By Lee Eung-tae
Humans have three unique qualities: insight, foresight and hindsight. Insight denotes "the capacity to gain an accurate and deep understanding of someone or something." Foresight is "the ability to predict what will happen or be needed in the future." Hindsight means the "understanding of a situation or event only after it has happened or developed." Nowadays, along with the rest of Korea, I suffer from anxious insomnia. Observing recent political developments is just like watching a movie. Like me, most Koreans must be baffled by recent events in our nation. We were proud of the international success of K-pop, Korean movies and TV dramas, Korean food and culture in general and most recently Han Kang receiving the Nobel Prize.
But we were astonished when the president interrupted TV transmissions to announce martial law. My instant response was, "What the hell? Is that AI? Why martial law?" Most of us were unable to sleep, mindful of the martial law of past decades. We were all terrified to think that the horrors of history would be repeated. But martial law was lifted at dawn and it ended like in a drama. Relief was mixed with anxiety. Surely, there would be tremendous repercussions to this announcement. Fitting my expectations, my concerns were realized.
Immediately after the fuss of martial law, the Korean won nose-dived. Most Korean stocks shed value. But this was just the beginning. A famous English news anchor joked that the martial law in Korea ended faster than "Squid Game." In my shame, I thought that we have to face reality. If we who voted for him elected an idiot, we are also idiots to have chosen him. We should ask why he purposely steered our vessel onto the rocks, plunging all Koreans into an abyss of pain. But this is not the right time to reflect only on his mismanagement. Needless to say, all the culprits of this tragedy should be punished under the law. More urgently all of us must pull together to repair our ship to sail again on the competitive international ocean where other national vessels are pulling far ahead of us. I know for certain that we can overcome this crisis as we have overcome all past crises.
To this end, I think we need to get away from the temptations of social media and all the seditious video clips that instigate extreme political polarization.
Just as light rain, which we don’t sense at all, soaks us to the bone, we are apt to be brainwashed in spite of ourselves by malicious fake news and rumors. Once brainwashed, we become zombies whose rational and critical senses are paralyzed, and so we act and believe whatever the malicious video clips dictate. The president was reported to be addicted to extremely political videos. Now, it is no use crying over spilled milk. It’s time to use the lessons of hindsight. We all need to dispense with the addictive clips and, returning to our senses, embrace each other free of political prejudice. We are all in the same boat. Having learned from the past, let’s row all together to the future.
Lee Eung-tae ([email protected]) is a former high school teacher who taught English for 35 years.
English (United States) ·