[Opinion] Liars’ Society

Koreans often tell a lie, recorded foreign missionaries who came to the country at the end of Yi Dynasty. Renowned novelist Lee Kwang-soo enumerated demerits of Koreans in the 1920s emphasizing the need to ‘revamp the people.’ And one of the demerits was a propensity to lie.

I beg to differ, however. Although we now live in the republic of liars where lies prevail everywhere, I don’t see anything wrong with our national traits for that matter.

▷ Foreign missionaries could have been biased against Asians when they referred to Koreans as lying people. It sounds hardly convincing to those who remember that in Korea, farmers were willing to help and share with each other, and Confucian scholars risked their lives for their causes and the common good. Lee argued the need to revamp the people only to justify the Japanese colonial rule.

▷ As we are human, we are all bound to tell a lie. It doesn’t matter where and when we live. Look at the Americans boasting their high moral standards. Corporate accounting frauds, former President Clinton’s Lewinsky Scandal and Nixon’s Watergate. They all lied, lied so well. There might be regional and national differences to some degree, but lying starts with greed and selfishness inside.

▷ I have heard that witnesses increasingly make false statements in court. The courthouse is often called a stage for liars. Defendants, facing criminal charges, easily fall into the temptation of the devil. What makes us sad is another stage called ‘congressional hearing.’

It’s an ugly reality we are dealing with. We should not disparage ourselves, however. We must build a society where honesty overflows spontaneously. The world’s most exemplary countries do not linger on family or blood ties just as they value frugality and honest poverty.

Where money and power is considered everything, those poor but decent people will always remain as a laughingstock, and lies will thrive. The answer is here. We don’t have to go far to build an honest society.

Hong Chan-shik, Editorial Writer