Yup, that's the shortcut to perdition. [blog entry translation]

Sent to: Ricardo Levins Morales, Mellon group

Yup, that’s the shortcut to perdition. [blog entry translation]
by Jungtae Roh mediamob.co.kr/rasugjuriha
original entry in korean at mediamob.co.kr/rasugjuriha/Post/PostView.aspx?RowCount=&PKId=22621

As my friend FunnyHat appropriately pointed out , getting your calculators out and making all sorts of predictions out of the U.S. presidential elections is quite meaningless and may even be bad for your health. What we really need to talk about at this point is about [south korean] national politics, which will influence us and to which we can exert influence. I can’t hold myself from saying this: just look at them – that’s the shortcut to perdition. A “critical support” [A] or “lesser evil” strategy is nothing but a shortcut to eternal damnation.

He lost, even though Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Moore, Marilyn Manson, Bruce Springsteen, or even the most important contemporary linguist/philosopher Noam Chomsky have been voicing support loud and clear. Of course Michael Moore may complain bitterly: where have all the folks who were pointing accusing fingers at me saying that Gore lost because I supported Nader gone? Everyone may have their own reasons and excuses. I mean, excuses and reasons for which they supported Kerry, the “lesser evil”, despite their various unsatisfactions with him.

The reason is clear enough. You just gotta say it bluntly, “there is no progressive party in the United States”. But why isn’t there one? If I recall it well, during the second world war the U.S. labor unions supported Tedybear Roosevelt under the logic of the “lesser evil”. (1) The U.S. left has been under constant oppression since then, and most criticaly, hast lost its ability to emerge as an independent political force. And this has continued to this day. As some interpret it, the sadly hilarious situation is about picking between Hwechang Lee and Byungryul Choi [B] at the polling stations, and about which side should the “left” support under the logic of the “critical support”.

Both in the history of England and the United States there is a common period when there emerge the three powers of ultra-conservatives, lesser- conservatives and progressives. England’s two-party system came about with the ruining of lesser-conservatives who held a fragile intermediate position. In other words, the ruining of the libertarian party took England away from what the United States came to be. But in the United States the progressives came to a ruin, and the result is that we came to athe point of having to watch Georgie Bushie’s face on TV for the next four years. And if you look closely, the demon of “critical support” is laughing behind it all.

Look at them – that’s how you bring about perdition. So don’t ever dare say – be it the next [south korean]presidential elections or whatever it is – that we’ve got to join an anti-ultraconservative coalition. To be certain, two- party systems come about almost as a necessity in presidential nations. But what’s got to be defeated is the One-Nation Party [conservative] or Our Open Party [reformist], not the Democratic Labor Party. Also, Labor Party supporters should be aware that the softer we are, the more likley are we to get a south korean version of Georgie Bushie. Don’t you get it, reformist party supporters will never, never vote for a progressive party. (2) Please, let us put away what needs to be trashed. Should we continue undecided for long, we’ll end up exactly like the U.S. Actualy, when we take into consideration South Korea’s extreme bias towards the U.S., the results of this presidental elections is a most excellent contrastive teacher.

[A] In South Korea the “lesser evil” strategy is called “critical support”, as in supporting the party while remaining critical of it.
[B] Hwechang Lee and Bryungryul Choi are the south korean conservative party’s 2002 presidential candidate (who lost to president Roh) and his post- 2002 party ultracon leader (who recently resigned to the new young right), respectively.

[1] I don’t remember this well; corrections welcome.
[2] Actually they also support the progressive party. Only until the reformist party’s national convention, though. It’s not certain if that party would maintain its homogeneity till then.. but anyway.