[New Release] The Path Beyond Hatred and Extremes

The Question Posed by 18 Leaders Reflecting on Korea's Reality
"Dictatorship Begins with Dividing Enemies and Allies"

As election season arrives, the question "Which side are you on?" becomes rampant. South Korea today has become a country with no hesitation in forcing people to choose one side.

Democracy is not red or blue, but "gray." Democracy is a system that finds a compromise in the middle ground between black and white, enemy and ally, but what is the reality of Korea in 2024?

The number of politicians and intellectuals with outstanding debating skills is gradually decreasing. People who are skilled at identifying camps rather than engaging in productive debates rise to the mainstream. Citizens' disillusionment deepens day by day. This is the background behind the rapid increase of independents who dislike all established parties.

This book is an attempt by the author, a current journalist, to pose issues through conversations with eighteen leaders and to serve as a compass moving from a despairing era to a new one.

It compiles interviews with politicians who have maintained a centrist perspective, such as former People Power Party Emergency Committee Chairman Kim Jong-in, Reform New Party Co-Leader Lee Jun-seok, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, former lawmakers Yoo Seung-min, Geum Tae-seop, Kim Se-yeon, and Assemblyman Ahn Cheol-soo, as well as intellectuals not bound by camps, including Shin Ki-wook, Director of the Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University, former First Vice Minister of Strategy and Finance Kim Yong-beom, Professor Lim Ji-hyun of Sogang University’s Department of History, former Ambassador to Japan Ra Jong-il, writer Kim Kyu-hang, and Professor Lee Jung-dong of Seoul National University’s Graduate School of Engineering.

"In the early stages of discussion, basic income and climate change might have been progressive agendas, but when social discussion matures, they should become core conservative agendas." ? Conservative from the future Kim Se-yeon (p.152).

"If you have a bad experience in the U.S., you become anti-American; if you have a good experience, you become pro-American." ? Scholar viewing Korea from abroad Shin Ki-wook (p.254).

"All dictatorships begin by dividing enemies and allies." ? Democratic leftist Lim Ji-hyun (p.286).

At times sharp and at times warm, this is a diagnosis of the era. The author titled it The Birth of a New Mainstream with the hope that the thoughts of the eighteen interviewees will occupy a larger space than now.

The author aims to discuss agendas rooted in the "third way," not taking sides. Ahead of the general election, a forum has been prepared where sovereign citizens and their political leaders can engage in dialogue and diagnose the present.

The Birth of a New Mainstream | Written by Ko Jae-seok | East Asia | 412 pages | 20,000 KRW

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