[KS] South Korea's Rollback of Democratic Rights

[Vladimir Tikhonov]

I was myself a sort of observer-participant in an anti-beef demo in July 
last year, while majority of my Korean friends participated for 
sustained periods of time. One thing I really was impressed was the 
degree to which the absolute majority of the demonstrators were acutely 
aware of the detrimental character of the anti-police violence above the 
level of simple self-defense. Almost every time somebody tried, for 
example, to beat up an isolated riot policeman, it usually was stopped 
by loud cries of "Pip'ongnyOk!" (Non-violence!) from all the sides. Of 
course, it was impossible to prevent all the sad incidents of wanton 
physical violence against the conscripted policemen, but prevention of 
violence was clearly on the demonstrators' agenda, and this alone makes 
a qualitative break with the late 1980s situation, when the policemen 
were seen more like an enemy force. In more general way, we can 
understand this development as a part of the long process of 
"de-violentization" of the society which, up to the late 1990s could be 
justly labeled as hypermasculine and overmilitarized. What is 
interesting is the fact that the physical violence remains relatively 
widespread exactly inside the riot police units - on a level 
incomparable with the the society in general, and much worse than in the 
other conscript-staffed units in the military etc.

Vladimir (Noja)

On 09.05.2009 19:44, Frank Hoffmann wrote:
> 
> Quote:
>> My main critique with the protesters and their supporters in the 
>> liberal/progressive media here is their sheer hypocrisy, and the fact 
>> that many cannot even acknowledge that they are/were using violence 
>> for their own ends, while at the same time perpetually playing the 
>> "victim" card. (...)
>> No doubt the blows they sustained were mitigated by the fact that it 
>> was mere "playacting" in the "classic Korean mode."
> 
> J. Scott Burgeson
> 
> 
> [T]he accusation of hypocrisy also has its counterpart in the colonial 
> discourse of national character. Arthur Smith, for example, has plenty 
> to complain about the "absence of sincerity" among the Chinese. In an 
> indignant and yet resigned manner, Smith speaks of the impossibility to 
> ever getting simple and straight facts from any Chinese person. (...) 
> Smith declares that anyone who peruses the classics with a discerning 
> eye "will be able to read between the lines much indirection, 
> prevarication, and falsehood" (CC, 267). (...) That all the maddening 
> instances of insincerity and hypocrisy do not seem to bother the Chinese 
> very much is then taken as manifestation of their duplicity and moral 
> depravity.
> 
> Quote from Haiyan Lee,/ Revolution of the Heart/, Stanford UP, 2006: 242
> 
> 
> The allegation of hypocrisy towards a political interest group is a bit 
> like criticizing fishes to urinate in the water. That is utterly 
> disgusting but somewhat unavoidable.
> 
> 
> Quote:
>> Look, I'm from the People's Republic of Berkeley, CA. I was arrested 
>> in San Francisco protesting the first Gulf War back in 1991. My father 
>> was an anti-Vietnam War activist/organizer who was on an FBI watch 
>> list. (...)
>> "sophisticated Europeans" viewing this all from afar.
> 
> 
> Hmmm, YES, Scott, you must know, "we Europeans" are just soooo 
> sophisticated -- especially Mondays and Fridays between 5 and 7, never 
> on weekends -- we do not go by someone's acclaimed status or racial and 
> national background, we go by what someone actually says or writes. 
> (Just do not get lost in the streets of Leipzig or eastern Berlin after 
> 10 PM, you might get killed. :)
> 
> 
> Frank
> 
> -- 
> 
> --------------------------------------
> Frank Hoffmann
> http://koreaweb.ws


-- 
Vladimir Tikhonov,
Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages,
Faculty of Humanities,
University of Oslo,
P.b. 1010, Blindern, 0315, Oslo, Norway.
Fax: 47-22854828; Tel: 47-22857118
Personal web page: http://folk.uio.no/vladimit/
 
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