I laughed my socks off reading Oh Young-jin's article Under Emperor Donald (Mar 9). "Humor" has the advantage in this case that the jokes don't have to be better than The Donald's own.
Less funny is the footnote. I also believe that a stable political system can "survive some frauds at the top" ― especially if the media play their role as a democratic country's fourth power, divided to guarantee plurality and united to defend human dignity. It is also fine that The Korea Times as a transnational newspaper gives advice to voters in many countries. As people with the vote in Germany like myself were called upon to "kick Merkel out of office" and "get rid of her and her government" because of her "irrational" humanitarian policies in a unique article by Marc Herbermann in the Feb. 26 edition, so are the American voters now assured by the paper's chief editorial writer: "If you like Trump, let him be the one" ― as the chance for him to "become your worst nightmare" is only "remote." No worries.
The assurance makes me uneasy, however, with the suggestion that the American party system "needs cleaning up" and that "Trump could play the role." Dropping the monstrous name Hitler, the writer should be aware of the basic developments in the final period of the German Weimar Republic. Voting for someone who had declared his will to start a fire required the ease to believe that fire meant water. That politics was a mess and someone was needed to temporarily but radically "clean up" was the most common justification of the destructive decision. I don't want to compare anything. No one knows if the jester is the disguise for a monster. But for a "jester to clean up" is definitely not funny.
I see two dangers for our time. The first is the cynical attitude that political debate is anyway no longer a function of civilization. The second is the possibility that offenses against human dignity so unbelievable that they can only be jokes could not be jokes.
Less funny is the footnote. I also believe that a stable political system can "survive some frauds at the top" ― especially if the media play their role as a democratic country's fourth power, divided to guarantee plurality and united to defend human dignity. It is also fine that The Korea Times as a transnational newspaper gives advice to voters in many countries. As people with the vote in Germany like myself were called upon to "kick Merkel out of office" and "get rid of her and her government" because of her "irrational" humanitarian policies in a unique article by Marc Herbermann in the Feb. 26 edition, so are the American voters now assured by the paper's chief editorial writer: "If you like Trump, let him be the one" ― as the chance for him to "become your worst nightmare" is only "remote." No worries.
The assurance makes me uneasy, however, with the suggestion that the American party system "needs cleaning up" and that "Trump could play the role." Dropping the monstrous name Hitler, the writer should be aware of the basic developments in the final period of the German Weimar Republic. Voting for someone who had declared his will to start a fire required the ease to believe that fire meant water. That politics was a mess and someone was needed to temporarily but radically "clean up" was the most common justification of the destructive decision. I don't want to compare anything. No one knows if the jester is the disguise for a monster. But for a "jester to clean up" is definitely not funny.
I see two dangers for our time. The first is the cynical attitude that political debate is anyway no longer a function of civilization. The second is the possibility that offenses against human dignity so unbelievable that they can only be jokes could not be jokes.
Michael Bergmann
Resident in Seoul
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