Beauty of Free Will

The military dictatorship in the past tried to hypnotize people with 3S, sports, screen and sex, in an attempt to nurture cynicism and indifference among the public. When people grow too preoccupied with sports to keep their identity, the community is no longer capable of critical thinking.

The ‘red devil’ cheering in this World Cup, however, proved that sports could lead to creation of community culture. It’s not just because we became one while rooting for our team. A true community culture is founded on free will of people instead of sacrifice or forced loyalty. The surprisingly orderly manners of people during street cheering come from volunteerism.

Although some warn of mob psychology or uniformity, people I met on the streets was a congregation of people filled with free will and realization. Along with the red devils, “Nosamo (a group of people supporting Roh Moo-hyun)” also brought a change in people’s way of thinking. The common denominator of the two organizations is that they both appeared on the Internet without a leading force and that they made changes by running the groups in a democratic and creative way.

According to Francis Fukuyama, a U.S. scholar and philosopher, development of democracy in a society is proportional to the number of volunteer organizations, which I completely agreed to. The existence of volunteer organizations transcending boundaries of gender, educational background, age and occupation proves that we now have mature democracy.

Of course, the red devil cheering squad is not a political organization and it will and should not evolve into one. But we can at least expect that when those people become a mainstream of our society, they will change our political landscape where authoritarianism prevails.

Some can argue that such organizations have long existed in a form of alumni and hometown fellowship organizations. In fact, a professor maintains that those organizations are not much different from civic organizations. But there’s a big difference. What’s missing in alumni and hometown organizations is critical thinking.

They are loyal but not critical. For instance, those who support three Kims, the political leaders, always rally behind them. They hardly mind what they do. But volunteer organizations are ready to criticize wrong decisions for a cause. They don’t put self-interest before the larger public interest.

Whenever I read newspaper or watch TV these days, it’s as if there were nothing but sports. But at this moment, the red devils warn that we could lose our passion for football by sticking too much to winning games. When Roh Moo-hyun visited former president Kim Young-sam, disappointed members left Nosamo. Among those who continue to support Roh, some say that they will watch Roh’s next moves and others agree with Roh on that decision.

I hear some people complain that they became a target of Nosamo’s cyber terror only because they criticized Roh. They argue that Nosamo has no critical way of thinking. But I received not a single complaint from the group even though I wrote a column harshly criticizing Roh. They need to first look back themselves whether they were criticizing or speaking ill of Roh, instead of calling Nosamo a group of bums or a cult.

Nosamo is known to go through some internal conflicts over the issue of its political identity. The red devils may follow suit after the World Cup games. You are to face a challenge after enjoying stardom. But I believe they will continue to make strides by keeping in mind the value of critical thinking and free will.