David Tizzard is a professor at Seoul Women’s University, holds a PhD in Korean Studies, and hosts the Korea Deconstructed podcast. He has lived and worked in Seoul for more than two decades. Reach him at datizzard@swu.ac.kr.
Is Korea better than America?
By David Tizzard
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By David A. Tizzard
Much of the international order rested on the assumption that America was great. A beacon of the free world, the shining city on a hill, a model for all others to follow – either willingly or by force.
That assumption is now being challenged. And one of the challengers is a country that was secured and developed by that now tottering goliath.
For many, Korea will never be seen as a first-class state. The very name alone conjures up images of M.A.S.H., fat men wearing Mao suits and parading missiles while despotically ruling over a largely famished population, downed airlines, and a nepotistic patriarchal way of life capable of nothing more than living under the yoke of others and unaware of what values such as freedom and democracy mean.
They were probably to some degree true when Edward Said wrote Orientalism back in 1978. And those falsely constructed exotic images held sway over the narrative of international relations for a long time.
But stepping away from Hollywood and President Trump’s recent remarks, reality is slowly painting a very different picture.
South Korea, in some aspects at least, might be proving itself America’s superior. We are perhaps now seeing, for better or for worse, the age of enlightenment – the age in which Korea emerges above the pulpit.
Not just in quantitative terms, but in people’s minds, too.
A survey today by Ambrain Trend Monitor showed that 65% of Korean people now believe their social system as strong as other countries’ and 64% felt glad to be citizens here. Perhaps the sadae-jui is losing its grip – discounting Netflix, of course.
Of course there will be much in which the United States does claim superiority: Its literature has a greater depth and profoundness. The music also still stands tall.
Many of the citizens are educated, moral in nature, and worthy successors to a regime that seemingly steadfastly refuses to pass on the torch.
Yet its power is fought over by two septuagenarians who talk endlessly about the importance of a document written more than two centuries ago while millions seek food banks amidst huge unemployment and rising death totals.
But rather than being a new country, spurred on through the impetus of youth, something which it once cherished, it’s now becoming decrepit, broken down, and splitting at the seams.
From where will come the Gabo reforms? Who will cut the topknot of President Trump?
Conversely, when casting a general eye over South Korea (a country of course not without many of its own problems), the nation here seems in far better shape.
It has demonstrated that public health and democracy can coexist. Unlike in other countries where strongmen have used the crisis to bolster their own regime and increase powers, South Korea has had the world’s first election in the time of Corona.
The highest voter turnout in two decades demonstrated that people are determined to fulfill their civic duty and have a say in the direction of the country. And while there is still much to do, particularly economically and vis-à-vis the North, at least the nation has a government legitimized in the eyes of the people and not “too” divided.
South Korea’s healthcare is first class: The insurance, the quality, the service, the cost, and the ease of access. Once you have lived here for some time, it’s hard to imagine anything else.
In fact, it’s almost rather scary to imagine anything else. You don’t have to be Michael Moore to understand that perhaps here in South Korea is a model which many elsewhere would envy.
The internet connectivity and technology have also played a huge role in the country’s development and response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Wi-Fi is omnipresent and everyone has smartphones – thus patients, hotspots, and outbreaks are identified, controlled, and monitored online with real time data.
And because of these, there have largely only been guidelines regarding social distancing and staying home. There are no police on the street. No laws enforcing behavior.
As a post-authoritarian democracy, such attempts would have been strongly opposed. But the results are clear to see: there is no wide-spread panic, no empty supermarket shelves, and no failing of infrastructure.
Of course the question “Is Korea better than America?” paints a false dichotomy. And the idea that there are general standards by which we could accurately and objectively measure such a thing is debatable.
I have largely lauded South Korea while ignoring many of the problems it has and done the opposite for the United States.
But I can’t help but think that for a citizen, one interested in life and liberty, South Korea offers a far more attractive option at this point in time.
So once President Moon has finished chatting with Bono and sending the 600,000 testing kits requested by President Trump to the States, perhaps the newly-bolstered ruling Democratic Party can now fulfil their mandate and make the necessary changes so as to allow the pursuit of happiness available to all.
Maybe even build a shining hanok on a hill.
And I didn’t even mention Bong Joon-ho, BTS or Dokdo…
David Tizzard (datizzard@swu.ac.kr) is an assistant professor at Seoul Women's University and lectures in politics and history and Hanyang University. He presents economic and cultural issues on "Business Now" on TBS eFM (101.3FM) live every Wednesday from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.