“To overcome the era of disillusionment”

I don't believe the historian's words that 'history is the footsteps of the victors.'
In a profound sense, history is the trajectory of battles well fought.
As someone once said, perhaps “history progresses through the frustration of idealists.”
So, we have to fight losing battles too.
Perhaps it is thanks to those who have fought losing battles that this world has not become a complete hell.
History, made through true fighting, has preserved hope.


With this faith, we must cross the land of disillusionment together.
Even if you fall and break, you must get up again and move forward toward the place you dreamed of.
In the past century, this country and this people have suffered tremendous pain and sacrifice.
We, who owe a debt to history, have no right to despair.
To speak of hope without easily giving in to despair, to not be lost between utopia and melancholy? I believe this is the minimum ethics we must possess as we live in this age of disillusionment.

---From the "Preface"

Professor Kim Nu-ri's exploration of Korean society, written with poignant reflection and sharp language.

A world is collapsing.
Many things we took for granted become unfamiliar, and many things we thought were solid are shaken.
Things we believed to be eternal are falling apart helplessly.
Fear grips the ruins.
The fear that we might not be able to control this world is the true nature of the terror that is sweeping over us.
I can't see the future.
An era is coming to an end.
American hegemony is waning, and the era of capitalism is declining.
Neoliberalism is dying, and Western dominance is coming to an end.
Materialism and the ideology of competition are being questioned.
As the old generation rapidly disappears, there is no vision for a new era.
We are going through an uneasy transition period.
---From "Prologue_Post-Corona, in the Face of a Collapsing World"

Just as Kafka's novel "The Metamorphosis" allegorically exposed the essence of modern life as a "bug-like" existence, this incident dramatically shows that the lives of Koreans are like walking on thin ice, clinging to the edge of a cliff.
Korean society is a place where even those with excellent conditions and who have successfully adapted can fall into an endless abyss with just one wrong step or one wrong hand.

Anxiety is the fundamental force that drives Korean society, and it is the hidden ruler that controls and manages society.
Anxiety domesticates, exhausts, and enslaves humans.
Anxiety maintains and reinforces inhumane systems, and blocks and hinders transformation.
Anxiety deepens and becomes routine in the logic of endless competition.
And so, finally, anxiety kills life.
---From "Chapter 1: South Korea Trapped in a Great Deception: 'Anxiety, the Hidden Ruler of Korean Society'"

The essence of the MeToo movement is not the 'dirty desires of bad people,' but the distorted sexual culture of an immature society.
The problem is that they are not exceptional villains, but rather characters who typically embody the pathology of society as the 'kings of that world.'
The problem with 'the pathology of normality' (Erich Fromm) is that these are the people who typically embody it.
The problem is the ‘pathology of normality’ (Erich Fromm).
To break this, a great transformation comparable to the Cultural Revolution is needed.
I hope that the MeToo movement will become a catalyst for a huge transformation that will change the anachronistic and hypocritical sexual culture of this country.
---From "Chapter 1: The Republic of Korea Trapped in a Great Deception: 'Dual Sexual Morality and the Birth of a Monster'"

The artist who started planting brass plates on the street was Gunther Demnig.
His goal is to “return the ‘names’ of the victims who were called by numbers and murdered to the last places where they lived as free people.”
He named this small memorial stone, which is made of a brass plate attached to a stone measuring 10 centimeters in length, width, and height, Stolperstein.
In Korean, it is 'stumbling block'.
No one has yet stumbled over this stumbling block.
Because the ground was dug and planted.
But there is probably no German who has not stumbled over this stumbling block.
Because they have to face their terrible past every day.
---From "Looking Back to Go Forward Chapter 2_'The World's Most Beautiful 'Stumbling Block'"

“I don’t have the confidence to push my child into this hell.”
I was talking to five female graduate students about the declining birth rate.
This was the answer one student gave when everyone was surprised to hear that he would not have children and asked why.
The conversation continued endlessly about the educational environment that forces children into suffocating competition from an early age, and the pain, hurt, frustration, and anger they experience.
I was left speechless by the question, “Is it possible for a child to grow up to be a normal human being in this society?”
---From "Chapter 3: There is no future in the land of depressed children_'Beyond the class society based on academic background'"

The reason why educational reform in Korea has not been successful is not because of the lack of thoroughness of the reform, but because the direction and goals of the reform were wrong.
'Reform' that encourages more heated competition in the name of 'fairness' is not an improvement, but a deterioration.
Educational reform must begin with these fundamental questions: What kind of society do we want to live in? What kind of people do we want our children to become?
We must now break away from this society of endless competition and obsession with academic background.
We must create schools where children feel happy.
We must change the principles of education from ‘exclusion through competition’ to ‘inclusion through solidarity.’
We must move toward a society where all children can fully realize their potential.
Abolishing the college entrance exam is the first step.
---From "Chapter 3: There is no future in the land of depressed children_'The answer is not reform but abolition of the college entrance exam 2'"

Today, Korean universities have become a dumping ground for deep-rooted evils, where all the contradictions of society are accumulated.
Rather than expanding equal opportunity, universities have degenerated into channels for legitimizing the inheritance of wealth and status; rather than embodying social justice, they have become institutions that represent the interests of the privileged; and they have degenerated into organizations that pursue profit over truth.
No wonder there is even criticism that “Korean universities are democratic” (Kim Jong-young).
It is absurd to talk about social reform while neglecting universities that have come to this point.
Universities, as the highest academic institutions, are institutions that produce discourses that define the nation's identity and the direction of society. Therefore, the Moon Jae-in administration, born from the revolutionary spirit of the times to create a "new nation," should make university reform the starting point of social reform.

---From "Chapter 4: The Trampled 'Hall of Intellect' - 'University Reform is the Starting Point of Social Reform'"

While it is important to achieve democratization of broadcasting, it is more important to prevent the democratization of broadcasting.
The regime's control of the media undermines fair reporting, but the total entertainment aspect of broadcasting silences the public's consciousness.
We depoliticize ourselves every day, succumbing to the soft allure of entertainment while we recline comfortably on our sofas.
Thus, despite the widespread strife and the material and institutional conditions for social change already in place, the absurd reality of a lack of action in achieving social change persists.
The ‘organized power of the awakened citizens’ is not being unleashed.
---From "Chapter 5: The Distorted Politics of the Lesser Evils: 'A Strategy to Fool the People, More Dreadful Than Controlling the Media'"

The political structure in which the successor party of the military dictatorship and the guardian party of the capitalist dictatorship permanently rule through a winner-take-all electoral system is the fundamental cause of today's 'Korean tragedy.'
In this sense, the current election law is the worst of the worst.
This is a fundamental evil that makes it impossible to eradicate corruption, and it is a core evil that blocks change and reform.
The election law turns the political landscape into a playground for reactionaries and conservatives, blocks the emergence of new political forces, and stifles the vibrant political imagination of the younger generation.
Without a revision of the election law, the oligarchy of the two major parties cannot be overcome, and fundamental social change cannot be expected.
---From "Chapter 5: The Distorted Politics of the Lesser Evils: 'The Greatest Evil in Korean Society is the Election Law'"

The Cold War system that has oppressed the Korean Peninsula for the past 70 years has deformed Korean society and crippled Koreans.
The distortion of Korean politics into a reactionary, conservative oligarchy, the distortion of the Korean economy into a chaebol dictatorship, the corruption of Korean culture into a violent military culture, and the sickening authoritarian nature of the Korean people all trace their roots back to the Cold War.
Only when the Cold War system ends can Korean society become normal and Koreans become normal people.
---From "Chapter 6: A Bold Transition Towards a Peace Community: The Paradox of Unification and the End of the Cold War"

The post-corona era will now be an era of great transformation.
If humanity is to survive, everything must change.
We must transition from a market-centered society to a human-centered society, from a competitive society to a solidarity society, from a neoliberal state to a welfare state, from human domination of nature to coexistence of humans and nature, and from meritocracy to dignocracy.
One thing is clear.
The fact is that the system that has ruled the world until now will no longer work.
Reflections on capitalism and humanity raise fundamental questions about whether capitalism is truly a sustainable system.
This is because capitalism destroys humanity, which is the condition of human dignity, destroys society, which is the condition of human survival, and destroys nature, which is the condition of human life.

---From "Epilogue_'Lifeism, Beyond Capitalism to Life'"