INTUITIVELY, ONE would identify North Korea—a rogue state embodying dictatorship and violent repression—as antithetical to the United States, the epitome of freedom and robust democracy. However, to the eyes of a North Korean defector who desperately escaped from destitution in North Korea and from sexual slavery in China before finding refuge in the United States, there is a striking similarity: authoritarian tendencies. In her book While Time Remains: A North Korean Defector’s Search for Freedom in America, Park Yeon-mi shares her opinions on culture wars, identity politics, and authoritarianism drawn directly from her personal experience.

A message of urgency

   The author’s message is urgent and harrowing; the values of liberty, freedom, and democracy are at risk, while mass political indoctrination is rampant in the United States. On the first day of orientation at Columbia University, the instructor labeled Jane Austen's books as “promoting female oppression, racism, colonialism, and white supremacy,” and encouraged students to “look for hidden systemic racism and oppression.” On another day in class, Park learned that there are seventy-eight gender pronouns—including zie and hir—and accidentally offended a classmate by using the non-preferred personal pronoun. Later in the semester, she saw schools cancel the appearance of disfavored guest speakers and lecturers, rather than letting diverse ideas openly challenge one another. These series of experiences were an indication of leftism, wokeism[1], and cancel culture[2] gone wrong, and the university campus was only a microcosm of the larger American society.

   Leftism is distinguished from liberalism, in that it reduces every sociopolitical problem to the question of racism, capitalism, sexism, oppression of minorities, imperialism, and Western civilization, rather than committing to the basic values of liberty and individual rights. Those who object to the leftist ideology are often categorized as right-wing, which implies opposition to the financial, political, and cultural elites, and will be openly condemned and silenced. Those occupying the top of the social ladder lead the mainstream discourse attributing social injustice to intentionally perpetuated, systemic oppression ingrained in society without having experienced any forms of injustice. They call for the destruction of democratic capitalism supposedly fueling economic exploitation and racial division while being oblivious to the dreadful situations of totalitarian communist regimes. Instead of actualizing the values of equity and justice or instigating meaningful social change, such leftism allows a woke White magazine editor to lecture a Black construction worker who planned to vote for the wrong presidential candidate for his "internalized racism”—parallel to a well-fed son of a Party official criticizing a starving farmer for insufficient loyalty to the North Korean dictator. Thus, Park states that the rise of leftism, wokeness, and cancel culture are weaponized for concealing a coercive system operated by governing elites, with higher education nurturing a class of future elites with a unified oligarchic ideology.

Putting into a larger context

   At the center of the wokeism and cancel culture dispute is freedom of speech. Censoring the words of Roald Dahl and Ian Fleming for offensive language including racial slurs is one example of increasing threats to freedom of expression in art[3], where standardizing morality in the name of sensitivity risks the public ultimately accepting censorship without critical thinking. Repressed freedom of speech has also manifested in the form of legislation such as the Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees (WOKE) Act, which regulates workplace training and school instruction on race and gender.

   The war on wokeness is significant in the context of pernicious political polarization. Wokeness has become a watchword that symbolizes political progressiveness by the left while signaling a denigration of leftist culture by the right, resulting in blatant partisanship[4]. Social media has amplified such effect by enabling individuals with similar interests and opinions to congregate, allowing wokeism to serve as a litmus test for dividing left and right and appealing to partisan identities[5]. The insurmountable ideological chasm in politics is extremely concerning against the backdrop of growing tolerance for political violence, and the number of people showing deep disdain for partisan opponents in the United States[6].

South Korea’s case

   Although the criticisms against wokeism are valid, dismissing wokeism and leftism can have grave repercussions as seen in South Korea’s case where a backlash against political correctness percolates. The shunning of cancel culture and the woke war as a merciless, incendiary mob intimation is symbolized by the word PC-choong—where PC stands for political correctness and choong is a derogatory suffix that translates to insect—used to call out individuals who seemingly reveal unnecessary sensitivity towards sociopolitical issues such as feminism. Such a sarcastic attitude has diverted public attention and resources away from fruitful discussions on social injustice and rather into a cynical trivialization of significant issues on discrimination and the marginalized as absurd and futile.

   The same phenomenon is visible within Korean university campuses. While being labeled as “SIX HIRB”—a sexist, intolerant, xenophobic, homophobic, Islamophobic, racist bigot—may be worse than receiving a bad grade in Columbia, Korean university students generally lack awareness of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The discussions of safe space, trigger warnings, and microaggression[7] which have long dominated American universities have not been visible in Korean universities where insensitivity towards racism remains a significant problem due to its homogenous ethnicity and limited multiculturalism.

*                 *                 *

   Wokeism and cancel culture can be many things based on one’s beliefs and values: leftist moral puritanism that has crossed the line, a triumphant symbol for social justice, or an exploitative tool to sustain political power. At the end of the day, there is one common ground everyone can agree on: sociopolitical problems are complicated, and there is no such thing as an absolute moral truth. Thus, we must embrace the complexity and ambiguity of these problems; avoid hasty generalizations; and respect others’ opinions. Sticking to the fundamental values of mutual respect and open-mindedness will keep liberty and democracy afloat. 

[1] Wokeism: An expression, attitude, or behavior displaying sensitivity towards social and political injustice

[2] Cancel culture: A way of expressing disapproval of public figures by rejecting, boycotting, or ending support for their actions or speech that are considered offensive or objectionable

[3] Independent

[4] Vox

[5] Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

[6] Frontiers

[7] Microaggression: A term that refers to commonplace, subtle comments or actions that expresses a negative or prejudiced attitude toward marginalized groups