[Opinion] the Fashion of “Curse” Discussion

In the U.S., the World Series teams, which are called Legends of Fall, were determined. The Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs were frustrated again before the threshold of victory in each of their respective championship series. Both teams saw a win right before their eyes in the seventh game of the series, but in the end they were defeated. In the U.S., people referred to both incidents as curses. In the case of Boston, it is said that after Babe Ruth, the legendary home run king, was traded to the New York Yankees for a dirt-cheap price, the “Curse of the Bambino” has been placed upon the Red Sox for eighty five years now. In the case of Chicago, they say that the “Curse of the Billy Goat,” in which a spectator with a goat was not allowed to enter the Cubs game and subsequently cursed the team, has been placed upon the Cubs also.

A curse is a prayer or a spirit that because of the resentment or hatred by a person with special powers, one wishes that the other person will have negative outcomes. If this kind of spiritual prayer condition is associated with special phenomena and develops to become a plausible link which will go forth into the society, it progresses into a legendary link which many people believe in. These legendary links are almost always associated with negative phenomena. As the unscientific (even incantation) explanation like the “Curse of the Bambino” or the “Curse of the Billy Goat” are accepted as a form of self-evident truth, the result of World Series in this year is due to these curses.

Our society is falling into a panic after the introduction of the assessment of confidence to public by President Roh Moo-hyun. As being a different one with his inner thoughts or the whole heart of the person concerned, the topic of the assessment of confidence to public is being the topic of discussion for many branches. Political parties reproached, criticized, and even bore grudges against President Roh or the other party according to their interests. At first, it was likely to ask the assessment of confidence to public through a referendum, but all of a sudden political parties throw the political situation into confusion by changing their position according to their political interests. Only their changed position and the discussion of curse that they reproach the other party are whirling on the field of politics.

When President Roh Tae-woo was in office, there was the middle appraisement which asked the assessment of confidence to public. The middle appraisement of that time had to be realized because it was a public pledge. In spite of that fact, owing to interests among political parties, only discussion was exuberant in vain. In this case, we still continue to worry about the course of affairs because it is not a public pledge, but instead is the proposal which the president suddenly suggested in front of the unreasonableness of his surroundings. It is the tradition of our political system to distrust each other and to criticize the other party by interpreting their original purpose. Because in our political system, the discussion of curse, which was given birth in the U.S., seems to prevail, therefore it can not be bitterer.

Baek Sun-ki a guest editorial writer, the professor in the department of the press,Sungkyunkwan University

baek99@chollian.net