Part of the reason has to do with Koreans turning their public personalities into what Kim Seong-kon called "fabricated heroes."

Kim argued that "Koreans love stories about people who finally become heroes after going through all sorts of sorrow, hardships and ordeals."

"Whenever such a "heroic" figure emerges ... our reporters immediately celebrate the hero by telling inflated tales. When a Korean athlete wins a gold medal in the Olympic Games for example, the medalist is almost always presented to the newspapers as a hero that was so destitute that he or she had to live on ramyun (instant noodles), but finally managed to becomes a successful athlete."

"Likewise, the student who enters Seoul National University with the top entrance exam score is always portrayed by reporters as a genius who has never had private tutors or attended hagwon (tuition academies). Of course, that is highly unlikely, and yet reporters keep dramatizing things and inventing myths in order to suit the tastes of Korean readers."

This "unique Korean sentiment", Kim argued, is the reason why North Korea has made Kim Il-sung a hero, and turned the Great Leader's birthplace into a sacred shrine. It also explained why South Koreans often turn an elected president's or celebrity's birthplace into "a place of pilgrimage."

"Soon our textbooks carry his vastly exaggerated life story, and his embellished biographies sell like mad. Naturally, our former presidents are all characterized as heroes: an ex-army general who worried so much about the future of his country that he had to seize power through a military coup, a high school graduate who endured all the prejudices of society, or a poor boy who used to sell goods on the street but climbed the social ladder all the way to Cheong Wa Dae (the presidential blue house)."

Kim said such exaggerations easily lead to delusions, as "many Koreans seem to fantasize that everybody can have equal status and wealth."

But once the delusion wears off, Koreans become frustrated and start "condemning the unattainable - top universities, wealthy people, and the privileged."

"This is why they perceive the rich as immoral people, and are reluctant to acknowledge the privileges high ranking positions entail. And this is why they are currently against the tax reform bill, which they assume exclusively benefits the rich and the privileged."

But this is where Kim gets a bit murky in his arguments.

He first suggested that "delusions eventually lead to a complex", and when political leaders have a complex, "he inflicts much pain on the whole nation."

Using former president Park Chung Hee (pictured) as an example, Kim argued that since Park was once sentenced to death for purportedly being a Communist during the turbulent years after Korea's liberation in 1945, "he (had) turned into an adamant anti-communist after he seized power."

As for former president Roh Moo-hyun, Roh's "complex presumably stemmed from the fact that he was a high school graduate from a poor family. Thus Roh detested Seoul National University and the rich people in Gangnam."

But Kim's conclusion made up for his earlier murkiness.

"It is about time that we have a "normal" president who was raised in a normal family. We no longer need a fabricated "hero." We urgently need to put an end to the rampant exaggeration, delusions and complexes that have long plagued our society by producing false heroes. We need a normal society now."