The Last Word on Korean Nationalism

Regular readers of this blog may come away with the impression that I strongly dislike Korea, but that could not be further from the truth: I wouldn't waste my energy following events in a country I hated. What I strongly dislike is Korean nationalism, and Garry Bevers puts my own stance well when he says

Korea has great potential, but Korean nationalism is killing Korea and wasting valuable resources. Korea needs a Martin Luther King who is courageous enough to stand up to the nationalists, tell the dirty truth about Korea’s colonial and post-colonial history, and start Korea on the path to greatness.

What South Korea has achieved over the last 40 years in the face of dire threats to its existence is eminently worthy of admiration, and provides a case study many developing countries would do well to study closely. The problem is that the blind, hysterical ultranationalism which currently grips the country, now that it is being coupled to an exaggerated pride drawing on Korea's economic success, threatens to march the country down the road to disaster; foreigners may be annoyed at the incessant Korean boasting and almost reflexive blaming of domestic failures on external influences, but ultimately the biggest victims of such attitudes are likely to be Koreans themselves, who are now nearly as politically isolated as they were in the (not at all) "good old days" before the "evil" Japanese dragged Choson Korea into the 20th century.

PS: A doctor's anecdote illustrates what I'm talking about. Although he regurgitates some of the myths of invasion and oppression used to excuse Korean chauvinism, the insane intensity of the nationalistic fervor still shines through.