Korean Reality: People Acting Like Parts, Machines, or Robots
Leave a commentMay 23, 2024 by itkwon
Introduction
They just wants people to act like machines. They do not allow the time to think or to reflect the detailed circumstances. They do not allow the time to reconsider and to reflect the whole history or the whole situation.
Education: Creating Homogeneous People like Conveyor Belt
Korean education is still acting like a mass producing machine with a conveyor belt. Teachers cannot pour their effort to evaluate individual students and to develop delicate curriculum because of heavy administrative workload imposed to them. Even some teachers are acting as a slave driver to let students memorize mundane knowledge to suit pleas from parents. Eventually, they don’t care if students become delinquent due to improper education from their parents, society, and teachers themselves.
Due to this instruction style and method, students get to learn that only getting score on the visible surface is best way to survive in South Korean society regardless of if they do the things right and correct.
One example is retreat training events hold by Korean schools. Teachers bring their students, and they throw them into some cruel program like military training. Instructors are acting like drill sergeants to tame students, and teachers are evading from their responsibilities to play around the retreat venue with drinking alcohols. The reason why Korean educational curriculum requires those retreat training (수련회) is clear, I think. It is just for taming and producing homogeneous slaves for their future ‘masters and rulers.’
In this circumstance, both teachers and students generally hate people who raise questions. Some delinquent teachers do not want to think more to answer the questions, and some students do not want to hear points which could be potentially on the tests. They especially hates when students raises questions right after the classes ends because those took away their time to take a rest. The rest time of Korean school is too short like 10 minutes between classes.
Cannot Survive when Acting as a Thinking Human
Korean society demands unrealistic workload because each task does not give much profit. In other words, the wage is too cheap to maintain their proper live. If someone cannot work 24/7, then someone cannot survive nor cannot be rich.
To upkeep tremendous workload, each individual should work like a machine, following standard structure and procedure. If a case requires special care to accomplish, they do not want to take the case because it does not give much benefit, but taking much time to complete. For example, Uber taxi drivers I met hates to put PIN numbers to verify the identity of the passenger. They are not good at using modern technologies because usually those drivers are old. They hate the procedure which is not familiar for them.
However, while working too hard without thinking, each mistake is responsible of the individual powerless worker, not the powerful one who developed corrupted system.
In this circumstance, each individual cannot have time to think what is wrong on the whole system, and the individual hardly can suggest constructive alternative.
Social Pressure: Uniqueness Cannot Survive
South Korea is like a garrison state. More extreme case is at North Korea, China, and Russia. They do not want to see unique people. Only individuality is allowed when people is making up their appearance in the way to conform social norm like being handsome and attractive. Even plastic surgery is standardized.
For example, if someone asks question during the class, they hate the one asking question because it might give additional things to memorize. If someone asks question right before end of the lecture, then he or she get more hatred because it eats up others’ free time.
Especially, people with mental or physical disability is usually disliked because they are unique by themselves without any intention to do. People with different sexual identity or sexual orientation (LGBTQ+) are also hated because they are not following social norm. Disability about biological sex such as Kilenfelter is also hated because this disability gives uniqueness to people who have the syndrome.
Conclusion
I see Koreans rulers hates critical thinking. The just let their subordinates obedient servants without raising questions nor complaints. However, if rulers suppress critical thinking by blocking many complaints, there would be no advancement. Critical thinking is essential for advancing society, science, and knowledge. If Korean rulers constantly suppress critical thinking, individuality, and uniqueness, there is no future.
Il-Taek's Journey 