Creeping Entitlement in The Land of Fawning Charm

There are some things which are known with absolute certainty - without even the shadow of a doubt. Umbrellas are a fine example. It is an immutable law of the cosmos that if you venture outside with an umbrella, then it probably will not rain. On the other hand, if you step out with no umbrella, you will definitely be soaked in a deluge of near-biblical proportions.



The Avengers; Emma Peel and John Steed - never caught without an umbrella



Curiously the one thing people always carry everywhere is not an umbrella, but rather a bottle of water. Millions of people buy zillions of bottles every day despite no intention of going to a desert, a canyon or into near-earth orbit.

Even allowing for those exceptional raves where you wake up handcuffed naked in a barn or locked in the trunk with a palpitating sheep, actually suffering from thirst in the built environment is highly unusual. The most unusual might be the unfortunate case of hygiene inspector Huckleberry who fell into an open water tank in a Lincoln lemonade factory in May 1925 only to be discovered dead of thirst 10 days later. As the coroner dryly observed; it was ironic that Huckleberry fell into the tank with his umbrella, for had he not, it would undoubtedly have rained several times, allowing Huckleberry to survive by drinking the rainwater until he was rescued.

In Korea, the immutable law of the cosmos is that your status gives you 'entitlement without reproach', whether you drunkenly slander the entire nation or you get caught with your grubby little paws in the national coffers. Entitlement works on many levels. Within a relationship, the one who earns the money (or whose parents bought the property) holds the entitlement. Within a family, additional entitlement comes with seniority; older siblings hold more sway than younger siblings. Within a company, entitlement comes with job title plus whatever dirty secrets you know about those above you. Within politics, entitlement comes with all this plus your family's connections.

Japan is known as the 'Land of the Rising Sun'. Korea similarly styles itself as the 'Land of Morning Calm'. This is often caricatured as 'The Land of Fawning Charm' by politicians and businessmen who are simply unprepared for the overwhelming barrage of politeness and humility launched by Koreans when meeting them for the first time. Such behaviour is steeply rooted in medieval Confucianism.



Confucianism in Korea flourished from 1400 onwards



Confucius idealised a strict social hierarchy in which each person shows respect to those of a higher station and treats those of a lower station in the same way the person would wish to be treated themselves. Today this Confucian legacy still very much applies upwards; charming one's betters has been perfected to an art form. However while Koreans display the utmost deference to those above them, they often display the striking indifference to those below them. Showing grace to the lower orders is giving way to a creeping sense of entitlement to treat them with contempt.


Example 1: Too much candour

Mr Na: 'tired and emotional'

In 2016, Mr Hyang-Wook Na, a 'high-ranking' head of the Education Ministry's policy unit claimed that 99% of South Koreans had no ability to move up in the world and can be treated like dogs and pigs - simply fed and kept alive. Furthermore, he proposed that South Korea should better consolidate its class system because people are not born equal.

 http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-south-korea-dog-pig-20160711-snap-story.html

The public outcry was furious, the Education Ministry quickly suspended Mr Na, the Education Minister himself apologised to the public personally for Mr Na's 'misunderstood comments' and for a few days it looked like Mr Na might actually lose his tenure. However, as proof that Mr Na was sufficiently 'high-ranking' to be entitled to such opinions, he sued the Ministry for wrongful dismissal and won his job back.

http://m.koreatimes.co.kr/phone/news/view.jsp?req_newsidx=237212

The time-honoured get-out-of-jail-free card of having over-imbibed was successful as ever, as was the sympathy angle that loss of his job, severance pay and retirement package was entirely disproportionate to the offense caused to Korea's great unwashed and the shame brought on the Education Ministry. Mr Na's reinstatement clearly confirmed that the bottom-feeding riff-raff in the lower orders of Korean society should learn to accept being viewed and valued this way by their government.


Example 2: The No-look pass

Political lawmakers evidently feel even more entitled to belittle their peasants than mere policy gurus. In May 2017, lawmaker Moon-Sung Kim of the minority conservative Bareun Party passed through the airport arrival gates and casually chucked his luggage to his humble, kowtowing manservant without a greeting, nod, thanks or any other acknowledgement of the poor wretch's pitiful existence.

Kim's ingrained indifference was immediately seized upon by waiting press who had a field day with the images. Picking up on a basketball analogy, his luggage-lobbing manoeuvre became known as the "no-look pass".

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170615000596

However, true to form, Kim underscored his entitlement to treat employees as serfs by simply stating that the media should mind it's own business and report something important.

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170524000862



Example 3: Off-road Rage

Many companies proudly subscribe to the principle that the customer is always right. Simple. Black-and-white. However things become instantly more colourful when the customer takes this view himself - and takes it seriously. Mr JeHa Yu for example leased a US $ 250,000 Mercedes and returned it for diagnosis after the engine conked out at high speed. When the problem reoccurred Mr Yoo demanded the car be replaced if it happened a third time. When it did occur a third time and the dealership stalled over replacing his car, Mr Yu used a baseball bat and golf clubs to destroy the car publically.



http://www.businesskorea.co.kr/english/news/industry/12079-reaction-man-beats-own-mercedes-golf-club-front-dealership

We do not know if Mr Yu's lease allowed him a repair, a refund or a new car. Certainly the decision was way beyond the experience and pay grade of the dealership staff. Mr Yu could have taken legal advice but ultimately (in a wild departure from Confucian wisdom) he convinced himself that he was entitled to vent his anger via mindless vandalism.

Mercedes later acknowledged a fault in the engine management chipset of a number of cars and dutifully recalled them. Mr Yu is presumably still very busy with his lawyers.

http://english.chosun.com/m/svc/article.html?contid=2015111601755&Dep0=www.google.co.kr



Example 4: Nut Rage

In 2016 after boarding a Korean Air flight from New York to Seoul, Heather Cho was served macadamia nuts in a packet, not a tray, which is an horrifically distressing burden for a first class passenger. As daughter of the airline's CEO and owner she then made herself internationally infamous by becoming so enraged she forced the plane to turn around on the tarmac and return to the departure gate to eject the head steward for not knowing his job.

Global media mused whether forcing a plane to deviate from its flight plan may technically qualify as a hijacking. Meanwhile domestic media wrote this up as yet another immature spawn of an industry mogul abusing their status by intimidating employees.  

Heather Cho: a very public scandal

Under a mop of long hair Ms Cho ate humble pie before the cameras, apologising for her behaviour and the inconvenience she caused to other passengers. Very little was said about how she treated the airline staff; a discussion which was quickly buried as if irrrelevant.

Excruciatingly it took until this year for a panel to convince itself that seizing control of the aircraft while still on the ground absolved Ms Cho of hijacking and that her sentence could be both reduced and suspended. It never hurts to be well connected. And just to show that there is no shortage of redemption at the top of the food chain, Heather and her father now get to surpass tens of thousands of common ilk applying to become torchbearers for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

http://m.theinvestor.co.kr/view.php?ud=20180125000813

Example 5: The Sound of Silence - at a high price

High-rise towers of 25 to 45 floors dominate the skyline of all Korean cities. 

Moving Out - with the help of ingenious telescoping booms

While Koreans have devised all sorts of ingenious telescoping lifts to get furniture in and out of their apartments, other tasks such as window cleaning and external painting are still done by teams abseiling at the end of long ropes. 

Old technology: cleaning windows

Work hours are long, refreshment options are limited and the weather can be punishing but lively chat amongst the team and a little music help to make a thankless task bearable. 

Last summer, one resident took exception to the music of one such painter, then promptly went up to the roof where he simply cut through the painter's rope. The 40 year old father of 5 fell 40m, hitting the ground at ~65 mph.

http://en.koreaportal.com/articles/37959/20170615/high-rise-high-rise-building-painter-rope-dead-death-died.htm

The aggrieved resident did not initially own up to cutting the rope but was soon identified by police to whom he casually offered the excuse that he was drunk having failed to get a job and didn't like the painter's music.