[Overview] After the Conflicts of 2021... Hoping for Harmony in 2022

In 2021, a field emerged that no one dared to touch: gender issues, small business owners, labor-management problems, and generational conflicts including teacher-student and senior-junior relationships. These areas have become even more powerful through the phenomenon known as the so-called “ttebeop,” which refers to the collective sentiment of the majority. Social networking services (SNS) have contributed to this. SNS carries the ttebeop, and if one falls victim to it, authority and power can be destroyed overnight. Conversely, skillfully utilizing ttebeop can bring power and popularity in a single day. Even in politics and the broadcasting and media sectors, this topic is only mentioned without taking a stance against ttebeop.

A society that forces people to take only one side is neither democratic nor advanced. It is regrettable that there is a lack of a social atmosphere that embraces diversity and objectively judges from each other's perspectives. Even if a group intentionally destroys an individual, the world remains indifferent. Many opposing parties suffer due to ttebeop. In fact, these issues keep revolving without a clear answer. However, it is clear that the outcome should neither be determined by money and power nor by popularity and numbers.

The world’s affairs are passing by without order or truth being revealed. Fairness, justice, and equality are discussed everywhere, but countless economic and political issues continue to revolve like a hamster wheel with the truth concealed. Although the media and broadcasting invite experts for fact-checking, they fail to uncover the truth clearly. News drives more news, raising more questions, and the media itself is divided into conservatives and reformists, with mutual logical leaps going too far. Commentators, eloquent storytellers, and popularity seekers rivaling celebrities lead the way as if they know everything about the world’s affairs.

One cannot help but wonder if even the judiciary is prioritizing legal-technical judgments while avoiding judgments about the truth. Why are the public’s doubts being abandoned even in court battles under the logic of legal disputes? Socrates’ saying, “An unjust law is still a law,” as a defense of legal-technical logic, is truly a poor argument.

Korean law follows the continental law system of Germany, so I asked a German legal scholar about this view. His answer was clear: “An unjust law is simply an unjust law.” It is a mistaken interpretation that forgets the purpose of legislation and the existential philosophy of law. Even if legal-technical logic is debatable, it is unreasonable to prioritize it over the common sense and doubts of the people. The more judges grounded in legal philosophy there are, the clearer Korean society will become.

Thus, 2021 is passing without clarifying right and wrong. More adults who can connect truth and sound principles need to be introduced through the media and broadcasting. During the dark times of political dictatorship, there were journalists who took the lead in informing us of the truth, social philosophers who guided our consciousness clearly, and genuine civic activists. Nowadays, adults who point out what is wrong and insist on correction are hard to find. I hope that in 2022, more such adults will appear and be introduced in broadcasting and media to gradually resolve many of our polarized and unresolved social doubts.

Kim Ik-seong, President of the Asia-Europe Future Society · Professor at Dongduk Women’s University

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