Korea and the Politics of Mass Hysteria

There have been times in the eight years that I've been here in Korea that I have to wonder if Koreans, as a collective society, are capable of rational thought. Koreans themselves admit to being an emotional bunch - there's a Korean saying that compares the Korean people to an iron pot; quick to heat up, quick to cool - and nothing illustrates this better than the current flap over the US-Korea FTA and specifically the import of U.S. beef slaughtered after the age of 30 months.

For the past month or so there have been massive protests in Seoul demanding the renegotiation or cancellation of the FTA sparked by fears of Mad Cow Disease. Lee Myung Bak, elected by a historic landslide in January, obviously underestimated public sentiment, when he told the Korean public that US beef imports would resume, and if "You don't like U.S. beef, don't buy it." The government also released numerous scientific studies disproving the threat of mad cow disease in an effort to ease the public fear. The country exploded. Lee's approval ratings after three months in office are hovering around 20%, and the masses are calling him a dictator and demanding his resignation.

Much of the language coming from the protesters in their opposition to U.S. beef borders on the ridiculous. Signs calling for the end of American genocide in Korea are popular among protesters. Interviews with protesters have revealed that many Koreans believe that if you eat U.S. beef, you will, quite simply, die. Apparently there are some people out there saying that Koreans are genetically more suseptible to mad cow disease, that you can get it from kissing or simply breathing the air (some of these rumors are purportedly being diseminated by the left-leaning teachers unions in order to get high school and middle school kids involved). Of course, Korea's favorite political forum, the internet has got into the act.

All of this, of course, caused the Lee administration to cave, reinstating the ban on U.S. beef and resulting in the firing of a large number of newly appointed cabinet officials.

The protests are continuing this week with a reported million people expected to participate. Although the FTA and U.S. beef remain the focus, it would appear that other forces are going to use the issues as means to other ends. This weekend marks the sixth anniversary of the death of two Korean middle school girls who were crush by US military vehicles while walking home from school, which should ramp up the anti-American sentiment (I'm surprised no one has brought up Apollo Ohno yet). It also marks the anniversary of the student protests which led to the ultimate downfall of Korean military rule and the beginning of the "democratic" process here, which should ramp up the hysteria in general.

I'm not anti-Korean by any stretch of the imagination, and I like living here (90% of the time anyway). Maybe my inability to get my head around the hysteria this issue has caused (much in the way the whole Dok-do thing boggles my mind) has to do with being raised in a different culture. The thing is that, at times, Koreans seem to approach social and political issues in much the same way they drive: don't look left or right, just plow straight ahead and be damned with the consequences.