The Moral Cowardice of Glib Historical Comparisons, or Why the JoongAng Ilbo Uses History Like a Bunch of Frickin' Pussies

9/11...Auschwitz...the Warsaw Ghetto...Cambodia's "killing fields"...Hiroshima and Nagasaki...and...wait for it...

Namdaemun!

So says the JoongAng Ilbo in a pearl of infinite dizzdom:

"Unlike trips made for recreation or tourism, these trips to the scene of a tragic disaster are made for self-reflection and edification. Representative examples of this kind of tourism are Ground Zero; the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland where Jews were slaughtered; the Killing Fields of Cambodia; and Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the sites of atomic bombings." [HT to Korea Beat]

WTF? Again...not only an insult to the sheer horrificity of the historical nightmares of other countries, but to an ignorance of Korea's own history.

Where's Kwangju?

Oh, I know where it is. It's nowhere, since deep down, there's still a lot of confusion and denial going on within Korean culture about what that moment means – it's not a quick and easy historical horror card to flip out for the purposes of glib comparison.

But Auschwitz or Hiroshima certainly seem to be.

See, they wouldn't dare put Kwangju on the list, since despite the fact that it would actually be a better fit since it would technically fall into the category of horrible mass slaughter (albeit perhaps not really making the cut, in my opinion, in terms of sheer scale), people from Kwangju might actually be pissed off by having a case of arson (as much of a loss as it was, no one died) being compared to MACHINE GUNNING UNARMED CIVILIANS IN THE STREETS.

So, in a way, it's easier to just whip out Nazi death camps, Cambodian death squads, and the use of atom bombs on civilian populations.

In an ignorant way, it make a certain bit of sense.

But in the end, the level of self-importance given to a place that until last week didn't even have the security of the 7/11 store downstairs from my apartment and where homeless men had ramen picnics all night before scratching their nuts as they stretched out for a good night's sleep on the second floor of the structure...that simply boggles the mind.

Hey, JoongAng – newsflash: The burning of Seungyemun is NOT Auschwitz. It's insulting when you can't even bring yourself to put Kwangju on the list, lest you offend someone's sensibilities actually from there, or who lived through it.

So why do it to other people's symbolic memories of their respective historical horror shows?

Moral cowards.

Hello?! Is there anyone with a sense of history manning the newspapers in this country?