The Essence of Lee Jae-myung’s Crisis

  If you think, “Munjo-teollae-yu is sulking. We just need to coax them. Let’s all join forces,” you have the mind of an elementary schooler. A revolt from below can never be resolved. There is clearly a solution. The pro-Lee seven-member group supposedly convened for deliberations, yet they say, “There is no solution,” because they have no will to resolve it. Lee Jae-myung is the one who needs to change. There is no way to make him change.

  Liu Bei shines when he works alongside intellectuals such as Zhuge Liang. This is a situation in which Zhang Fei glares with his ringed eyes and purges Zhuge Liang. The problem is the public’s sense of despair. It is a colossal wall. The lever has snapped. We must change strategy. The essence is anti-intellectualism. They simply cannot understand a word anyone says. If words fail, there is no choice but to respond physically.

  The only physical means the public has to rein in Lee Jae-myung is to drive down his approval rating. We must lower it deliberately. The political intelligence of these shit-peddlers is so low that they could not even foresee this development. It might be easier to communicate with Kim Keon-hee. Kim Keon-hee spots a gap in society, sticks an umbrella into it to stop the subway, then pries it open and forces her whole body through. 

  A dinosaur wedges in its tail and wriggles to make room; once it gets a shoulder through, the whole body slips right in. Uncle Tong would weep with envy. People like me, Kim Ou-joon, and Rhyu Si-min see such barriers and give up. Why? Because if we are going in, we all have to go in together. What if Kim Ou-joon went to the National Assembly? He would have to bring in twenty members of his own faction with him. 

  He would have to take over the entire National Assembly. If Kim Ou-joon goes in alone, he will be co-opted by the establishment. A tribune causes no trouble because a seat in the Senate will fall into his lap if he simply sits still. It is easier to become a lackey of the aristocracy than a hero of the people. That is why Chung Bong-ju and Chung Cheong-rae are kept in check. Chung Bong-ju even had the gall to try to use a private organization like MiKwonS as his vehicle.

  That makes it impossible to pick him up alone. They would all march in and shake up the National Assembly. It is madness. They have to be purged. Suppose Chung Cheong-rae commanded a horde of followers and had them gang up on lawmakers one by one. That is what Caesar did. He unleashed his underlings to drag senators one by one into alleys and beat them senseless.

  What if Chung Cheong-rae marked targets and netizens swarmed in to destroy them one by one? Kim Kyung-soo is someone who brazenly committed that kind of foul play. He colluded with Druking and pulled strange stunts through the back door. When Kim Chong-in cuts Chung Cheong-rae loose, he invokes the moralistic logic that Chung’s conduct is improper. What they truly fear is a mass pile-on by netizens. The group is the essence. 

  Kim Gil-o’s private organization behind Yong Hye-in is another such brokerage operation. Jin Jung-kwon is reviled because a pundit is acting like a broker. The same goes for the country doctor who promoted Ahn Cheol-soo. Kim Ou-joon, too, becomes a broker if he strikes a secret deal with a particular person. If Kim Ou-joon had to choose between the force of two million netizens who follow him and a single position offered by Lee Jae-myung, which would he choose?

  Those with gold Assembly badges cannot tolerate such a state of affairs. Politicians must be transparent and act through official organizations in the arena of public discourse. Kim Keon-hee has an extraordinary ability to see through such weak spots in society. She has a knack for finding shortcuts. If academic credentials will not do, she opens a detour. If her face will not do, she fixes it. With Chairman Cho Nam-wook at her side, she works her backroom schemes.

  She pries open a tiny hole and forces her whole body through. Pull that scam just three times and you become the first lady. Is Lee Jae-myung any different? Why did he become mayor of Seongnam rather than a lawmaker? It is easier to run a private organization that way. The problem is that the original organization stays with you to the end. Kim Du-kwan tries to become president, and the village heads from his days as Namhae county governor follow him all the way to the Blue House.

  You cannot replace your closest aides. There can be no changing of the guard along the way. The public leaps to conclusions. If Du-kwan hyung gets in, do the village heads take over the Republic of Korea? Have Kim Gil-o’s people taken over the Republic of Korea? If Kim Ou-joon enters the National Assembly, will the Jolla Shock Troops and Shibal Special Forces that trail after him take over the Republic of Korea? Will lawmakers lose their gold badges if they do not shout “Jolla, shibal”?

  What if Rhyu Si-min enters the National Assembly in white trousers? Is that the opening shot signaling that people who dress differently intend to drive out the suited lawmakers and take over the legislature? I was shocked after watching the Netflix drama The Gentlemen. It argues that every British institution—the judiciary and the press included—was designed a thousand years ago to operate solely for the vested interests of the aristocracy.

  “The reason they own 75% of the country is that they stole it. William the Conqueror was more vicious than Al Capone. He built a system so that he and his friends could possess this land forever. Taxes, education, even the judicial system—it was perfect.” That system went to work, allowing Thatcher to drive out labor and build a financial empire.

  The British aristocracy are the original gangsters. The law is not there to keep watch over the aristocracy, but to institutionalize their monopoly over land and resources. The nation’s infrastructure serves as a legal fortress that excludes the “lower classes” and preserves hereditary power. The problem is that Britons have been emotionally conditioned to accept this and feel no discontent. 

  The moment younger sons receive equal shares of an inheritance, the institution of the family is shattered. They fear equality. It is like the church worship of the Vendée peasants in France. Put money in the hands of individuals, and they will go bankrupt before three generations pass. Only by donating property to the church will any of it remain. The British are the same. If younger sons inherit, before three generations pass they will all end up beggars. 

  They think the estate can be preserved only if the eldest son monopolizes it. They entertain such bizarre ideas. They regard it as natural and have no complaints. Japan is the same. They grow small but strong companies into conglomerates, only to see them collapse like Korea’s chaebol. Where did all those Korean chaebol go, leaving only Samsung and Hyundai today? To preserve wealth safely, you must never increase the scale. 

  The way to reduce risk is to keep the workforce below 100. What does this mean? Suppose you enlarge the circle of Mi Zhu, Sun Qian, Jian Yong, Zhang Fei, and Guan Yu who follow Liu Bei, and bring in Xu Shu, Zhuge Liang, and Pang Tong. The newcomers to Liu Bei’s group were an elite cohort that had fled south to Jing Province after Chang’an burned. Zhuge Liang was merely their representative.

  The question is whom the boss chooses at that point. What if Guan Yu resents Zhuge Liang and cuts him loose? “You little brat!” Zhuge Liang is not entering alone. The entire elite cohort that had taken refuge in Jing Province is entering at once. Within Liu Bei’s group, the Jing faction consisted of Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, Ma Liang, Ma Su, Yi Ji, Xiang Lang, and Jiang Wan. It is a complete changing of the guard.

  Add to them the Yi Province faction of Fa Zheng, Li Yan, and Huang Quan. Together they struck a balance and made Liu Bei’s reign a success. The expulsion of Munjo-teollae-yu is equivalent to Zhang Fei driving out the Yi and Jing factions and leaving only the Seongnam faction. They claim outwardly that they are embracing the center, but who would fall for such a childish lie? By analogy, it is a palace coup by Kim Du-kwan’s corps of village heads.

  The essence is anti-intellectualism. Liu Bei accepted the Jing and Yi factions because, as intellectuals, they could communicate. The reason a faction cannot expand is that people from different backgrounds cannot communicate. Why can they not communicate? As the Hwanppa fiasco shows, trivial matters make things awkward. If you pour liquor into a shoe and drink it to ease the awkwardness, things become even more absurd.

  They do batshit-crazy things: suggesting that they meet at a bathhouse at dawn and scrub each other’s backs, demanding 90-degree bows, or saying they want to sit next to Jang Dong-hyeok. The public knows these things instinctively, but saying them aloud is exhausting, so people do not. For example, when Kim Chong-in attacks Chung Cheong-rae, he invokes the moralistic argument that Chung uses abusive language, but in reality his predicament is desperate.

  It is the fear born of knowing how easy it would be if Chung Cheong-rae unleashed his people to destroy Kim Chong-in. What is bound to happen will happen. There is no safeguard. They have no choice but to purge him. I say openly what others refuse to say outright. You can know ten things from seeing one. Those who scheme through the back door have no intellect. Who can inject Lee Jae-myung with the intellect he lacks?

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  1. Politicians must act through public means.

  2. Pursuing transformation through public means results in a wholesale changing of the guard. 

  3. The establishment responds by picking up just one person, thereby avoiding a changing of the guard.

  4. The cunning hide their supporting forces behind backroom organizations and seek to be picked up individually.

  5. Opportunists who target niche markets obstruct a transfer of power by purging their own side.

  We have two choices. One is for an individual to be picked up, as Yong Hye-in was. In that case, the existence of the supporting force is concealed. That force acts as a broker. The other is for dozens of people to form a faction, swarm in, and take over all at once. Kim Chong-in and others suspect Chung Bong-ju or Chung Cheong-rae of attempting such a thing and move to purge them.

  If a group is to swarm in and carry out a transfer of power, it needs a supporting structure. That structure is intellect. What about Lee Jae-myung? Lee Jae-myung concealed his backers and used cunning tricks to squeeze through a gap. He found a blind spot in the establishment’s surveillance net. Rather than entering as a Trojan horse, opening the gates, and welcoming his forces inside, he purged them instead.

  Achilles, having infiltrated inside the Trojan horse, becomes king of Troy, locks the city gates, and hurls stones at the Munjo-teollae-yu Greek army. This is betrayal. There are characters like this. The public sees right through them. I knew this would happen. Something felt off from the beginning. What was bound to happen has happened. His approval rating is plummeting. This is what it means to be deceived despite knowing better.

  Jin Jung-kwon led the Anti-Chosun movement and built a following, then betrayed it and was picked up alone by the Cho-Joong-Dong newspapers. Has the public seen this sort of behavior only once or twice? We wanted a transfer of power, but they pursued individual recruitment. If someone is trying to get recruited by a prestigious university, having too many companions in tow is inconvenient, so he purges his colleagues. It is a package-deal baseball recruitment from high school.

  Britain’s rotten aristocratic culture is what happens when the shit-peddlers’ purges succeed. On islands like Japan, pernicious institutions tend to take root and survive. Rural territorialism works the same way. Locals guard their turf and prevent outsiders from entering their village. They deliberately obstruct the village’s development. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei purge Zhuge Liang.