A Desperate Disease Requires a Dangerous Remedy
I’m a bit late on talking not this subject but a few months back, hundreds of Korean Air employees took to protesting the terrible working conditions and flagrant nepotism being pursued in South Korea’s largest airline. This came soon after the younger sister of the famous “peanut dictator” stirred up her own controversy by chastising clients in a meeting. The audio recording leaked and both sisters were condemned off the executive board. Korean Air has become emblematic amongst the country’s citizens to embody everything that is wrong with hierarchical business culture and the monopolistic dominance of certain people and certain companies.
The event was quite sobering as an entire crowd of employed protestors revived the visage of Guy Fawkes to symbolize their confrontation with the system.
This is a culture in which all of its citizens knows is wrong, but no single person or even a large group of people have the capacity to make things change from the outside. But this event was unanimously insiders, employees that attested to the terrible working and social conditions of the corporation. Commentators linked it to working culture in many other offices as well, clarifying that it is indeed not an isolated event. This is a cultural mainstay.
Public protests are becoming increasingly potent tools for mass opinion to pressure political and economic change. Koreans, according to strong Confucian principles, are good at banding together when many individuals have been wronged the same way. Empathy is a powerful tool in tightly-knit social fabric, and while empathy is typically reserved to help one another overcome these systematic traumas, sometimes the camel’s back just breaks at that empathy is weaponized as a powerful group mobilizer.
The protests worked to a degree. Stock prices dipped again (thought likely to bounce back after enough time has passed) and more importantly, the two daughters have been evicted from executive seats in a seemingly shameful fashion. It is almost unheard of historically for corporations to make big changes at the top just because of public sentiment but as of late, it is becoming more of a regular occurrence. Hopefully this becomes an effective deterrent from this kind of general alpha-(fe)male behavior.
A forced apology. Source
From an American perspective, it has almost the same feeling as when morally crooked cops are caught in some brutal act. Protests are often sparked from similar phone recordings and the outrage is just as viral, just as vicious. Koreans have set a strong precedent, even deposing a president with these public showings, so there isn’t any reason why the country’s citizens can’t continue the momentum to set certain things right.
What do you think? Is Korea moving in a good direction? What else can citizens do other than rally together? Let me know your thoughts below! Steem on.
