[Column] Surviving our era beyond the looking glass

The dawn seen from Mount Mai in Jinan, North Jeolla Province, on Dec. 18, 2025. (Yonhap)

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By Park Hyun, editorial author

In Lewis Caroll’s basic youngsters’s e-book, “Alice in Wonderland,” the protagonist falls down a deep gap whereas chasing a white rabbit. The world Alice encounters on the opposite aspect is an odd place the place widespread sense and logic maintain no sway. Its inhabitants embody a queen who shouts, “Off together with his head!” at each flip, arbitrary and nonsensical trials, and teams embroiled in vicious fights that escape from video games that pay no heed to guidelines by any means. After I mirror on the previous few years of Korean society, it feels as if we’ve fallen down a rabbit gap as effectively.

The previous few years have been a harsh check of democracy’s limits. The primary woman has been taking part in at reigning as queen of a democratic nation, whereas her husband tried to take over the nation by declaring martial legislation with the assist of navy leaders and his acquiescent Cupboard. Although his try failed, the bulk celebration and far-right forces have risen to the aspiring dictator’s protection — all of which has shaken the constitutional order to its core. 

Even the judiciary, believed to be the ultimate bastion of legislation, held a tilted scale and betrayed its personal ideas. But our democracy didn’t collapse. This was because of the steadfast protect fashioned by the residents who poured out into the streets earlier than the Nationwide Meeting and Gwanghwamun Sq., particularly younger individuals of their 20s, braving the bitter chilly to withstand in solidarity. 

Korean democracy has persistently demonstrated astonishing vitality on the very fringe of the precipice. However now, even that resilience should not be taken with no consideration. The world is being swept into nice chaos. The “return of empire” pushed by Putin and Trump, the irreversible Pandora’s field of synthetic intelligence, the accelerating local weather disaster, the populist storm, and political polarization are all converging concurrently. It feels as if forces past human management are shaking the world to its very foundations.

In “Nexus,” Yuval Harari argues that humanity’s tendency to summon uncontrollable forces stems from our species’ distinctive capability for large-scale cooperation. He additionally notes that human networks of mass cooperation depend on fictions and illusions to bind communities and create order. When the plenty comply with false perception techniques, dictators seize management of the world. 

As within the case of Nazism, the civil unrest brought on by far-right populist Yoon Suk-yeol is an occasion of this phenomenon. Sadly, the world right now resembles the Thirties in some ways. Nationalism, pursuit of financial self-reliance, and racism are gaining floor, centered across the main powers of the US, China and Russia. Notably, Trump’s MAGA motion — a false perception system rooted in white supremacist ideology — is swallowing the worldwide superpower and threatening the complete world.

On the root of this chaos lies political polarization and YouTube. Utilizing these as each gas and instruments, populists, dictators and authoritarians are working amok throughout the globe. The plenty are beguiled by their demagoguery, and society is turning into more and more fractured. 

YouTube is the current period’s rabbit gap, amplifying anger and conspiracy theories. In his 1964 e-book “Understanding Media,” Marshall McLuhan noticed that the introduction of recent media expertise causes audiences to fall right into a state of paralysis, which provides rise to societal chaos. When McLuhan provided this perception, tv had taken Western societies by storm, however YouTube’s damaging energy right now far surpasses that of the TV. Algorithms are driving residents aside by prioritizing stimulation over fact and affirmation bias over deliberation. A distorted public sphere is the perfect breeding floor for populism. Democracy’s enemies all the time develop from inside.

We should rebuild the cornerstones and pillars of democracy. Solely then can we defend this establishment when a tsunami strikes unexpectedly.

So as to take action, we should first make those that tried to overthrow Korea’s democracy pay the value for his or her actions. On the identical time, we should transfer shortly to amend our Structure to restrict the focus of energy and strengthen checks and balances. If we fail to overtake our imperial presidential system and unchecked navy, there is no such thing as a stopping the rise of one other, extra highly effective, band of insurrectionists like Yoon and his lackeys, Kim Yong-hyun and Roh Sang-won.  

Second, we should work to alleviate the present excessive polarization in our nation, and spare no effort in solidifying the socioeconomic underpinnings of democracy. Greater than an financial challenge, inequality is the basis of division amongst individuals. 

Third, we should redesign the general public sphere of debate for the digital period. Whereas respecting freedom of speech, we should strengthen social accountability for incitement, hate speech and disinformation. 

Fourth, fated to be located betwixt nice powers, Korea should pursue a balanced diplomacy that stands with the US whereas in search of pleasant relations with China and speaking with Japan and Russia. We should do all the things to make sure that we don’t change into a pawn on the chess board of larger powers and are swept right into a warfare. 

2026 is the 12 months of the Crimson Horse. The vitality of the crimson fireplace and the vigor of the horse herald a yr of nice impetus. We should transcend the dysfunction and use this yr as a turning level in creating a brand new world. 

In “By means of the Trying-Glass,” Alice conquers the Crimson Knight and efficiently advances to the ultimate sq. of the chess board and turns into a queen. In the actual world, trudging by way of our turbulent occasions might be attempting and contain setbacks. But when we take a web page out of Alice’s e-book and confront the nonsensical and unreasonable powers that be with knowledge and braveness to create a brand new world by way of our distinctive perspective, then nothing is unimaginable. 

Every day we should transfer ahead, till we have now surmounted this age of absurdity.

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