Okay, your second paragraph confuses the hell out of me. It sounds like you’re arguing against yourself. Can you rephrase it for me? I want to understand what you’re saying.
Also, the US doesn’t have an emperor. It may be imperialistic, but it’s not an empire. But reading that makes me imagine it as an actual empire, which is fucking terrifying. Please don’t? At least for me? That makes me wildly uncomfortable.
So… The US occupied the South until the ROK was established. This was kind of like Germany but for a much shorter time. When the North invaded the South, UN forces came to help. Yes, there was a direct line from Japanese occupation to US occupation, but US occupation ended very shortly afterwards. Say what you will about influence, but influence and occupation are very distinct. And yes, the US fucking with the PRK was terrible. I’m with you on that. But we’re talking about South Korea today.
But going back to the original point, if the societal pressure results from the US, then why don’t we see such pressure in the US itself? Your historical argument for this doesn’t stand.
A simpler explanation is the rise of Neo-Confucianism during the Joseon dynasty. It was patriarchal, focused on hierarchical structures, and expected testing for advancement. This clearly leads to competitive behaviors. While you could argue the US has similar things, Neo-Confucianism cranked that up to 11. The Joseon dynasty after Sejong was pretty shit. Korea was like this before the US showed up, even before the Japanese showed up (the last time. They tried so many times before that).
To rephrase the second paragraph, it isn’t naturally “Korean culture” that keeps Korean society in the ROK so strictly regimented and class-based. Korean culture, without US presense, formed to be very collaborative and anti-colonial from the decades of fighting against Japanese colonization. That’s why when Korea was free, they formed the People’s Republic of Korea, a quasi-socialist state based on people’s committees. The years and years of collective resistance to Japanese imperialism had advanced a collective culture.
When the US millitary came in, they divided the nation in two, and made the PRK an illegal state. This was a wildly unpopular thing to do, because Korean society was advancing its own sovereignty. This sparked conflict, such as the rebels in Jeju Island, to the general massacre of communists in the south. The US millitary installed what would later become the ROK in place, using much of the old, colonial compradors from Japanese colonialism. The new politicians, officials, etc. were the direct descendents and even the same people from the colonial government that cut deals with the Japanese and sold out their countrymen.
The US didn’t do this all just to be evil. The US did this because the US Empire’s long-term plans for the Pacific involved restarting the Japanese empire as a subservient empire. Essentially, the US was rebuilding Japan and trying to start the same colonial relationship going, but instead of the Japanese Emperor, the profits would mainly be going to the US. What prevented this from truly happening was the Korean War. Following the Korean War, the ROK went from Lee Sung-Man to Park Chung-Hee to Chun Do-Hwan, all fascist dictators, and US financial capital poured into the ROK to both build it up and profit dramatically from it, directly working with the government and the chaebol. The ROK millitary is even subservient to the US millitary “in times of war,” which hasn’t ended since the 50s.
To sum it up, had Koreans been left to their own devices, the PRK would exist today as a more collaborative, quasi-socialist or outright socialist society. The strict regimentation of society and dominance of the chaebol we see in the southern half of the peninsula is due to the comprador regime put in place by the US Empire, which still recieves backlash from the revolutionary undertones of the Korean working class. We see this at Jeju, at Gwang-Ju, and so forth. The US occupation of Korea serves as a millitary base in East Asia to keep the PRC in check. This is all ignoring the atrocities and genocide committed by the US against Koreans, including various massacres and the entire history of “comfort girls.”
As for the US Empire, it very much is an empire. An empire is not determined by having a literal emperor, but by running an economy that leverages economic and millitary power to extract vast wealth from other countries, in this era through the dominance of finance capital. This is a good article on imperialism, but if you want to understand it from how it formed to how it exists today then Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism followed by Super-Imperialism: The Origin and Fundamentals of U.S. World Dominance will catch you up.
As far as decolonizing Korea goes, check out the orgs listed in the People’s Summit for Korea, particularly the Korean orgs as you said you’re in Gangnam.
Okay, your second paragraph confuses the hell out of me. It sounds like you’re arguing against yourself. Can you rephrase it for me? I want to understand what you’re saying.
Also, the US doesn’t have an emperor. It may be imperialistic, but it’s not an empire. But reading that makes me imagine it as an actual empire, which is fucking terrifying. Please don’t? At least for me? That makes me wildly uncomfortable.
So… The US occupied the South until the ROK was established. This was kind of like Germany but for a much shorter time. When the North invaded the South, UN forces came to help. Yes, there was a direct line from Japanese occupation to US occupation, but US occupation ended very shortly afterwards. Say what you will about influence, but influence and occupation are very distinct. And yes, the US fucking with the PRK was terrible. I’m with you on that. But we’re talking about South Korea today.
But going back to the original point, if the societal pressure results from the US, then why don’t we see such pressure in the US itself? Your historical argument for this doesn’t stand.
A simpler explanation is the rise of Neo-Confucianism during the Joseon dynasty. It was patriarchal, focused on hierarchical structures, and expected testing for advancement. This clearly leads to competitive behaviors. While you could argue the US has similar things, Neo-Confucianism cranked that up to 11. The Joseon dynasty after Sejong was pretty shit. Korea was like this before the US showed up, even before the Japanese showed up (the last time. They tried so many times before that).
To rephrase the second paragraph, it isn’t naturally “Korean culture” that keeps Korean society in the ROK so strictly regimented and class-based. Korean culture, without US presense, formed to be very collaborative and anti-colonial from the decades of fighting against Japanese colonization. That’s why when Korea was free, they formed the People’s Republic of Korea, a quasi-socialist state based on people’s committees. The years and years of collective resistance to Japanese imperialism had advanced a collective culture.
When the US millitary came in, they divided the nation in two, and made the PRK an illegal state. This was a wildly unpopular thing to do, because Korean society was advancing its own sovereignty. This sparked conflict, such as the rebels in Jeju Island, to the general massacre of communists in the south. The US millitary installed what would later become the ROK in place, using much of the old, colonial compradors from Japanese colonialism. The new politicians, officials, etc. were the direct descendents and even the same people from the colonial government that cut deals with the Japanese and sold out their countrymen.
The US didn’t do this all just to be evil. The US did this because the US Empire’s long-term plans for the Pacific involved restarting the Japanese empire as a subservient empire. Essentially, the US was rebuilding Japan and trying to start the same colonial relationship going, but instead of the Japanese Emperor, the profits would mainly be going to the US. What prevented this from truly happening was the Korean War. Following the Korean War, the ROK went from Lee Sung-Man to Park Chung-Hee to Chun Do-Hwan, all fascist dictators, and US financial capital poured into the ROK to both build it up and profit dramatically from it, directly working with the government and the chaebol. The ROK millitary is even subservient to the US millitary “in times of war,” which hasn’t ended since the 50s.
To sum it up, had Koreans been left to their own devices, the PRK would exist today as a more collaborative, quasi-socialist or outright socialist society. The strict regimentation of society and dominance of the chaebol we see in the southern half of the peninsula is due to the comprador regime put in place by the US Empire, which still recieves backlash from the revolutionary undertones of the Korean working class. We see this at Jeju, at Gwang-Ju, and so forth. The US occupation of Korea serves as a millitary base in East Asia to keep the PRC in check. This is all ignoring the atrocities and genocide committed by the US against Koreans, including various massacres and the entire history of “comfort girls.”
As for the US Empire, it very much is an empire. An empire is not determined by having a literal emperor, but by running an economy that leverages economic and millitary power to extract vast wealth from other countries, in this era through the dominance of finance capital. This is a good article on imperialism, but if you want to understand it from how it formed to how it exists today then Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism followed by Super-Imperialism: The Origin and Fundamentals of U.S. World Dominance will catch you up.
As far as decolonizing Korea goes, check out the orgs listed in the People’s Summit for Korea, particularly the Korean orgs as you said you’re in Gangnam.