We Cherish Our Deluders

It's March 14th, White Day here in Korea. Like home, Feb. 14th here is Valentine's Day. I did nothing THAT day, but here in Korea, women give chocolate to men on Feb. 14th. I prefer Feb. 15th the lesser known holiday of Saint Cheap Chocolate Day. Although, I don't enjoy it as much as I used to.

What, you may wonder, is White Day? When I hear "White Day," I think of Ambrose Bierce defining "eloquence" as "The art of orally persuading fools that white is the color that it appears to be. It includes the gift of making any color appear white." Bierce was not fond of politics, to say the least, so I reckon he was thinking particularly of the "eloquence" one might see in politics. He also defined "degradation" as "one of the stages of moral and social progress from private station to political preferment." He defined "diplomacy" as "the patriotic art of lying for one's country." Politics, he called "the conduct of public affairs for private advantage." A politician was an eel in the mud upon which society is reared. We, the commoners are but electors who enjoy the sacred privilege of voting for candidates of other men's choosing. And he believed that were it not for political lies along with some self-delusion, we'd acknowledge all of this and maybe do something about it. "All hail, Delusion! Were it not for Thee, the world so topsy-turvy we should see." His ideas are practically 2 centuries old and apply as much or more to politics today. I guess we still cherish our deluders. 

That said, White Day is not about politics. Maybe I just have that on the brain because of the recent election day in Korea. I don't know if the Korean people had anyone worth a vote, but as is so often the case in elections worldwide, the wrong guy won. Yoon looks to be the Korean equivalent of a Republican. Maybe even a Trumpian. I saw the meme already posted by someone here in Korea, but can't find it now. Just imagine this hat:

on this head:

Yoon Suk Yeol doesn't like foreigners although I haven't heard any plans for a wall; has no political experience; doesn't like women although I haven't heard anything about grabbing them by the pussies; will cut taxes on the mistreated ole rich folks; will support the "free market" fallacy; will deregulate particularly in the housing market (because it worked so well for the US just before "08!), this looks more like a candidate of other (filthy rich) men's choosing, rather than one that was chosen by the Koreans. He won 48% of the votes of 77% of Korea so that's like 37% of the people in this country (at best) who unleashed this guy on themselves. If they have super candidates, zoning and gerrymandering like SOME countries so that it's not really one person - one vote, it could be fewer than 37%. So it absolutely WASN'T a guy who was chosen by the Korean people. But for at least one term, they'll probably all pull together in the love of democracy and the false belief that this was the dude the country wanted. And they get him for 5, not 4 years. Don't get me wrong, I don't know much about this guy and for all I know all of the above could be way off base, but he's a politician now, so I'm betting if it's not insufficiently harsh now, it won't be 5 years before it is. I'm with Ambrose! I hate politics too. 

But speaking of love, (silky smooth transition) what is White Day? It's a day in Korea when the boys who received chocolate from their girls on Valentines (assuming they're still a couple) give candy to them in return. Both are just silly rituals of consumerism that benefit businesses, of course, but we like doing them over here. You know how every kid gave valentines to every classmate back in our school days? Well I sometimes give chocolate and candy to students on Valentine's Day and White Day. It makes the students think I love them. And some may have cherished that delusion too. Who knows? For all I know, it could have improved my evaluations. Not that evaluations have ever made a lick of difference...

But anyway, there's also a third day in the sequence. April 14th is Black Day here. Black Day is SINGLES Day! Yes, it's nice that being single is associated with the darkest of colours over here. We're all pretty shadowy, us single people. Morose, gloomy wanderers of the night. We lurk in the shade and populate the dingy dullness of the Korean landscape foraging for mates unsuccessfully. And we mourn by eating black noodles on April 14th. I have the distinction of having been born on that date many moons ago and don't mind being considered a MOST ineligible bachelor over here. A kind of Count Davula of Black Day, if you will. Perhaps this year I'll eat some black birthday cake with my black noodles. If I'm feeling exceptionally dark, I just might. 

Being single - dark, black, negative? I'm sure you can guess from what delusional roots these associations derived. We should have lots of kids. Why? You'll find most of the "reasons" to be old and frankly outdated. Population for protection. The "revenge of the cradle" was something French Canadians adopted in order to gain more control of Canada over the British descendants living in it. But this was the 19th century. It's not something that's done any more. Surely South Korea always wanted more citizens so they could fend off hostile attacks in its past as well. 

Be fruitful and multiply. There are few, if any, religions that don't pressure subscribers to have lots of kids. Similar reasons might be at the core of that strategy if you think of global religions as being at "war" with one another. I think it might be helpful to point out that God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply when there were no people on the earth. We have billions now! I won't presume to speak for the Man upstairs, but maybe there's no need to be as fruitful anymore.

Every kid is a consumer and a future tax payer. The world, through politics, is controlled by big business and the ruling class, to a member, would have us multiply like fruit flies if they had their druthers. This is probably the main influence that causes such wonderful associations to being single as Black Day, not to mention the negativity attached to words and phrases like "spinster," "barren," "sterile," "shooting blanks," "flying solo," "unattached," and "single."  Politicians and economists will warn of hard times if population goes down too. They started quite some time ago in countries over here in Asia, including Korea. Every woman needs to have 2.1 kids to just keep the population of a country the same. Many countries in Asia are at that number (India) or below, (China, Japan, Singapore) and South Korea is at ONE. With urbanization, female autonomy, automation and many other MODERN concepts being very good reasons for already existing population decline as well as a positive perception of it, Korea should actually be happy and maybe even proud of that number. But they're not. They're being happily deluded toward fruitful multiplication.

This may sound a lot like sour grapes from a "childless" man like myself. Don't take it from me then. Listen to the authors of "Empty Planet." They've done more research and might both be married and have kids. Not sure. 

Perhaps (or perhaps definitely) the largest deluder of all is society, within which I include, family, social peers, and media of all kinds. I don't need to tell you all the crazy things we all do because we are influenced by them. Happily influenced some of the time. Fashion, music, trends of all kinds might be fun, but would we participate if we were absolutely unaffected by outside influence? I think the answer can be found every time I use my computer. Don't be surprised if before you watch the above You Tube vid you have to sit through a commercial or two, then have banner ads and pop-ups invading every unfilled corner of your computer screen. Just like politicians, clans, traditions, cultures, tribes and religions, they wouldn't be there if they didn't work. Though I don't know anyone who cherishes the endless online adds. Maybe we'd be better off to stop cherishing some of the other influential entities in our lives that tend to try to delude us. No? Well, it's what I reckon anyway.