Against K-Grief merchants

• Published date: 04 March 2023
• Publication title: The Korea Times

Social media platforms and journalists love a Korean horror story. Sad Koreans, dead Koreans, and single Koreans are of particular interest. Nothing is more valued than a Korean slighted, assaulted, or sacrificed. In such stories, Seoul is a dystopian nightmare characterized by violence and terror. The gyrations of plastic K-pop idols merely provide the opium of distraction while the oppa-driven dramas act as sirens, luring countless visitors to these shores only to crush them against the oppressive unbending conservative Confucian rocks of Hell Joseon.

Korea is a simulacrum. A facade designed by corporate behemoths. An Asian Disney Land without safety bars on the rides. Selling soju-laced candy floss and home to smiling masks hiding depressed lives. All of this is further evidence of the emphasis the country places on aesthetics, beauty, and outward appearance to the detriment of depth. It is shallow. Devoid of depth and, more importantly, normality. Happy people, with families, jobs, partners, and friends, don't make the news.

Effectiveness

There are many reasons why these narratives about Korea resonate so effectively. Those that make and share them feel a sense of superiority for believing themselves in having seen further than other people. They are the enlightened chosen few who truly understand that the emperor has no clothes and the grand wizard is just a little dude on a chair. It's a compelling drug.

The moral high ground has always been an attraction to the ordinary. Academia also encourages such views (and I struggle with that personally). There is an unspoken understanding that to be smart you have to be cynical. The intelligentsia are those who reject, criticize, and (gulp) deconstruct. This perspective does not stand up to much scrutiny, however. In reality, competent individuals are contingent by nature and only endorse cynicism when it is warranted by the sociocultural environment. Less competent individuals, conversely, embrace cynicism unconditionally.

Beyond the feelings of intellectual superiority, these negative dystopian projections of Korea are also incredibly popular on social media. They drive traffic. They generate data. This phenomenon is a form of "negativity bias" ? the tendency to give more attention to negative details than positive ones. The tech giants know this. The algorithms they gave birth to know this. They advertisers that pay money for your eye time also know this. There's profit in pessimism, personal or otherwise.

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