[Opinion] Rational Debate

Renowned British scholar Anthony Giddens stresses the importance of dialog in democracy. In other words, understanding the diversity of the modern society requires dialog and debate as moderator of different interests. Dialog and debate may look alike. But they are different in nature. Dialog connotes a discourse of honest feelings, while debate refers to a process in which a rational decision is reached through detailed facts and sound grounds. That is why prevalence of rationality and the scientific thinking of the participants are vital.

Koreans, unfortunately, get easily overwhelmed by emotions, raising the public awareness of the need for sound debating. But it is not solely our problem. The need is also felt in the United States and many European countries. The common goal of the nations` education, or “science for all,” is directly linked to fostering of responsible citizens. In the past, it sufficed to raise a handful of scientific or technological geniuses. It was also true of us. Now, the scope has been much widened. Education is redesigned to culture the minimum level of scientific backgrounds in ordinary citizens.

Should education fail to teach the citizens of a country how to think critically, the country has to pay big for the failure. Contemporary human beings live not in a primitive nature, but in a secondary nature created by science and civilization. The failure to understand science in modern days might engulf a whole country in a swarm of falsehood and hallucination. The continuing issue of American beef illustrates the problem better than anything else. Looking back on the two-month-long protests, we cannot deny the fact that unscientific fiction and irrationality prevailed. To our shame and disappointment, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun of Japan pointed out that Korea still resorts to a method other than debate to solve a problem, 20 years after the democratic movement in the late 1980s.

The liberal bigots have led the protests. Chanting the need for sound debating on the surface, the liberal fundamentalists are obsessed with the idea that only they themselves are right. Well aware of the exaggeration surrounding mad cow disease and American beef, and of the fact that we do not need a new deal on the import decision, the bigots alleged at the Sunday rally that citizens’ last generosity allows the administration to cut a new deal with Washington. They are not the ones we can talk with. That is why citizens have to look at the facts, and induce rational and scientific conclusions.

Editorial Writer Hong Chan-sik (chansik@donga.com)