A Critical Examination of Populism in Korea: Its Cold War/Anti-Communist Origins (2023.06)
- Author : Chiwon Choi
- Publication : Politics & Public Opinion
- Publisher : The Korean Association for Political Criticism
- Volume : 32
- Date : June 2023
Populism becomes an indicator that can track changes in the meaning of democracy, reflecting the political reality. Populism is not an irrational political phenomenon, a corrupted form of democratic politics or mobocracy. It is not an irrational political phenomenon lacking ideological values. And it is not a mirage that exists in philosophical speculation. The origin of the behavior of Korean intellectuals, scholars, journalists, and politicians misusing populism is found in the anti-communist intellectual·academic climate of the United States, which tried to defend so-called liberal democracy during the Cold War. These Korean ‘mass information purveyors’ are obscuring the essence of the problem by constantly producing information that blurs and distorts the criteria of truth and lies. The problem with scholars who uncritically accept and disseminate this information is serious. In short, a vested class of intellectuals, scholars, journalists, and politicians united around the mainstream media as core ‘mass information purveyor’ abuses populism, the best political concept and means, for the purpose of retaining its own ideological and material interests while continuing the anti-communist worldview and covering up the reproduction of socioeconomic inequality. It is necessary to strengthen the capacity of politically mature citizens to bear the weight of this irrationality.