Our New Euphemism: ‘Pragmatic Patriotism’

The Chosun Ilbo recently made the grave mistake of commissioning a survey of young citizens’ attitudes to commemorate the 60th anniversary of independence from Japan. The Chosun deserves credit for reporting the distressing results rather than burying them, but the factual basis for some of its analysis is not evident to the reader:

The survey by Gallup Korea of 833 individuals born between 1980 and 1989 also found a marked shift in attitude to North Korea and the South’s traditional ally, the U.S. Some 65.9 percent responded they would take North Korea’s side if it was at war with the U.S., while 21.8 percent said South Korea must stand with the U.S. and the rest were undecided.

OK, this shocked even me. But at least South Korea doesn’t need to worry about a wave of mass defections threatening its stability:

But asked where they would like to live if they had to go abroad, not one cited the Stalinist country. Instead, 17.9 percent of respondents named Australia, 16.8 percent the U.S. and 15.3 percent Japan. Fourteen nations including equally uninviting Iraq and Iran did better than North Korea by attracting one respondent each.

No shock there. Yun Min-Seok was not available for comment (according to his publicist, he was on an extended vacation in Redondo Beach.).

So how does a “conservative” newspaper navigate away from the distress that must come with finding that, by 3-to-1, your young people would side with the despotic, democidal neighbor that has 12,000 guns pointed at it, rather than the nation that has defended it and bankrolled its prosperity for the last 50 years? One answer might be to point out that the sample size was fairly small. Another might be to slather some academic imprimatur on the spin:

Prof. Gang Won-taek of Soongsil University interpreted the results as showing that the young generation views North Korea as a struggling neighbor and relative rather than an enemy. He said young people’s attitudes toward the North should be regarded as pragmatic nationalism and a rejection of ideology.

Rejection of ideology? Some facts, logic, or reason to support that conclusion, please? To those who have lived in Korea for more than thirty days, ideology, nationalism, and sentiments toward the United States and North Korea are obviously intertwined. To a point, anyway . . . .

Since we’re left to guess as to how this isn’t ideological, let me try. Young South Koreans’ ideology is a mile wide and an inch deep. It probably goes only so far as it goes hand-in-hand with self-interest, which might be another way to unspin “pragmatic patriotism” (“pragmatic nationalism” would be more accurate). Perhaps if Professor Gang were to say that support for North Korea’s goals does not equate to the popularity of living under its system or giving up more income to feed its starving people, I’d be inclined to agree.

“We want unification” makes a perfectly fine chant at a soccer match, but let’s not confuse it with principle or a willingness to sacrifice for some perceived greater good. Which leaves us with a question that I doubt anyone can really answer: just what does South Korea’s younger generation really believe?