[Opinion] Procrustes in Seoul

There is the story of Procrustes in the Greek Mythology. He lived in a corner of the outskirt of Attica where lots of travelers passed by. He would invite passing strangers for pleasant food and a night’s rest in his bed. However, the bed was peculiar. The size of the bed fitted to anybody’s length. In modern language, it was a one-size-fits-all bed. How it could be? The answer was simple. He tied each traveler to the bed and cut off the legs if they happened to be too long, and stretched the person if he were short to the rack. His name meant “a person who stretches.” Then, he snatched their luggage. His real identity was a ruthless and violent highwayman.

In some way, he can be called the defender of average. He dreamed of making the variant lengths of all the people into an identical size. He was helpless to make the inner minds of people to a standard length. Equalization is a dream beyond attainment, and it demands great sacrifices to come true.

In the French Revolution (1798), liberty, equality, and fraternity were the slogans, and the sentence “All men are born equal,” was written in the Declaration of Independence (1776). Does this proposition hold true or ideal? Needless to say, this belongs to the later and equality is a dream beyond reach. In other words, the proposition tells us that “All men should try to achieve equality,” rather than “All men are equal.” Advanced countries are pursuing democracy and market capitalism. Those nations cannot realize the concepts by simply educating their members into an average person. We should accept that some are smart and some are not, and some are okay and some are mentally or psychologically challenged, and set up the frame of rules and order for the people of all sorts can compete as well as harmonizing each other.

Procrustes’ apparition is gradually lifting his head in Seoul after the government introduced equality in education. After South Korea achieved democracy, the power of equality in education has intensified daily. People are deceived and controlled by the apparition due to their temperament of envying others. And, they cast doubtful eyes and backbite to successful men in the fields of economy, politics, and culture, who reached the positions with capability. On the contrary, they worship men of odd behavior and words. What a superficial world. To change the society, we need a Theseus ’s kind visit to Seoul, who is a cousin of Hercules. Theseus was the hero who revenged Procrustes by using the exact method of tying him on his bed. I truly welcome your visit, Theseus. Please, drive away the domestic highwaymen in this international world of competition exerting your heroic power.

Kim Pyung-ju, Editorialist, Professor of Sogang University

pjkim@ccs.sogang.ac.kr