2024/03/17

The Most Decisive Element of Fascism Is “Unifying Human Thoughts into One”
2019/10/29
The following is a continuation of the preceding chapter.
Uniform Memory Created by Totalitarianism
Comfort women statues were already being erected one after another during the Park Geun-hye administration, and I am not saying that the number of bronze statues increased because the left-wing Moon Jae-in administration came to power.
It is private actors, rather than the government, who erect the statues.
However, South Korean society as a whole is gripped by the obsession that the purge of pro-Japanese elements has not yet been completed and must be carried out.
That obsession gives rise to a tendency toward totalitarianism.
The force erecting the statues is the left-wing labor organization known as the “Korean Confederation of Trade Unions,” but they profit from erecting those statues.
The construction of statues leads to totalitarianism because illegally erected statues are left in place, and this constitutes a step toward totalitarianism.
That is the turning point, and in that sense, the statue in Daejeon violates the law.
Yet, despite the statue having been erected illegally, the mayor and the chair of the city council attended its unveiling ceremony.
Totalitarianism means that a single ideology dominates everything.
In the case of the former Soviet Union, it was an ideology called revolution.
In South Korea, the single idea that “pro-Japanese elements must be purged” overrides the law and dominates society.
That is totalitarianism, and it is precisely what happened in Daejeon.
That is why the turning point toward totalitarianism has been crossed.
Meanwhile, bronze statues of comfort women are also being erected in the United States.
They may not violate American law, but provoking Japanese people by erecting statues has intensified Japanese resentment toward South Korea.
The purpose is to reinforce the framework for purging pro-Japanese elements within South Korea.
In other words, these are not bronze statues for Koreans living abroad, but bronze statues intended to provoke Japanese people.
The United States has bronze statues of Lincoln and Washington, which honor those individuals.
However, statues of comfort women and former workers not only provoke Japanese people but also serve as tools for making young Koreans who did not experience that era relive the suffering of the past.
They instill an erroneous understanding of history that produces anger and ugly emotions.
In South Korea, there is an understanding of history according to which, more than a hundred years ago, Japan forcibly intruded into the flourishing Joseon dynasty and nipped the buds of its independent development.
It is a view of history that assumes South Korea could have achieved a far more splendid modernization if only Japan had not intervened, and behind it lies xenophobia.
Toward the end of the Joseon dynasty, Heungseon Daewongun advocated “national isolation and the expulsion of foreigners,” and the same kind of xenophobia lies behind the installation of today’s “conscripted worker statues.”
The workers of that time went to Japan to earn money, but all such aspects are omitted, and they are portrayed as having suffered like slaves.
That is the argument advanced by xenophobia.
There is only one “manufactured memory” being instilled in the Korean people.
It is a memory that recognizes neither the existence of other memories nor any dissenting views, and it is totalitarian and dangerous.
Precisely because it is a manufactured memory, dissent is not permitted.
Beyond its understanding of history, the Moon Jae-in administration also shows numerous signs of seeking totalitarianism.
The Constitution states that “the people have the right to pursue happiness.”
The right to pursue happiness should belong to each individual.
Yet, under the idea that “the state gives happiness to individuals,” the government adopts policies that provide the people with happiness created by the state.
This, too, is totalitarianism and uniformity.
Large sums of money are being allocated to “community care” for older people and support for cognitive functioning.
However, this policy is based on the idea that the state provides uniform happiness by bringing individuals together within a community, that is, a local area.
Here, too, there is a tendency toward totalitarianism.
The most decisive element of fascism is “unifying human thoughts into one,” and I believe that attempting to unify “historical views of the past,” in particular, is dangerous.
This article continues.