The “ideological clash between the left and the right” evident in South Korea’s political and social landscape is less a difference in fundamental values and more a clash between reason and irrationality. At some point, we became so cautious that political discussions became practically taboo at our dinner tables.
With productive dialogue absent and only partisan logic and moral condemnation remaining, this article analyzes the reality of ideological conflict in Korean society and examines the negative impact this has on teenagers, who represent the next generation.
The current left-right divide in South Korea is characterized by irrational behavior that categorizes every issue in a binary manner, regardless of the other side’s circumstances, level of knowledge, or depth of rational thought. For example, based on partisan logic, unconditional support or opposition is determined by “who said it,” before even considering the effectiveness of a policy or the logical validity of an argument. People are trapped in the cognitive bias that claims from their own camp are unconditionally “good,” while those from the opposing camp are “evil.” Rather than attempting to discuss complex social issues based on individual contexts or expertise, they demonize opponents by labeling them “Communists (leftists)” or “native Japanese collaborators” or “hard-line right-wingers,” thereby demonizing the other side.
Ultimately, far from being resolved, the rift deepens; the moment differences are labeled as “wrong” even within the same camp, any concession or compromise aimed at finding common ground is dismissed as “betrayal.” Consequently, this only results in wasted social resources, and no productive foundation is laid for resolving the nation’s pressing challenges.
Furthermore, rather than engaging in “message refutation”—which involves exposing the logical flaws in an opponent’s argument—a culture of slander has become rampant, one that seeks to destroy opponents solely by highlighting the “moral failings of the messenger,” such as their past conduct or private life. For example, this logic takes the form of statements such as, “President Lee Jae-myung has five prior convictions, so his current arguments are not worth listening to.” This has the effect of transforming hearings and debates—which should be venues for scrutinizing the validity of policies—into arenas for the moral character assassination of an individual. Furthermore, with the development of social media and new media, confirmation bias has become severe as the moral failings of the opposing camp are sensationalized, edited, and widely circulated. While logical refutation requires intellectual effort, moral condemnation tends to spread even more rapidly because it fosters a strong sense of solidarity through nothing more than emotional venting.
However, what is most serious is that the irrational conflict between generations causes severe distortions in the cognitive and emotional development of adolescents. We have examined the areas affected by the conflict between reason and irrationality and the major negative phenomena it causes among teenagers as follows.
First, excessive ideologically-driven conflict leads to a loss of critical thinking skills needed to analyze complex social issues from multiple perspectives. In other words, it’s easy to fall into cognitive laziness, viewing everything in the world solely through a dichotomous framework of left/right or friend/foe. Instead of building a logical case to persuade others, people first learn to cultivate hatred, thereby acquiring the skill of seeking out others’ weaknesses to mock and stigmatize them. This can exacerbate the violence inherent in the language culture of adolescence. Even if a student holds a balanced perspective or a third-party opinion, the fear of being labeled an informant or a traitor within the group may lead them to self-censor their thoughts, raising concerns that a healthy culture of debate will be lost even within the classroom. Consequently, this creates a situation where adolescents—who have grown up seeing only the slander of the older generation—come to view politics not as a forum for consultation but as a war in which opponents must be annihilated, undermining the core of democracy: “coordination through dialogue and compromise amidst differing interests and values.”
The left-right divide in South Korea is less a matter of differing political ideologies than an irrational phenomenon resulting from a combination of dogmatism—the belief that “only my opinion is correct”—and fake news. To overcome this, while the political awakening of the older generation is important, it is essential above all to strengthen digital literacy and critical thinking education for teenagers. An education system that merely focuses on memorizing problems with predetermined answers—such as “1 + 1 = 2”—or one that pursues creativity and arts and physical education while neglecting basic common sense and etiquette is nothing more than a house of cards. Character education—which helps students understand the basic duties of being human and learn to respect one another—will serve as the true roadmap toward a just society, Only by shifting the paradigm toward a “rational society”—where we mutually verify the logic of arguments rather than attacking the moral character of others to “kill the messenger”—can the future of our community be sustainable.
It has become abundantly clear that the calls for “freedom” and “innovation”—which the People Power Party has put forward every time it faced a crisis—were nothing more than empty rhetoric intended to deflect the crisis. For their talk of innovation to have any genuine credibility, they should have broken free from the chronic, closed-off regionalism centered on the Yeongnam region—a chronic ailment of conservative parties—and demonstrated a sense of responsibility as a public party dedicated to safeguarding the constitutional order and the values of democracy. However, the reality was quite different. As soon as election season passed, they once again hid behind the safe haven of Gyeongsang Province to consolidate their vested interests, and they have repeatedly undermined the fundamental democratic values of mutual benefit and cooperative governance in parliamentary politics for the sake of partisan interests. Such “lip-service to innovation”—which parasitizes on regionalism and undermines the constitutional order—is an act of deceiving voters. The upcoming June 3 local elections must serve as a solemn judgment to put an end to this deceptive politics, relegate the People Power Party to a marginal minority party forever, and establish South Korea’s party politics centered on the Democratic Party and progressive parties.
