[Opinion] Survival of the Weakest

We understand that `survival of the strongest` maintains the order of this universe. Big and strong ones eat smaller and weaker ones both on this planet and throughout the outer space. That’s how the universe seeks balance and harmony. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scientifically proved that some 4% to 8% of stars in this galaxy absorb nearby planets to exist. The history of mankind also observes survival of the strongest, or the fittest, through wars and rises and demises of countries. International relations and laws, in the same vein, have been seen as means to legitimate unfair relations between strong and weak countries.

▷ We are now witnessing an unexpected turn in international relations, however. Dozens of terrorists successfully attacked the economic and political centers of the United States causing casualties and property damage that are even greater than those of Japan’s strike on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Jolted by the attacks, the world’s superpower country is now gearing up for a war on Iraq, while waging wars across the world against scattered and hard-to-find terrorist cells. Despite their high-tech war machines and military strategies, the advanced countries remain vulnerable to attacks by terrorist groups or so-called `rogue states` which vent out their frustration through acts of terrors or bio and chemical weapons.

▷ Disruption in balance, harmony and order in this world means a disaster to mankind. Fortunately, there is no `survival of the weakest` in the ecosystem that threatens the rule of `survival of the strongest.` In the human world, however, it is quite different. The former is challenging the existing order founded upon the latter. Proliferation of weapons of mass destruction such as nuclear, bio and chemical weapons greatly help those challengers in terms of both their influence and physical force.

▷ Not all challenges to the existing order are bad. Yet, challenges posed by those dictators wielding absolute power over human rights are must be stopped. Their absolute power is a great threat to the human race. Inter-Korean relations today could also be seen as conflict between the more affluent South willing to embrace their northern compatriots and the needy North seeking survival of the weakest. It must be the law of nature then that will resolve the conflict in the end.

Park Yong-ok, Guest Editorial Writer and Former Deputy Minister of Defense

yongokp@hanmail.net