[A Sip of Books] "Europe Is No Longer a 'Role Model'"

Some sentences encapsulate the entire content of the book itself, while others instantly reach the reader's heart, creating a connection with the book. We present meaningful sentences excerpted from the book. - Editor's note

For many years, the United States and Europe have been regarded as the world's "role models." However, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, public health authorities revealed vulnerabilities and were thrown into great confusion. Inconsistent measures by health authorities, uncooperative citizen attitudes, racial discrimination, fake news, and more. The author sheds light on the reality where values symbolizing Europe?such as human rights, freedom, and solidarity?lose their meaning and drift aimlessly. The book also explores the strengths and weaknesses of Europe's political, educational, and healthcare systems. Additionally, it examines various issues and debates in European society, including inequality and freedom of expression.

Undoubtedly, the Western world is the standard-bearer of liberal democracy. From economic prosperity to minority rights, they achieved it first, and we followed. The problem is that over the past few decades, there are areas where we have nearly caught up or where the situation has already changed, yet they have not updated their related information. Moreover, COVID-19 is an unprecedented new crisis. Although new responses are required, Europe still relies on the image of being a pioneer of past liberal democracy. Since the virus began spreading in Europe, the word "solidarity" has frequently appeared on social media. It was mostly used alongside photos of people applauding healthcare workers from balconies at designated times, lighting candles, or holding small concerts. However, while talking about solidarity, people violated government measures and held gatherings. Have I misunderstood the concept of solidarity all this time?

When Koreans living in the U.S. or Europe write about the education in those countries, it is common to see explanations that, compared to Korea’s rote memorization and cramming education, advanced countries teach even the multiplication tables for several years to ensure perfect understanding of the principles. But if it really takes years to understand the principles of multiplication tables, isn’t something wrong? Is it really that difficult for a 9-year-old to understand the relationship between addition and multiplication? When my child entered third grade and started learning multiplication, I realized there was no grand "principle" education as in advanced countries. Memorizing multiplication tables through "ignorant repetition" was the same in Swiss schools. The only difference was that Korea has multiplication table songs, and here they do not.

In daily life, which relies heavily on IT technology, some degree of privacy invasion must be tolerated. It is a necessary evil. In a pandemic sweeping the globe, partially disclosing an individual's infection history or movement is an unavoidable decision. However, even if personal information is provided, the process by which it is handled must be monitored. The argument "If you have nothing to hide, you can disclose it" and the argument "Despite privacy invasion, the benefits are much greater, so we must endure the sacrifice and disclose information" are entirely different. It is necessary to make efforts to compare the size of benefits and sacrifices on a case-by-case basis and make judgments. Above all, we must recognize that privacy is connected to human dignity. Just because no one is bleeding and collapsing right now does not mean its weight should be underestimated.

(Written by Jin-kyung Kim / Medici Media)

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.