Wake up, Marx!
Karl Marx would turn in his grave, if he knew the interclass struggle is spreading like an infectious disease and reaching global proportions. The problem for the father of communism is he wouldn’t know whether to be happy or upset by this belated flourishing of his prediction.
He may most likely get choked up on this part: his movement’s poster child (considering he is puerile) is Donald Trump, the U.S. real estate mogul, who under Marx’s theory is supposed to be the very target for a Marxian revolution.
Then, Britain’s embracing of an exit out of the European Union, or Brexit, can’t be explained simply by the inequity of wealth distribution. So Marx may be right and wrong at the same time, so to speak. Here it is even less materialistic as ordinary Koreans are gathering their forces to oust their unjust leader, Park Geun-hye.
Trump’s presidential election victory was a show of discontent by people who feel left behind.
The popular effort to oust Park looks like a search for poetic justice — punishing the leader for a wrongdoing of colossal proportions. But a look underneath the surface shows it is also a revolt by the disaffected.
Although Trump’s supporters were thought to be composed of white uneducated rural people, the outcome of the Nov. 8 vote showed his support base was much broader than thought.
Anti-Park groups are just about everybody.
Polls show her disapproval rating has surpassed 90 percent, while support has plummeted to 4 percent.
Looking at the demographics of protestors in Gwanghwamun, one would feel that they are from every walk of life — mothers with babies in strollers, fathers with young children and young couples among others.
Trump is behind Clinton in the popular vote. His victories in swing states helped him to victory in the winner-take-all Electoral College system. What is undeniable is the strong element of surprise because Clinton was heavily favored in the lead-up to the election.
Trump acted indecently. He associated with white supremacists, called Mexicans rapists and treated Muslims as terrorists.
He came out with preposterous ideas — erecting a wall along the Mexican border and deporting 11 million undocumented immigrants. Trump said that he would not accept it if he lost in the election, and threatened to send Clinton to jail.
Despite all his horrible actions and remarks, Trump escaped unharmed and won.
Why? It’s public antipathy against the establishment. Clinton’s email scandal and her speech to Wall Street fat cats only consolidated her establishment image. The voters dumped her and chose Trump.
The June 23 pro-Brexit vote finds the same root of dissatisfaction with the establishment.
In the lead-up to the vote, the Financial Times, the mouthpiece for mercantilism and plutocracy, had tried to show what was wrong with it but its columns and editorials showed unbridled passion that readers could cry in sympathy with, though not with their cause.
The voters didn’t buy it. The process was also dramatic. Soon after the vote finished, Boris Johnson, the leading Brexiteer, made a concession. Prematurely, it turned out.
Here, candlelit protests draw millions of people. The biggest crime by this supposed corrupt leader is that she thought she could be her father. Park Chung-hee led Korea’s rise from the ashes and masterminded its industrialization. He wanted to be a king, president for life. He treated chaebol as if they were private coffers — after all, he helped them grow.
The incumbent Park was like a princess in Sleeping Beauty. She spent those 20 years as first daughter and then acting first lady after her mother was assassinated. Her father was killed by his intelligence chief. When Park was out of touch with the real world, the real world changed. Park lived in a cocoon, being taken care of by people like Choi Soon-sil, Korea’s Rasputin.
The people are upset to see their leader privatize her mandate and her proxies line their pockets illegally. The revelation that Park was an avatar being controlled by Choi, hit them hard with the double whammy of disillusionment and betrayal.
Greatly contributing to it is the tough life experienced by much of the nation. The phrase “Hell Joseon” captures it well.
In Hell Joseon, young people can’t get jobs, marriage is too expensive and saving for a rainy day is not possible. There is no future so people want to escape. This hellish sentiment provides the foundation for the uncommon unity of the people against Park.
This neo-class struggle is haves vs. have-nots as shown in the Occupy Wall Street movement, establishment against anti-establishment as shown in Brexit and Trump, the ruled against the ruler as in the Park case. What is the common denominator? It’s the enormous energy of people who are eager for change. Can we convert this mega energy that has reached critical mass and beat the status quo? So far, success is not yet assured.
Trump obviously has been overwhelmed by his own victory. Left to his own devices, the Trump change will likely cater only to the viewpoints of anti-globalists, isolationists and people with minimalist agendas.
For Brexit, Brits are hobbled by the courts in their move out of the EU. Even if it is given the go-ahead, the process could be stymied again.
For Korea, the fear is an enormous state of chaos following Park’s ouster and the absence of a competent opposition as an alternative leadership.
Do these hurdles mean the new class struggle is destined to end in failure?
We may need to wake Marx up to answer that, unless anybody has a better idea.