Ahn, Psy and rise of the outsider

Two things happened last week that captured the zeitgeist in Korea. One was the announcement by Ahn Cheol-soo, the software entrepreneur, that he was running for president and the other was rapper Psy’s “Gangnam Style’’ breaking the world record for the most liked YouTube video. What connects these two seemingly unrelated events is that both display the appeal of authenticity that reflects pent-up demand for social change in Korea.

What Ahn and Psy represent, in their own ways, is the erosion of the conformist and bureaucratic mass society that Koreans have lived under since the 1960s and the rise of new social values that prize individualism and creativity and embrace outsiders.

In terms of politics, there has been a clear trend in this direction for the last several decades. First came the downfall of the authoritarian government in 1987 and the arrival of democratic governments under Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung. Then the rise of Roh Moo-hyun reflected public disenchantment with the domination of the old political backroom system under the two Kims.

Roh offered the promise of representing the views of the baby boomer 386 generation in promoting wider public participation in government and curbing the power of the elite. But he largely failed in this regard because of his inability to master the bureaucracy that represented vested interests. The current Lee Myung-bak administration has done little to change public perceptions that corruption and personal connections count for a great deal in Korean politics.

The resulting disillusionment and frustration has created a public appetite for a true outsider to clean up and reform government by strengthening the democratic process.

It was the election of independent candidate Park Won-soon last year as Seoul mayor after his endorsement by Ahn that underscored the lack of public confidence in the established political parties and their way of running things, while also revealing how much influence Ahn actually possessed. Two other factors have also propelled Ahn’s rise.

One is that Korean politics are based on personal loyalties rather than party loyalties, making it easier for an individual to create a political movement than in Western countries.

The second and more important factor is that Ahn has positioned himself as the anti-politician. He portrayed himself in his recent book as a thinker with a more accessible personality than most professional Korean politicians. His record as a successful entrepreneur and a professor at Seoul National University makes him attractive to Koreans, who favor those with academic and business skills.

But Ahn’s appeal to Koreans goes even deeper when his life story is considered. He initially embarked on the traditional path to gain a prestigious career by training to be a doctor. But he found a lack of fulfillment in medicine and instead decided to pursue his passion in computer science with the development of his anti-virus computer software that made him a millionaire.

It is that story of having the courage of breaking social expectations by abandoning his medical career and finding success in his creativity that resonates so strongly with many Koreans, who long to drop out of the competitive rat race that stifles their own individuality? And is it a refusal to play the role of a traditional slick politician that lends him the power of authenticity that his opponents lack?

The global popularity of “Gangnam Style” also shows the benefits of being a non-conformist. The mainstream music industry is similar to other industries in Korea. Its top-down management structure is focused on creating highly polished but interchangeable K-pop groups from scratch. K-pop has become more sophisticated in recent years, absorbing musical influences from the rest of the world, but it continues to struggle to score a massive hit in the West despite considerable investment to achieve that goal.

In contrast, Psy has become a global phenomenon because he broke the rules by the standards of Korean pop. Instead of highly-choreographed dancing, he practices a silly “horse-riding” dance. He is not sexy, but rather pudgy. And “Gangnam Style” is shot with humor, although his gentle mocking of the nouveau riche of Gangnam is likely to be lost on foreign audiences. Of course, the infectious beat of the song doesn’t hurt. It is the apparent authenticity of Psy rather than the manufactured appeal of K-pop groups that has won hearts around the world.

The recent bestowing of the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival to Kim Ki-duk provides another example of how individuality is winning out over conformity. Kim is regarded as a fringe figure in Korea in terms of box office success but has been embraced by global film critics as one of the world’s leading directors.

The examples of Ahn, Psy and Kim show that Korea may be approaching the same inflection point that the U.S. and Europe reached in the early 1960s when mass society was challenged by the rise of a counterculture with its emphasis on the individual and personal freedom. That could be tremendously beneficial to Korea as it would unleash the creativity needed to compete in a post-industrial world.

John Burton, a former Korea correspondent for the Financial Times, is now a Seoul-based independent journalist and media consultant. <The Korea Times/John Burton>

news@theasian.asia