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.
Masters of war
Courtesy of Raphael Labaca Castro
By David A. Tizzard
By David A. Tizzard
“You play with my world like it's your little toy. You lie and deceive; you want me to believe. Come you masters of war,” said Bob Dylan in 1963, addressing no-one and everyone at the same time. As we see people falling from the sky in Kabul and think about the women and children fearing for their lives this week, we have to ask ourselves how far we have really come since then.
We seek information, but lack knowledge. We read every headline and tweet, but never gain wisdom. We like, comment, and subscribe without ever actually communicating. We save thousands of photos and videos but never make memories. We horde followers and friends but forget to interact in real life.
And all of this keeps the machine turning. This week, we are aghast at what is taking place in Afghanistan and our social media is filled with everyone's opinion irrespective of education or firsthand knowledge. But in a few weeks all those hot takes and demands that people recognize just how much we care about the injustice will be forgotten. So it was with February's coup in Myanmar, April's cyclone in Indonesia and East Timor, the border disputes between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, the protests in Colombia, the rising death toll between Israeli and Gaza militants, the wildfires in Greece, the earthquake in Haiti, the protests in Cuba: all those impassioned responses demanding our attention soon lost to the ether as the next big conscious-demanding event rolls around. And for what?
The world is big enough for us all irrespective of creed or color ― but we have lost the way. We are left swimming in a post-factual stimulus culture where the focus is on being first with everything. Technology and abundance have left us with an existential void. Our intelligence has made us cruel and unkind. Our life has made us selfish. We are both victims and perpetrators of a system that produces the devastating images that drive the social media algorithms. The clicks have become all. The more devastating the news, the more clicks. The more clicks, the more profit. And so it goes, and us with it too.
The Korean-born, Swiss-German philosopher Byung-Chul Han believes “we no longer inhabit heaven and earth, but [instead] the Cloud and Google Earth. The world is becoming progressively untouchable, foggy and ghostly.” We seem to be lacking in real humanity, compassion, and gentleness away from the computer screens. Likes have replaced enlightenment. Our neoliberal Zoom-managed home offices make us feel creative and smart, but what are we actually doing other than contributing to the “infosphere” with more and more data, and more fuel for the machine?
We have our 5G WiFi as well as every movie, book, encyclopedia, and Miles Davis record at our fingertips, but we do nothing. We are the ones turning the screws and tightening the belts of existence of those who live in faraway places. We receive catharsis through the regularly scheduled news and content appearing in our feeds, directed at us personally. Catered to us psychologically. And it is didactic: it tells us how we should feel. And, when we experience that emotion, we think that it was really ours in the first place. We repeat the pithy lines we heard, passing them off as our own.
All the while, those in power commit crimes of negligence, corruption, theft, idiocy, ignorance, and violence. The people tasked with responsibility often care more for public image and defeating their opponents than the actual lives of people like you and me. After all, it is our job to click. Nothing else. Work the mines. Build the pyramids. Erect the statutes. But do not challenge the masters.
This week we should have opinions about Afghanistan. But despite the books I have read and qualifications I have obtained, I do not know enough. I cannot comment. I'm left with no other option than to scream my emotions into a void where they will be validated by other users on a digital screen. But I don't think that actually helps anyone. Except, of course, the masters.
Dr. David A. Tizzard (datizzard@swu.ac.kr) has a Ph.D. in Korean Studies. He is a social/cultural commentator and musician who has lived in Korea for nearly two decades. The views expressed in the article are the author's own and do not reflect the editorial direction of The Korea Times.