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This one’s a few days old, but at Ask A Korean!, the Korean handles a question about the state of LGBT life in Korea: the main thrust of the question:

I wanted to know your thoughts about the Margaret Cho anecdote about there being no gay people in Korea. Specifically, what are your thoughts as to the roots of this denial? Do you happen to know anything about the queer movement in Korea? It seems that homoeroticism has gained more acceptance in Korean media (i.e. the king and the clown, no regrets) but what about more mainstream Korean culture, as well as Korean American culture? 

The Queerean 

The write-up is interesting, tracing the growing acceptance of homosexuality in Korea, and the comment board is even MORE interesting, and well worth a read. (More on Korean lesbians at Korea Beat)

Sad news next:  I take it we’ve heard about the Goshiwon Arsonist/Murderer.  DPRK Studies has something interesting to say about it.

Photo from Chosun Ilbo, via Korea Beat

“Fish-Knife Frenzy and Culture of Resentment” at DPRK Studies is a sad reflection on the Fish-Knife Murderer at the goshiwon in southern Seoul.  The money shot:

In the past when South Korea had a more “go-getter” culture of self-improvement in the midst of widespread poverty, people so alienated or disturbed who felt like failures sometimes resorted to suicide. In other words, such people blamed themselves and themselves alone.

Now, increasingly, such disturbed people take out their anger at others, often total strangers (or they burn down a priceless national treasure).

I admit I have no hard data to back up this idea, but my suspicion is that the changing culture of South Korea plays a strong role in incidents like this. As South Korea grows affluent and achieves near-first world standards of living, it also has acquired that first world social disease — the sense of inflated entitlement and the inevitable and attendant resentment when the entitlements fail to materialize. To wit, South Korea has become a “victimhood society” where the traditional response to experiencing personal failure, a deep sense of peronal shame, is being replaced by resentment at the society at large.

The CNN article referenced the Daegu Subway tragedy, as well as the Namdaemun Arson as examples of people taking their disappointments in life out on the world: “The whole world deserves to be as unhappy as I am!”  

So what do you think?  Whence the increase in outward-directed destructive behavior? Do you agree with James at DPRK, that

when underachievers fail to acquire the trappings of the rich and the beautiful quickly and easily, they become angry — not at their own lack of hardwork or perhaps even bad luck, but at the society at large, represented by faceless “others.” With enough resentful people, most of who, of course, would not harm others or even themselves, there is bound to be a minority of maladjusted malcontents who take out their frustrations on others violently.

And such people do not need guns to harm others, as amply demonstrated by this sad episode. As South Korea grows richer and joins the first world proper, I expect this kind of violence to increase.

These kinds of incidents always make me think of this clip from the movie Fight Club, which I think captures that frame of mind really accurately. Warning: this clip is gross and graphic. It’s the “I wanted to Breathe Smoke” scene.

It’d probably be best to add your comments on LGBT life in Korea to The Korean’s comment board, and discuss the culture of resentment here.

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