[KS] Re: Contemporary Discussion

[Michael Choi]

Re: Society and Social Upheavals

Although many on the list are better authorities (including professors with 
whom I have studied with at Yonsei University 1997 Summer Session), I'll add 
my two cents worth. Along Mr. Carlon Haas' posting, I agree that Korea's 
past was not totally idyllic. Too many older people attached such 
sentimentality to the past that generate myths.

I studied briefly at the undergraduate level Korea's history from its 
prehistoric beginnings until the military dictatorships of the eighties, and 
I can think of plenty of things that were not so rosy. Ancient Korea's 
society is caste-based and hardly gave individuals to rise in their status. 
Just look at Shilla's Kol Poom system and Choson's Yang-ban based society. 
Sure, ideally, the idea of Kwago (Civil Service Exam) was to create a 
bureaucracy-based society that anyone could go from "rags to riches" by 
being promoted within the civil service. Still, the bureaucratic system was 
intensely guarded by the landed class. Also, look at the traditional 
treatment of farmers by their landlords. Farmers were treated so 
condescendingly that they often revolted. I guess the best example to look 
at the social ills of traditional Korea would be the famous Korean novella 
Hong Kil-Dong.

This over-sentimentalism is not unique to Koreans, but I think all 
nationalities. By selecting specific positive qualities of the past, a 
"fantasy" past is created with which we criticize our current society. (A 
good American example are religious fundamentalists who want to put prayer 
back in the schools and forget that America was segregated in its idyllic 
past.)

With regards to more recent history, they are still many inequalities worth 
complaining about. Such as the common practice of selecting individuals on 
the basis of being college alumni, relation to a friend, or being from the 
same hometown, regardless of their ability (or lack of) or merits. That is 
unfair to the other "candidates" as well as inefficient.

I am one of the last people to discard past traditions, but I think we 
should be careful before we rush to judge.

Sincerely,
Michael Choi


________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com



%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%