Chapter 36:Daum Rises to Power

36
Daum Rises to Power, 2008

Could you envision an online portal, say, yahoo.com, that is, the registered members of the portal to be exact, turning seditious? Could you imagine a specific media, granted that it is to be designated as such, turning out an Al Kaida boot camp-U.S. type in your national territory? Could you picture a specific portal, that is, the members of the portal turning so close to each other, that it was becoming a militant entity?

Do you accept a theory that the medias, that is, the press and the broadcasting stations, have turned powerful, so much so that they have been empowered, in parallel with the Three Branches of Power, to exercise the exclusive power barring the power to indict? If so, how about DAUM of South Korea, that is not age-old but a rookie media which has turned 15 as of this year?

Could you envisage a bizarre state or social atmosphere that, a late comer, say, www.yahoo.com, even though you could concede that you should respect the others' rights of speech and the press, is hitting the road for infringing on the rights of their hateful media, say, those of the New York Times, abusing them?

Could you tolerate a specific system of creed, even though a Constitutional Amendment of the U.S. guarantees the freedoms of religion and conscience of its citizens to its maximum degree, if and when the system held by some members is infringing on the freedoms and the fundamental human rights of the others who have lived up to the creed of the citizens of the free and democratic republic?

Could you visualize bizarre social environs, in which the portals stationed in the U.S.--say, yahoo or Google--turned militant all of a sudden and began sending their own troops, staging anti-government demonstrations and candle light vigils? Could you also visualize a scene in which a broadcasting establishment, say, CNN or something would appeal to Portal Yahoo for a very conciliatory favor?

Would you be interested in DAUM and things www.daum.net has been creating, and, after all things have been said and done, would you agree to my assertion that the progenitor of DAUM Mr. Lee somebody, and his successor Mr. Seok somebody leave the place, charged with the anarchic chaos the portal has caused?

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He was studying abroad in France or something in the 1990s when Lee somebody, inspired by Noam Chomsky's renowned book entitled Manufacturing Consent, was planning to build a popular-oriented portal of his own in 1995 or around that time. Mr. Lee and/or Mr. Seok named it DAUM. The name DAUM phonetically means 'next' in Korean, but it is not clear what they meant or tried to mean by it.

A popular- oriented portal? The idea has tended to be ideologically leftist-leaning and has naturally gawked at the established newspapers, particularly the Morning Calm Daily, as its enemy to be pulled down. DAUM'S policy of course has been felt, tasted, smelled, and shared, through online contents, inciting anti-government and anti-establishment posts flying overboard of Agora, which had been patterned after the Agora of the ancient Greece, touting five-digit viewerships by its users.

DAUM in 2008 turned seditious to the just launching government and its president, and seemed to the level-minded folks like me to be very dangerous. I had been at the portal as a regular member and warned of their derailments, only bombarded with verbal abuses by the Agorans of Daum "...pro-Japanese perfidious residue..." or "...nation-selling traitor..."

The Agorans' anti-government activities turned ever more frantic: They turned to the streets to stage all-night sit-ins and candle light vigils. And their beliefs turned ever more fanatic: President Lee Myong Bak, having been born in Osaka, Japan and having been "a convicted criminal on various counts," would inevitably make a wholesale of the nation.

There was no stopping them. Even "backup troops from abroad" joined the Agorans of DAUM. But it was really odd of Aidan Foster-Carter, the contributor of the FT (Financial Times), to have thrown an acerbic diatribe against Mr. Lee Myong Bak, across from the Atlantic Ocean, the President of the just launching South Korean rightist and conservative government. It was nothing more than a virile character killing, on which he has had no ground for it because Mr. Lee could not become his sworn enemy, for he hadn't "killed Aidan's father."

Granting that Aidan was not a diplomat but a journalist in the esteemed country of Britain, he would not be permitted to wield the goon's sword with impunity, much less to be allowed to emit vituperation with no end in sight. Aidan, enumerating on his hatreds toward the leader of a free democratic republic with groundless reasons, he announced with a vituperative assertion to the effect that "what Mr. Lee needs most just now is not a bulldozer but a brain surgeon..."

Aidan, with venomous mouth and warped character, had developed the predator's instinct from the earliest, which had taught him where and how to nudge to earn his livelihood, using a venomous pen of his as a livelihood weapon. He had started from his earliest academic years taking advantage of an easy prey that was Korea. It's been really weird that he had once been a fanatic fan of Kim Il Sung of DPRK, of all the world leaders. It's been so natural and understandable that he couldn't stand the democratically elected leader of South Korea.

It could be presumed but couldn't be ascertained that Aidan had mooched off North Korea by praising the fascistic dictator's leadership and getting away with the hospitalities of 'foreign scholarships' bestowed by DPRK on the foreign propagandists like him, frequenting Pyongyang. It's been so brazen of him that, after rabble-rousing the Agoran leftists so much, Aidan showed up leisurely in Seoul one day 2009, the capital city of the really democratic nation, calling at Samsung Research Foundation or something.

Roused by the British-originated instigator like Aidan Foster-Carter, encouraged by the anti-government and leftist-leaning broadcasting station like MBC TV by its tongue in cheek news items, and solidified by the hostility-ridden, confrontation-inciting posts touting five-digit viewerships flying above the Agora Plaza, a popular instigator materialized on the petition site of DAUM, calling for its members to sign the petition for the National Assembly to impeach the President.

The name of the petition proponent was Kim S.C., ages 17 at the time, who had been a sophomore of a certain high school. He had had even no right to vote, short of two years of the suffrage. He was only armed with hostilities which had been provided by the hate-ridden posts full of biases solidified by its own prejudices and self-righteous moralists. The Agorans raced to the petition site. They didn't question the credentials of the proponent. 1,320,000 members signed in no more than a week.

The kettles really boiled over, rattling...They turned to the streets, with uniform paper candle holders and blood-colored placards provided by shady organizations whosever identities you name them. Some children in the front row spitted at the riot police, with some others swearing at them as the backup adults applauded them. Petition advocate Kim somebody of the Presidential impeachment was also in the front row, yelling at them, "I am Kim S.C. I have one million and three hundred and twenty thousand supporters behind me." Young women with their babies on the baby carts took the front rows.

Fear had gripped the crowds, that is, the fear of becoming mad sooner or later as soon as the American beef, with the beef negotiations between the U.S. and Korea settled, were to cross the customs office to enter the kitchen tables of the people. Exaggerations of terror and distortions of facts surrounding vCJD were excused under the name of patriotism and the people's right to be informed, mainly by the leftist-leaning and anti-American broadcasting stations like MBC TV, and the rumors added wings on the Agora of DAUM that even esthetics products such as makeup cosmetics are not safe from mad cow diseases. It's later known that that's why thousands of middle school girls had joined the candlelight vigils. (I don't want to die young!)

The pitch of protest never seemed to subside. The initial negotiators left, holding them responsible for failing to take care of the ramifications of the negotiation. Self-reproaching on the government and its president for their brashness ensued. President Lee, mounting the rear hill of the presidential palace (Blue House:Chong Wa Dae) one night, looking through the binoculars at the huge lines of candlelights progressing in the downtown streets, was taking stock of the multitude he would be supposed to handle.

There had been no casualties. However, the self-discipline, toleration and generosity on the part of the police had usually been taken advantage of. The so-called human rights activists had looked away from wounded policemen and burnt-down police vans. To Ms. Norma Kang Muico, Amnesty International's East Asian District Manager or something, the battered policemen were not precious human beings that counted, and the burnt-down police trucks were not the government property to be taken care of, either.

The anti-government, anti-U.S., and leftist-leaning strikes lasted for 80 more days. The strike, which had begun with flickering candle lights during the early evening hours, became intense with the exchanges of slogan chanting and verbal abuses around midnight, and ended with rock throwing and water cannon firing during the small hours. The Agorans had consulted themselves, on online pages, through emails and cell phone messages, on the vulnerabilities of the previous day's street strife and boosted their determination to pull down Lee and his government.

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DAUM became a power. In exact terms, I watched with my two eyes the 15-year-old portal rise to power. What is meant by power then? The term power means exactly what the textbooks of sociology or politics are now defining: the ability to control the environment or other entities. (Wikipedia) To enumerate, power means the ability to force others to do something in spite of their own wills.

The sovereign power of a nation deploys its troops to the other regions of confrontation, with the consent of the conflicting entity. I've watched with awe at the queer yet decisive moment an online instigator, who had been presumed to be a cadre Agora member of DAUM's, promise to "send several hundred troops" to a specific broadcasting station, which had been then at loggerheads with the government. (Shall I send Agoran troops?)

Power, however big and strong it may be, has as its major attribute the physical force. The agent armed with power has the urge to exercise its force and subjugate the target entity to kneel down to let do its bidding. On one early summer morning of 2008, scores of the Agorans raided the Morning Calm Daily and ran amok, pulling down the corporate name plate, destroying the frontal gate, vandalizing furnishings, screwing up the frontal surroundings with their own urines, with the warning that they'd violate the area with feces sooner or later.

The really powerful entity is revered with awe by the weak or by those who consider themselves vulnerable. It doesn't have to hit the road for the prowl for a prey and use force in order to overwhelm, control, and subjugate the target. You could envision a state in which the weak nations send their emissaries to offer tributes to the powerful sovereign, or in which a sovereign of a weak nation would deign to appear in person to have an audience with the other powerful sovereign.

That did happen on a certain season's day in 2008, to DAUM, a new kid portal. DAUM didn't have to flex its own muscles. It's time the other elderly medias of South Korea took the online travel to offer tributes to DAUM. It's been a great honor of me to see with my naked eyes the monumental scene unfolding before me and it's been a great disappointment, a disgust and a shame at the same time to know how vulnerable and mean some human beings could turn out from time to time.

I did catch an incredible sight. Really incredible. There, on Agora of DAUM, that is, the online message board of the maelstrom, which had been patterned after the tradition of the historically famous forum of Greece, a gentleman in dark suit trudged onto it, looking apprehensively around the place, spread a disposable mat on a patio of the busy plaza, positioned himself on it, and posted a plea for mercy and understanding.

I am figuratively describing the situation of course, but the post and its messages just reminded me of the bizarre description. He was, through his post, seeking, in the capacity of the chief of the labor union of the SBS TV, and by his real name of Shim S.T., for mercy. Yes, for mercy! He was beseeching the merciful discretion of the Agorans in treating the media. "Please do not position us side by side with the Morning Calm Daily!" he pleaded.

Why did he, the chief of the labor union which boasts of 1,000 members strong, come to the portal site, or the wasteland of the anonymous? What was Mr. Shim afraid of, in person, or what were SBS members afraid of collectively? The sure thing was that they were scared of vandalism, which had been done by the Agoran hooligans and witnessed in the earlier ransacking of the Morning Calm Daily.

I should like to point out Shim's personal or their collective disillusion. If and when they had been really concerned about the corporate security of theirs, they should have gone to the police for protection. (Is Agora the government anyway?) Or, they should have organized their own vigilante to repel the Agoran hooligans (Is Agora the police?)

What the hell had the SBS's union chief meant by his pleading? Point of his pleading was that the media, which had been launched in the comparatively recent year of 1991, has inadvertently been mistaken to represent the interests of the landed and moneyed class. That's why the leftist-leaning Agorans have come to see the SBS as the Morning Calm parallel.

Has there been any shift then on the part of the SBS after Mr. Shim's tributary vow, which had turned out hilarious, self-derogatory, and humiliating at the same time? There has been one, of course. "Watch and listen to the news of the SBS TV, you Agorans! You'll probably like it," they seemed to take a special heed on the subject, tone, style, and wording of the prime time news items (8'O'clock Evening News) Which could be favored by the Agorans, and which could be secretly noticed by the media watchdogs.

Through the 8 O'clock Evening News casting Mr. Sin and Ms. Gym have started making sarcastic comments more often than ever. To the two newscasting pair, the livelihood of the grassroots has been deteriorating than ever; The so-called bi-polarization, or the social stratification in South Korea has been deepening and widening ever; The outlook of the South Korean economy is becoming gloomier than ever. They more often than not make lambasting comments on the expensive spending spree of the rich people, particularly on the vintage items of the downtown department stores.

The self-contradicting footage of the media done by the newscasting staff of the SBS TV has been: that the two broadcasting announcers almost always wear expensive- and vintage-looking clothes: that the pair and the other members of the media corporation have not shown any determination to cut down on their yearly earnings by half in order to help bridge the chasm of the gaping bi-polarization of the society: and that the media corporation has been obsessed with raking U.S. dollars and other convertible bills with the exclusive airing contract with the other foreign sports licenses, too capitalistic-prone soap operas, and the other collateral businesses.

You Mr. Shim somebody should have decided on the extremely basic question of what's right and what's wrong. You should have thought about what is power, a real power you should turn to. You should have built priorities on what to do first, and what to do next. You should have gotten your thoughts organized before you hit the road to take an online travel to DAUM and say hello to it and spread a mat on the plaza to offer a tribute.

As the ancient maxim says that "all roads lead to Rome," might it be an overstatement if I should hereby declare that in the Internet era of the 21st- century South Korea, all roads lead to DAUM? I don't think so. Of course, the government might be upset about the weird proposition. The media establishment, particularly the age-old newspapers should get sullen over the presumptuous usurpation. The rest of the folks might be perplexed at the contention itself involved here: They don't understand what are meant by their behaviors after all.

The gist of my contention is that almost all the members of the South Korean society, particularly the members of the ideology-prone folks in the upper crust or in leading circles, have tended to live up to the moral, political, ethical and social tenets the Agorans of DAUM have been building, so much so that a lot of them are leading "conscious lives," which means that they are bound to be conscious of the Agorans' responses--their applauses, their boos, and even their silence. You could notice, if you were to focus your concentration on it, that they're continuously sending signals to the Agora of DAUM. Power leaves a trail behind it.

They're supposed to keep track of things, personal and social, that is, they're supposed to think in what manner they'll put things: They're not supposed to think in reverse fashion. I don't think that nationalism should be given a first place above all else, but I think the personal dignity should not be pursued to the extent that the private citizen's freedom and right will inevitably and eventually have to sacrifice the security of the sovereign entity itself.

The message boards of the portal media should have been a space for debates, in which some modest opinions mutually compatible enjoyed the equal share with the rest of the modest opinions. In other words, the Agora of DAUM should have acted as a forum for individual citizens, like the Agora of the ancient Greece had been. But it did not. In there, the leftist-leaning values and ideologies had been prized, the specific morals and justice had been monopolized, and a variety of democratic societies had been ignored, thumbed down, booed and mercilessly trampled down.

The Agoran of DAUM was not a debater of the era but a warrior for the leftist ideology. He was not a man and woman of understanding and harmony but the man and the woman of hatred and curse. The Agora was not a forum but a colosseum; The Agoran was not the man and woman of the pen but the warrior with swords. That's where we should find an apt reason the Agora should be mercilessly suppressed and subjugated under the national sovereignty.

They, the Agrans themselves, in the final phase of their metamorphosis as a power, handed to one another and distributed among themselves, 'homework', which had been a sheer sign of the communized or communizing society as seen in Mao Ze Dung's or Che Guevara's, or in Kim Il Sung's political studies or something.

What kind of homework? To cite one example, they consulted one another and among themselves, on the online site of the Agora of DAUM, and decided that they would recant the credit card contracts with a specific credit card company, citing of course one particular reason that the target corporation was financing advertising on the Morning Calm Daily. Some homeworkers, calling at a particular business entity and citing their reasons, cheered the laborers up, just like Kim Il Sung had done to his dear laborers. The Agorans consulted one another and among themselves and decided that they would go buying ramyon noodle products of Samyang make and that they would boycott Shin ramyon products of Nongshim make, for the same reason of their favor and disfavor.

The homeworkers, after their homework done, returning to the site, posting their work results, accepted the report, and praised it one another. So casually and communally. Is this weird entity a message board of a portal or something? Or, a communist commune or something? Or, more like the Al Kaida training camp or something?

The Agorans collected money for the Agoran cause, that is, the communal, socialist, or communist cause, collectively of course and that very fast. How fast? At the speed of light. They collected a huge amount of money in a whiff. How huge? As much as fifteen thousand or so dollars. The Agorans must be rich capitalists in themselves. For what purpose? To post an advertising on a particular newspaper they favor, disclaiming the Morning Calm Daily.

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Bullies are to be sedated, in society and even in the family. All the family members should accede to the parental authority, which is the key to the maintenance of the familial value, peace and harmony. A maverick is to be kept at bay, in a corporate society, away from the ordinary members, and eventually to be evicted, in order to keep the wheels of the corporation rolling. To keep the sovereign entity running normally, the rebel force, or the fake power or psudo power, like DAUM, should be coordinated, checked, controlled and subsided.

The bane of the South Korean society is that it has too many smart people. In other words, there're too many pundits in their own way. The United States might be able to stand a leftist-leaning scholar or two like Noam Chomsky. In some aspects, the presence of the tongue-in-cheek linguist cum anti-government activist could be a pride of the U.S., which attests to the academic tolerance and generosity toward the freedom of expression.

But the problem of South Korea is that the country has thousands of acolytes of Noam, and, if they were allowed to assert their own place, the country would not be able to stand on its own. Consider that the United States is a big country priding itself on the huge territory forty times as big as North and South Koreas combined. So tens of Chomskys alone, not to mention hundreds or thousands, could undermine the national security of Korea.