A Mirror Image of America

Trump Contagion in South Korea

Within a span of six hours, South Korea experienced an extraordinary constitutional crisis, with the declaration of martial law, and then a swift response on the part of the people that led to lawmakers affirming democracy over abuse of power. Yoon Suk Yeol, whom I have been calling “the Donald Trump of Korea,” having ascended to the presidency in 2022 with the creation of a Fox News-like station in the country in imitation of the U.S., finally had his incompetence catch up with him. Just like the bombast, misogyny, and entitlement he rode to rise to power, he attempted to respond to the reality of his ineptitude in governance—specifically, corruption scandals and criticisms—with aggression.

Yoon might have perceived a declaration of martial law, for the first time in the country since 1980, as viable because of the recent election of Donald Trump. Under such a coup, “special measures” can be employed to bring the media under his control, to clamp down on protests, and to subordinate the powers of the courts. Yoon’s concept of a “solution” to his low approval ratings mirrors very closely Trump’s idea of a “fix” to his election loss in 2020. Hundreds of troops tried to seize the National Assembly building to prevent lawmakers from entering to overturn Yoon’s declaration.

However, this is where South Korea diverges from the United States: hundreds of protesters also gathered to scuffle with the troops. There were no major injuries, but one woman tried to pull a rifle away from one of the soldiers, while shouting: “Aren’t you embarrassed?” This anecdote rather reminds me of Revolutionary France, where women played a significant role in overcoming a formidable monarchy, largely by convincing the king’s guards to convert to the side of the people. The spirit of the people, strengthened by the Enlightenment, had by then become a powerful ability to convince—as has the educated electorate of South Korea.

As a result, the lawmakers were able to make their way in and voted, 190 to 0, to lift the martial law and vowed to protect democracy “with the people.” The speaker of the Assembly even applauded the “maturity” of the troops in leaving so quickly after the vote. Now, the unpopular president will likely be forced to resign or face impeachment.

I comment on these events in part because I know South Korea intimately, having followed its evolution since it was a military dictatorship that in 1980 surrounded and massacred an entire city (Gwangju)—but having closed all universities, banned political activities, and suppressed the press, the whole world would know about the massacre before Koreans did. My parents, having just returned after finishing their studies in the U.S., remarked, “In Korea, anyone becomes president”—referring to the ignorance and total ineptitude of those who seized power.

They were part of the patriotic generation that aspired to study abroad so as to bring back knowledge, skills, and democratic ideals to “lift” the country out of darkness. They did not last very long there—for which I as a small child bear no small guilt—but returned to the U.S., only to experience the countries gradually trade places in many regards. Whereas they had been impressed with America’s ability to remove a president (Richard Nixon) in 1974, by 2017 South Korea was able to remove a corrupt president (Park Geun-hye), but the U.S. was not. Also, South Korea had a woman president before the U.S., not to mention universal health care and greater access to education.

However, after electing a highly intelligent president in 2017—who spearheaded a very hopeful reunification movement between North and South Korea before Donald Trump hijacked and ruined it—the country regressed into voting for a candidate low on intelligence and high on toxic masculinity. Moon Jae-in, president until 2022 (South Korea has five-year terms), resembled for me Barack Obama for his intelligence, without the minority status, and thus gave a measure of how much Trumpism is based on a rebellion against intelligence and sanity, of which racism is only a part.

The rejection of Yoon Suk Yeol shows the strength of democracy in South Korea, which I attribute primarily to two factors that I can identify. First, their version of “Fox News” is relatively new (until very recently, “news” was only real news—so much that I resorted to listening to Korean channels since the Bush/Cheney era to find out what was really happening in the world). Second, their collective culture (they are known as “the Italians of the East”) resists atomization, fragmentation, and mechanization—and we know from a comparison between Adolf Hitler’s Germany and Benito Mussolini’s Italy how a collective culture can prevent total integration of authoritarianism.

Trump Contagion, as I have described, requires three components for spread: an offending agent (the mentally-impaired person who seizes an influential position); weakened hosts (such as an atomized society under stress); and a facilitating environment (such as a media environment that spreads propaganda).

Imagine if an incompetent president were to declare martial law in the U.S. Would the public be swift to unite in protest, or would it be polarized? Would the media environment allow for the correct transmission of facts, or would it merely confuse? These are questions we need to ask ourselves, urgently, so as to remedy any or all of the above components. Our collective mental health depends on it.

Announcement:

Dr. Bandy X. Lee will hold a live session on:

“How to Navigate an Increasingly Dangerous World”

Friday, December 6, 2024, at 12 noon EDT/9 a.m. PDT on Zoom. A paid subscription is required to receive a link the morning before. Thank you!

Dr. Lee is a forensic and social psychiatrist, president of the World Mental Health Coalition, and cofounder of the Violence Prevention Institute. She became known to the public through her 2017 Yale conference and book that emphasized the importance of fit leadership. In 2019, she organized a major National Press Club Conference on the theme of, “The Dangerous State of the World and the Need for Fit Leadership.” In 2024, she followed up with another major Conference, “The More Dangerous State of the World and the Need for Fit Leadership.” She also published another book on fit leadership, in addition to a volume explaining how unfitness in a leader spreads, and spearheaded two critical statements on fit leadership. Dr. Lee authored the internationally-acclaimed textbook, Violence; over 100 peer-reviewed articles and chapters; and 17 scholarly books and journal special issues, in addition to over 300 opinion editorials.