An Education View From Korea

For John, BLUF:  These folks have seen the way China and North Korea have changed education and in doing so have destroyed (classic) liberal ideas about education and democracy.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Left-wing education destroying the world’s liberal democratic system

From One Korea Network, by Professor Jebong Lee, 14 April 2021.

Here is the lede plus three:

Many people believed that communism had come to an end after watching the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the communist states of Eastern Europe. And as communist China transformed itself into a more free-market economy, we expected that as their economy developed and its society became more diversified, it would inevitably lead them to develop into a freer and more democratic system.

However, the Communist ideology has not changed at all and its methods have evolved. They have infiltrated into all aspects of society—home, school, church, politics, economy, culture, media, etc., while calling themselves the New Left and Liberals.  Communist China also developed a new method of controlling the people by means of new technologies and have revised their strategies to further communization, such as dissemination of Communist ideas, industrial espionage, and mass indoctrination of pro-Chinese personnel through the Confucius Institutes.  Meanwhile, we were seduced by low-cost Chinese goods and have forgotten about the slave labor of the Chinese people and have even turned a blind eye to the pains of the Uighurs who have become victims of organ harvesting.  We didn’t even know that our children were taught in school that the Republic of Korea should not have been established, and that school education is being destroyed by teachers who reject the liberal democratic system.  Even though they knew that students’ rights were being violated, teachers pretended not to know because they are afraid of radical left teachers’ unions.  This article explains the threat of the world’s left-wing ideologies, specifically the infiltration methods of Communism into education, and will attempt to explain the reality of education in Korea, which has become a tool of left-wing educators.

The Spread of Left-wing Ideological Education

There are five main ways by which Communist ideas infiltrate into Western education, which are explained as follows:  (1) direct introduction, (2) blocking traditional ideas and culture, (3) encouraging a decline in basic learning skills such as reading, writing, etc., (4) infiltration of perverted notions of economic, gender, and class liberation, and (5) propagandizing selfishness, greed, and a mentality of self-indulgence.  On the other hand, in Asian communist countries like China, they destroy traditional culture and slaughter scholars and use “the art of deceiving people with distorted education and propaganda while cutting the pulse of cultural transmission.”  (Gupyong editorial department, 2019: 3-5)

In fact, left-wing ideological concept have continuously evolved.  They have developed into many fields, such as traditional Marxism, Neo-Marxism, subordinate theory, liberation theology, cultural colonialism, leftist feminism, leftist-postmodernism in academia and school education, and ideas and theories related to this are taught as subjects in many universities around the world.  Not all of their effects on academic development are negative.  There have been some modifications to the liberal democratic system, some that are self-declining, and others that have evolved.  However, the most worrisome thing about this is that many of these ideologies are intentionally aimed at overthrowing the liberal democratic system and the fact is that these theories serve as the ideological motivations of radical left-wing activists.

I don't see this as an imminant threat, but I do see it as a possible longer term future.  Of course, in things like this them do seem to be going along OK, and then the bottom drops out and it is too late.

Regards  —  Cliff