By Jason Lim
Recent and repeated scandals over academic credentials by well-known and respected persons in Korea are shocking. But it’s only another symptom of a deeper crisis in personal integrity that cuts across large swaths of South Korean society and seems to touch every strata of society from teachers, clergy, entertainers, to politicians.
Shin Jeong-ah and her recent ilk have joined the hall of shame already populated by Hwang Woo-suk and other people seduced by their own hubris and trapped by a web of lies. The tragedy is that these people are the role models that we expected our children to learn from and aspire to become.
We celebrated them for their achievements, not knowing that, for some, these achievements were lies. We thought they were genuine heroes, but when we reached forth, we found out that they were mere smoke and mirrors.
As we stand in shock, we feel betrayed and angry. Our heroes turned out to be fakes. Yet after all the juicy stories have come and gone, with personal shame buried and forgotten, we need to examine the society that has allowed such people to prosper, so driven by an entitled sense of instantaneous satisfaction, get rich quick mentality, and celebrity culture that being rich and famous at any cost is considered to be the epitome of success. We see everyday the end justifying the means.
Until they are caught, that is. But there are always others to take their place.
Unfortunately, we can’t forget that we are the very authors of such a society. We are part of the problem. Whether it’s lying about academic credentials or plagiarizing, the basic problem is the lack of personal integrity. So, perhaps some of the betrayal and anger should be directed towards us.
Further, it should shame us into making sure that our children are armed with an unshakeable sense of personal integrity upon which to build their lives.
As Thomas Edison taught us, ``Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.” What would have happened if Edison didn’t have the personal integrity to be honest about his failures and successes?
What would have happened if Edison perspired only 98 percent and assumed that people didn’t have to know about the 1 percent he didn’t sweat for? What would have happened if Edison said that what people don’t know won’t hurt them? Most likely, we would be living without light bulbs or CD players.
It’s sadly ironic that we have to talk about the importance of the value of integrity and honest work in Korea, for Korea achieved the ``Miracle on Han River” out of the ashes of the Korean War only because of the tireless industry of our parents and grandparents. And out of their tradition of industry arose the necessary creativity that propelled Korea to become the technological leader of the 21st century.
Without integrity and industry, people will produce gimmicks, not real creativity. Gimmicks may be cute, but they don’t have real beauty. Gimmicks may even be novel, but they are never original. Gimmicks can become a fad, but they never last. Gimmicks are merely shadows of the original, visible but not substantive.
Eventually, a culture of gimmicks, like a virus, will infect everyone that it comes in touch with. Such a culture will deprive us of authentic leaders who lead based on the substance of their character.
It will leave us with only those who seek to lead based just on the appearance of success. Such a culture of gimmicks will cheat our children of their right to earn a full and proud citizenship in the global village that they will live in.
This is the fearful price that we will pay for not insisting on a culture of integrity: lack of substance. Without integrity, the Korean society will eventually decay upon the trash heaps of its own empty gimmicks instead of being at the forefront of the next era. The only solution is to inoculate our children against such a gimmicky life with a shot of personal integrity.
General Dwight Eisenhower once said, ``the supreme quality for a leader is unquestionably integrity.” That’s because integrity will produce an authenticity of experience that inspires and unites us. We know authenticity when we see it. We sense it. We feel it. And we will follow it.
In a few months, the Korean people will face an important choice, the leadership of the nation. Remember that intelligence, competence, charisma and everything else that make up good leadership is all for naught if integrity is missing.
Jason Lim is a fellow at Harvard Korea Institute researching Asian leadership models. He can be reached at jasonlim@post.harvard.edu.
