Scribblings of the Metropolitician

You Know How I Know I'm Gay?

I not only drank "wine-ade" for Christmas dinner, but I made it for guests last night, just like I saw in the Bennigans. Oh, and it was goooood.

And yes, this seems to be a very Korean thing. I looked up "wine-aid" on Google and the only thing that came back was in Korean. Anyway, if you'd like to join the ranks of the "gay", go ahead and make "wine-ade" and gather your friends together to watch Bridget Jones' Diary, or download Love in the Time of Cholera. Here's the very simple recipe:

- 1/4 parts cheap, sweet red wine

- 3/4 parts Korean "cider" soft drink or Sprite

- a dash of cheap-ass, sweet champagne in a pinch

- big slice of lemon

- lots of ice in a big cup

Man -- this stuff is surprisingly good. Goes well with cheeseburgers and even steak, which was the Christmas meal at Bennigan's. I ordered that by accident, over in the Bennigan's in Seoul Station. Saw the bartender pouring wine and what appeared to be cider together in what came out to be a maroon "ade" of some type, and it looked strangely good. Ordered it -- the additional refill that's included sealed the deal -- and fell firmly into the drink's thrall.

Was like liquid crack, man. Try it out and tell me the results! And another favorite clip from one of the key movies in my collection.

FeetManSeoul: Merry Christmas from Seoul!

This Christmas season, the must-have item is the bear hat, courtesy of Paris Baguette. And if you are a couple, a matching pair is the way to go. This couple is the quintessential Seoul Christmas couple, since they're not only rocking the hats, but have a Christmas cake in tow, as well as a little bit of candy, a lollipop that looks freshly picked from a Dr. Seuss Christmas tree. All items, it appears, that you can find in the original commercial.

There's actually more to this article – check it out at FeetManSeoul.com!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

As many of you might know, Christmas in Korea or Japan is a romantic holiday, as opposed to the more family-oriented affair that it tends to be in America.

Over on FeetManSeoul, we caught a cute Christmas couple that seemed to perfectly embody the Korean holiday spirit.

Check out FeetManSeoul for the complete set!

Thanks, Brian, for a More Reasonable Message

Read this post from Brian in Cheollanam-do. A good recap, as well as concise statement as to "why I'm still here" for those who've asked.

FMS With You #6: Insadong Audio Tour!

The FMS With You audio podcast, brought to you by FeetManSeoul.com, brings the spirit of moving feet and the street to your audio player, where you can hear informational audio tours of the coolest spots in Seoul, "soundscapes" that will take you to even more faraway places, and other kinds of integrated multimedia, including edgy commentary and a spirit of just plain fun. Since the tours are all bilingual, in both Korean and English, it's just like having your own personal tour with a good Korean friend.

Subscribe through iTunes | Download directly

Join Gomushin Girl, Vivian, and the Metropolitician in a this audio tour of Insadong, the second in a series of audio tours that will cover Seoul!

Non-Sensical Comments as Well as Comment System

Typepad's comment filter is broken. I can't reply to Quius, and I can't even post test comments such as "I am a tree" on my own blog.

Good job, Typepad.

Here's my response to Quius, as well as comments like these:

I'm not going to waste my time refuting these pointless points in detail. Let me make it short:

- "Koreans have nothing against..." You don't speak for all Koreans. Irrelevant.

- "Some Koreans have married Jews." Irrelevant.

- "Most Koreans didn't even know about anti-Semitism until the West..." Not true for the Korean nationalist intellectuals, who in the 1890's trhough the early 1900's were reading Chinese and Japanese translations of racist Western sociology, anthropology, and history and very much translating Social Darwinism, racist notions of nation and culture, as well as anti-Semitic views into latent Korean ideology that has remained a streak among Korean "intellectuals" to this day.

- "Most of the major movie studios and media outlets are jewish-owned." OK, movie studios. Back when penny arcades and "moving picture shows" were considered lower-class pursuits, fresh Jewish immigrants often ran these businesses, much like Koreans coming from the 70's and 80's dominated greengrocers and liquor stores. Well before "movies" became a billion-dollar industry, many Jews were already placed here. The same is true for comic books, many of which were penned by Jewish hands when Jews found little room in other mainstream artistic and publishing outlets. It wasn't some "grand plan" and Jews were just lucky that these "vulgar" arts became mainstream only a couple decades later. Learn some history.

- "Financial companies" and "overcoming racism in Europe." Well, for as much as talk of Jews controlling Europe had far more currency than it does today, they certainly didn't seem to be able to stem the Holocaust that quite nearly wiped out all Jewry in Western Europe. Some influence, huh?

- And Israel. Yeah, yeah, "they" have lobbying power. But the concerns about Israel are bigger than that – anyone forget the Cold War? The beginning of major tensions in 1954 with Iran? The US overturning Mossadegh and installing puppets such as the Shah, which directly led to the fundamentalist backlash that was Khomeini?

- "America's blind support for Israel" Yes, I disagree with policies that seem that way these days. But it's not just "Jewish money" - it's geo-politicial circumstances, too. Hello? Fundamentalist/radical governments, the specifics of the PLO and Islamic groups becoming bedtime allies because of shared interests (one mostly political, the other overtly anti-Semitic)...come on, I don't agree with Israel on a lot of levels, but they are fighting for the right to exist while surrounded by some pretty hostile governments who would like them to cease to exist. And have attacked them with the purpose of carrying out that goal. But to say, in the end, it's just "Jewish lobbying" and not some very real, very concrete circumstances is...just...well, ignorant.

And calling Israeli nationalism, bad American foriegn policy, or anything else "fascism" in anything other than the rhetorical sense is just plain simplistic. I make the rhetorical parallel between Nazi anti-Semitism and some aspects of Korean ideology, but I never go so far as to say "Korean national ideology = Western European fascism." That's just ludicrous.

Quius – have you anything to say grounded in actual knowledge of history or logic? Have you any arguments based on anything other than superficial hearsay, which is itself mostly just recycled ignorant stereotypes?

It sounds to me like you're a high school or early college student who actually hasn't done a lot of reading about history or society; it sounds to me like your ability to constuct a rational, sound argument is pretty poor.

So far, you haven't offered anything in your comments besides, "I heard somebody say this" or "Everybody knows that X is true about this group." Frankly, your logic and way of thinking is pretty intellectually flimsy.

The Colors of Night

Here's a quick crosspost from FeetManSeoul.com, where I continue to display what I shoot.

A couple on a scooter waits for the light to change in Shinchon.

Stupid Typepad Comment Filter

Well, Typepad, in its infinite wisdom, won't let me put up my own comment, since the spam filter thinks it's spam. And there's not even any profanity in there, nor multiple links. Ah. Typepad. Like Korea, I'm grandfathered in and Google already has given me love. How can I leave?

The comment, in response to Quius, is perhaps post-worthy, anyway, since it's more than a response to him alone, I guess.

Quius -

I don't have a problem with you posting on my site. Here are you comments, available for people to see, no? Just don't abuse the space and think about what you say. For example, why are 8 comments in a row from you, 3 in a row in a single post here? Could you not say what you needed to say in a single comment? Or was the problem the typical one...you thought of something to say and write it. Then 5 minutes later, wanted to add something. Then again 5 minutes later? Literally, your posts here are exactly 5 minutes apart. How about thinking careflly about what you say before composing it?

Speaking of which, you sound young and have little experience with critical thinking or constructin logical arguments. Most of your reasoning to explain quite large patterns in the world are based on anecdotal evidence, and completely subjective criteria.

On the level of logic, most of what you say sounds like sheer defenseiveness out of emotion, rather than a logical response. For example, in your other comments, you are angry that I am critical of Korea. Your response is that "it's the same" or "worse" in other countries, so I shouldn't criticize. That's irrelevant. As I said in the "Why Be Critical" post, I am talking about Korea, and criticizing certain problems in society on the basis of its own stated values and principles, and if the comparison IS international in nature, that is only because the culture positions itself as an international player, a "hub" of something, a "multicultural" society (yes, that is the new one these days), or simply a place that needs to undergo "globalization."

I may sound angry in my recent posts, but the emotion rests atop some sort of valid argument in most cases. Whether I'm talking about why "intelligent design" is stupid in US culture, or merely pointing out the anti-Semitic nature of what is published in Korean newspapers, making a mock newspaper piece using the same logic as the Korean ones, or saying that the extreme visa restrictions means I think ppl should go to another country to teach English, am critical of the "Korean Wave" or what have you, all of these have some very specific arguments beneath them.

If I were to simply use anectdotal evidence and make sweeping generalizations like you do ("nowhere is more racist than Russia!"), then I'd say, based on my bad experience with a Korean girlfriend, that "all Korean girls are X" or based on a bad employer that "all Koreans are lying, cheating con artists" or anything involving making generalizations about the entire group based on anecdoctal and unrepresentative behavior.

It is a valid opinion, however, to say, based on extensive experience working in, and having researched sufficiently about, the Korean education system to say, as I have before, that one reason Koreans do in general lack critical thinking skills is because this is not only not really taught in schools (although lip service is now paid to it), it is, in a practical sense, discouraged because of the hierarchical nature of the classroom, teaching styles, and intense, test-based curriculum.

This is a reasonable thing to say. It doesn't rely on foggy, vague concepts such as "culture" because that word is so ill-defined and overused that it is nearly a meaningless statement to say, "Koreans tend to lack critical thinking skills because of Korean culture." What is being said here? That it has been taught in a certain way for 5,000 of history? That this is a problem in customs? In the family? In governmental practices? Laws? See the problem?

When I make my criticisms, I try to force myself to say exactly what I mean, define my terms. If you read any of my extensive posts about certain subjects, you won't see me making generalizations without making clear both the EXTENT to which I make them, as well as the GROUNDS upon which I make them.

So when I talk about interracial dating and the illogic of passing judgement as to the "good" or "bad" reasons behind a couple meeting, I simply state that this is mere racism. Unless one is psychic, one can't know why people meet, nor does one know all the perhaps equally "bad" reasons non-interracial couples meet, e.g. he likes redheads, she likes him because of his money, he likes big breasts, they both like Star Trek.

Similarly, there may be patterns observable in terms of how stereotypes and social statuses lead to patterns of people dating, but you can't take one's personal opinions or distaste for a certain pattern and apply it to individual cases. Even the best social psychology or sociology doesn't explain what A person thinks about B. That's psychology, and information that you don't have access to.

And that's one of many arguments I've had on this site, and I mostly tend to disagree with people defensive of certain ways of thinking that they a) haven't examined closely, and b) are simply emotionally, rather than logically attached to. So Korean nationalists, white guys bristling at me thinking that talking about "white privilege" = being racist, people caught up in proving their ultimate victimhood, people caught up in the silly minutiae of identity politics – these are the people I tend to run into on the site.

In any case, that's my read of things, and my suggestions to you to think about. Try to ground what you say with a bit more concrete definitions, a bit more evidence than mere anecdote. And run that through the filter of "is this a mere defensive emotional response, or is there a logical flaw I am responding to?"

I'll be the first to admit that I privilege logical arguments over emotional ones when it comes to Korea. There's a place for emotional responses, but frankly, I don't think this does much to solve concrete problems of the type I tend to talk about, nor will they actually help Korean society move itself into the position of being international, cosmopolitan, or multicultural anytime soon.

And frankly, with the low birth rate, need for both cheap and specific kinds of labor, the draw of a developing China and a developed Japan, and many other factors, I don't think Korea can afford to be short-sighted or xenophobic much longer.

Anyway, the final point is that if I truly hated Korea, I'd have left a long time ago and washed my hands of it. Which is, unfortunately, what more people will tend to do after the 1-2 year point. What can most help Korea, on several levels, are foreigners who can help translate, advocate, represent, and interpellate Korea to the outside world, who understand Korea on a higher level than just the mostly superficial interactions of the many people who will spend a single stay here doing mostly the same thing in their 20's.

But what is frightening to me is that people like me – who start out with a deep interest in the language and culture – tend to burn out and often even hate Korea after realizing that not only is there no place for an experienced outsider here, but they are actually not even wanted.

Anyway, this is a long comment and I'll leave it at that. Please try to keep your thoughts to single comments per post, so as to leave room in the recent comments section for others' comments to appear.

Thanks.

Wow - Nice to Know The Tools Are Still Sharp

I waded through the silly debate over "intelligent design" when the issue was in the news over the last few years, but came to the conclusion on this blog – which helps me work through issues and figure out where I am on things by writing about it publicly – that "intelligent design is not only an insult to science, but to faith as well. But it was a process:

"Chuck D - Public Enemy #1!"

"Why the Idea of Intelligent Design Is – and Isn't – Stupid"

"The Polarization of the Stupid"

In a nutshell, my thinking on the subject is that ID is obviously not science, but it is also not religion/faith, since these idiotic ID advocates are essentially saying they have found "proof" for the unprovable: the DNA machine is so complex and beautiful that some Being must have made it. OK, if you say so, but that's not science, and it's a betrayal of the principle of faith to say it is anything different from feeling the beauty of the Grand Canyon and feeling the presence of God.

That's a personal thing, and perfectly valid to the individual. And people come to possess faith in all kinds of different ways, ones that cannot by bottled up into a formula or process.

It's probably my cultural compatibility with Christianity, coming from a pretty Christian Midwest, that explains my interest in the subject, especially in terms of history; but it's the lack of the ability to make that "leap of faith" that so impressed me at the end of Indiana Jones 3 that prevents me from being a Christian.

But it's not because I see any conflict between science and religion, since an intelligent look at the subject tells you that there really isn't as much there as one would think.

And I'm glad that my few conclusions about the subject is echoed by a specialist in the matter, which gives great assurance to this spirited amateur:

Haught is an intriguing figure in the debate over evolution. He was the only theologian to testify as an expert witness in the landmark 2005 Dover trial that ruled against teaching intelligent design in public schools. Haught testified against intelligent design, arguing that it's both phony science and bad theology. But Haught is also a fierce critic of hardcore atheists like Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett, who claim that evolution leads logically to atheism. He says both sides place too much faith in science. "Ironically," Haught writes, "ID advocates share with their ideological enemies, the evolutionary materialists, the assumption that science itself can provide ultimate explanations." [From Salon.com]

I'm gonna go read Jon Haught's books. Another one worth reading, and which has borne out what I've been saying about the idiotic people in the Christian Right who completely misunderstand the historical and theological factors that led to the separation of church and state, is American Gospel, by Jon Meacham. It's not academic, having been written by a journalist and being essentially a string of quotes linked by time periods, but it's a good coverage of the issue.

For those who were paying attention in history class, and remember that Roger Williams was exiled out of Mass Bay colony because he wanted to separate church and state to preserve the integrity of the CHURCH from the muddying and corrupting influence of worldly governments, this motive is crystal clear.

The present efforts to characterize America as a "Christian nation" along the lines of some theocracy are simply misguided and wrong.

If people want to set up a Christian theocracy in America – fine – it's one's right to try, even if it's Constitutionally, historically, and theologically (at least from the point-of-view of anything remotely more Protestant than Anglicanism, which is pretty much anything on the American side of the Atlantic) unsound. I have the right to advocate for a whites-only state, found a political party dedicated to putting an Xbox 360 into every home, or even one extolling the virtues of "man-boy love" – but reasonable people, laws, and the Constitution should make short shrift of such silliness.

As they should with those suggesting that the government should give a red penny to fund private religious organizations conducting religious activities.

On the other hand, the book provides a much-needed corrective to the idea that there is no such thing as "civic religion" in the US, which there always has been. Using religious symbology doesn't force one to adhere to the idea, especially since "God" is non-specific (that wasn't and has never been accidental) and doesn't actually have any concrete impact on one's life.

Case in point: you may have to swear on a Bible in court, but it's not the Bible that's going to get you sent to jail, but laws regarding perjuring oneself. People getting all up in arms because of some imagined dissolution of the church/state wall because of mention of the word "God" in public rituals also forget history.

Another case in point: the Constitution. How are rights defined as "inalienable"? Because they come from "God." Sorry – that's the logic, and a smart one it is. The point wasn't to say that these rights come from the one, true Christian God (and efforts to use just such language was quickly and vigorously dispatched), but simply from a plane higher than human affairs, and hence, untouchable.

They are simply "inalienable rights" and taken as the starting point for everything else. Basically, you can't fuck with that logic, since it exists on a plane removed from our ability to do so. Hence, that basic assumption stands, unable to be assailed short of resetting the entire system from scratch.

In other societies, rights stemmed from class, bloodlines, connections, and other ephemera of the worldly plane. Making the ultimate "hyperlink" to "God" solves this problem quite nicely, thank you very much.

Ah, history and context. It's so helpful towards cutting through the petty bullshit of the present.

And it's nice to know that the tools in the woodshed are still sharp, my recent vent-fest over the non-valuation of foreign intellects in Korea notwithstanding.

On that note, I need a vacation from Korea. Badly.

Thailand! Never been. Fruity drinks, sandy beaches, and spicy food for two weeks is my diagnosis. And maybe some Xbox. Can I get that on a beachside bungalow?

Maybe in February/March.

"Sieg, Heil!" Korean Style

[From the Donga Ilbo]

For those of you who don't read Korean, it says, "JEW" and "Jew Power" in the stars and stripes field. Lovely. (HT to the Marmot's Hole)

Here's one from the Nazi era. Love to see Korea keeping it old school, along with the tradition of Hitler bars, overt anti-Semitic ranting, and completely fallacious historical constructions that have their origins in the general Western European anti-Semitism that led to the Holocaust, and whose Prussian offshoots were passed onto the Japanese, who then influenced Korean intellectuals in the late 1890's and early 1900's. Jew-hating isn't new in East Asia, it only seems silly (since there are hardly any Jews here), but it's serious business – as the Aum Shinryaku showed when they gassed the Tokyo subways as a way to rid Japanese society of the (symbolic) Jews. [link here]

[Source -- "He is guilty for the war (WWI)!" -- translation mine.]

It doesn't matter if there are no Jews in Korea -- anti-Semitism has been and is alive and well, and is always a dangerous pattern of thought. Not just to Jews, but for all of the intellectual lightweights and demagogues who are not intelligent nor well-educated enough to present their ideas in a way that doesn't completely duplicate the racist anti-Semitism that eventually resulted in the Nazi's final solution.

Note: Anti-Semitic comment rants will be summarily deleted and the user banned. So don't waste both your and my time even making a Typepad ID to do it, please.