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My Desire
1. People's Nation
If God asked me what was my wish, I would reply unhesitatingly,
"Korean independence."
If He asked me what was my next wish, I would again answer,
"Our nation's independence."
If He asked me the same question for the third time, I would reply in an even louder voice,
"My wish is our Great Korean Nation's Complete Independence."
My dear compatriots!
I, Kim Koo, have but this one wish. I lived the past 70 years of my life because of this one wish, and even now I am living my present life for this one wish. In the future, I will also live in order to fulfill this one wish.
As a man belonging to a nation that has lost its independence, I lived the seventy years of my life in much shame, sorrow, and trouble. The best thing that can happen to me in this world, therefore, is to die after having experienced a life as a citizen of a nation that has achieved its complete independence. Earlier, I had desired to become a gatekeeper of our independent government. This was an expression of my feeling that I would gladly become the humblest person in society if our country became an independent nation. This is because living a humble life in one's own independent nation is happier, more glorious and more hopeful than living a life of luxury under someone else's rule in another nation. In former times, Park Je-sang, when he went to Japan, declared, "I would rather become a pig in Korea than live a comfortable life as a retainer of the Japanese king."
I know that these words conveyed his genuine sentiments. Despite the Japanese king's offer of a high government post and much wealth, Je-sang gladly chose death instead. This was because of his conviction expressed in the following words of his, "I would rather become a ghost of my nation."
Recently, I heard that some among our people wish that our nation would give up its sovereignty and join a large neighboring country as a part of its federation. Not only do I not believe this but, if people who say such things do indeed exist, I can only regard them as lunatics who have lost their minds.
I have learned the teachings of Confucius, Buddha, and Jesus, and I do admire them as saints. However, even if there exist a utopian nation established by joint efforts of all these saints, I would not drag our people into that nation. This is because that nation was not founded by our people. As you well know, nations of people who share the same blood and the same history do clearly exist in this world. Just as my body cannot become another's body, one people cannot become another people, in the same way that even brothers sharing the same blood find it difficult to live together in the same house. When more than two join together to become one, there always arises the fundamental problem of authority and hierarchy. One party must stand above the other and give orders while the other must stand below and accept the orders.
In speaking of this, some on the so-called left deny their motherland formed by blood and advocate the so-called motherland founded by common ideology. These ignore their blood compatriots and advocate the so-called comrades of the same ideology and the so-called international class of the proletariat. These people dismiss nationalism as an outmoded idea that has already fallen way out of the realm of truth. How foolish these people are! Though philosophies, political ideologies, economic theories all change and are only temporary, the blood lineage of a people is eternal.
Throughout history, there has never been a nation that has not experienced internal divisions and bloodshed because of conflicts arising from religious, ideological, economic or political differences. However, after the passage of time, all these conflicts are but temporary phenomena just like wind that blows and passes away. But, a people sharing the same blood is like the grass and trees that, after the wind calms down, still remain in their place and form a single forest with their roots and branches linked to one another. We should not forget that what we today call the so-called right and left are but temporary waves and tempests that arise in the eternal sea of common blood lineage.
So, all ideologies and religions change. Only the people of the same blood lineage exist on this earth as a body and a community bound eternally by the same shared destiny of collective rise and decline.
It is humanity's highest and last hope and ideal that all of humanity become one household and live together in unity and harmony without conflict. This, however, is something that can be hoped for in the distant future and not something that can be realistically achieved today. It is only good and imperative that people all over the world strive for improvement and progress leading towards this grand and beautiful goal of the universal brotherhood of mankind. But, even in striving for this, one should not depart from reality. The truth of the present reality is that each people form the best possible nation of their own and give birth to and nurture the highest possible culture of their own. After this, nations can exchange what they have with one another and so live in mutual cooperation with one another. This is the democracy in which I believe, and this is the most certain and valid truth in the present stage of human history.
Therefore, the work of the highest priority which our people need to perform is the establishment of a completely sovereign nation that is not in any way subservient to or dependent on other nations. Without achieving this goal, we cannot guarantee the livelihood of our people, and we cannot establish a culture which will allow our people to freely express their mental and spiritual energies to their fullest.
After founding a fully independent nation in this fashion, the second mandate of our people is to give birth to an ideology which will enable mankind to experience true peace and happiness and to realize such a society first in our nation.
I know that the present culture of humanity is unstable. Within every nation, there political, economic and social inequality and irrationality. In the international arena, there is no end to jealousies, strife, invasions and counter-invasions among nations and peoples that cause wars and much sacrifice of life and property. The result of these wars, however, is not good news. They create even more fear in people's hearts and further moral degradation. In the present conditions, these will eventually lead to the end of all mankind.
Thus, it became necessary for humanity to discover new principles of life and to lead lives based on these new principles. I believe it is a mandate given to our people by Heaven that we should help humanity find its way along this path.
In the light of this, our people's independence is definitely not just the business of our thirty million people but, rather, an enterprise of grander proportions involving the fate of the entire world. Working for our nation's independence, therefore, is ipso facto working for the future of humanity.
If, looking at our present shabby state, we indulge in self-deprecation and doubt that the nation we establish will ever accomplish something so great, we are doing nothing but insulting ourselves. Our people's history was definitely not inglorious. But, this is only an overture to something much greater. The time when we will stand as main actors on the world stage lies in the future. How can we doubt that out thirty million people will not be able to do what the ancient Greeks or Romans did?
The enterprise of our people which I desire is certainly not that of conquering the world by force or by economic power. What I am proposing is that we do that which will lead to a world in which we ourselves live abundantly and in which humanity as a whole lives in abundance, peace, and happiness. This world will come true only by establishing a culture of love and peace. Do not say that this is a pipe dream because no people in history has ever done something like this in the past. My point is that we should do this precisely because nobody has ever done this in the past. Only when we realize that this great enterprise has been left undone by Heaven for us to fulfill, can our people recognize their true path and their true tasks.
I hope that our nation's young people, both male and female, will abandon the small and narrow thoughts of the past and become conscious of our people's great mission so that they will make it their joy of life to cultivate their minds and to increase their strengths. If all our young people exert their efforts in this direction with this spirit, I am sure that, within 30 years, our people will have become great beyond all recognition.
My Desire
2. Political Philosophy
My political philosophy, summed up in one word, is freedom. The nation that we establish must be a nation of freedom.
What is freedom? If, by freedom, we mean a state in which each individual lives his life absolutely in whichever way he sees fit, this is something only possible either before nations came into being or after, as Lenin would say, nations have withered away. For mankind, which lives its life under the confines of national governments, this kind of unconditional freedom does not exist. This is because nationhood, by its very nature, is a kind of a state of restraint bound by rules and regulations. What restrains us who live in nations is law. Whether in nations with freedom or in nations without freedom, the individual's life is constrained by national laws.
What distinguishes freedom from what is not freedom is from where the law originates that binds the individual's freedom. In free nations, the law springs forth from the people's free will. In nations without freedom, it comes from a certain individual or a class of individuals among the people. When a nation's laws are issued by a single individual, the nation is said to be a totalitarian or an autocratic state. When they are mode by a single class, this is called a class dictatorship or what is popularly known as fascism.
I do not desire that our nation become a nation ruled by a dictatorship. In a nation ruled by a dictatorship, everyone, except the class of people that form the dictatorship becomes a slave. Among types of dictatorship, the one that is to be feared the most is a class dictatorship based on a certain ideology or philosophy. In dictatorships exercised by a sovereign or other individual dictators, the dictatorship can be toppled simply by removing from power that single individual. But, when a class organized by multiple individuals is the body of the dictatorship, it is exceedingly difficult to eliminate the dictatorship. This kind of dictatorship is very difficult to break except by applying the power of an organization greater than the dictatorship or by applying international pressure. The rule of yang-ban in our nation is also a type of class dictatorship, and this had continued for hundreds of years. The fascism of Italy and Germany's Nazism are instances of dictatorship known to everyone.
However, that which is to be feared the most among all forms of class dictatorship is the class dictatorship that is founded on philosophy.
The class dictatorship that was exercised for hundreds of years in Joseon Dynasty Korea was founded on Confucianism (and, within Confucianism, on what is known as the Chu-tzu school of thought). This was a dictatorship that imposed its grip not only in the realm of politics but also in all other areas such as ideology, scholarship, social life, family life, and even individual life. Under this dictatorship, our people's culture withered away, and their energies wore out. Because schools of thought other than the Chu-tze school were not allowed to develop, the negative consequences of this extended into areas such as art, the economy and even industry.
In fact, the biggest reason for the decline of our nation and of our people's power has its roots in this type of dictatorship. This is because the class dictatorship of yang-ban effectively suppressed all development of our culture and our national power. No matter how great were the thoughts and the ideas that brewed in our people's minds, they were not allowed to be expressed and made known to the world unless the person with the ideas belonged to the ruling class or the ideas themselves were acceptable to the ruling class. As a result, how many branches of new ideas and new plans must have been stepped on and killed as they were about to sprout or even before they had an opportunity to germinate? One cannot feel more acutely the importance of the freedom of speech. Only in nations that have the freedom of speech can there be progress.
The Soviet-style democracy, what the communists now advocate, is the most rigorous among these types of dictatorship. It exercises in an extreme form all the characteristics of dictatorial rule. The communists believe in the theory of Marx as the ultimate truth. Marx had created this theory by combining Hegel's dialectic with Feuerbach's materialism and adding to this Adam Smith's theory of labor value. Backing this theory with the combined might of the communist party, the laws of the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union's military and police forces, they purge by death anyone who comes even remotely close to criticizing any aspect of Marx' theory. This, indeed, is worse than the dictatorship of the yang-ban class in Chosun of former times.
If the rule of the communists spread to the entire world, all of humanity's thoughts would be unified under the single ideology of Marxism. Because Marxism is unfortunately a flawed theory, this would be the worst possible misfortune to befall humankind. That Hegel's dialectic, the basis for Marx' theory, is not the whole truth has been already proven by criticisms from many scholars. That the law of the physical universe is not dialectic is clear when considering the theories of all scientists such as Newton and Einstein.
Therefore, setting one theory as the standard and restraining people's thoughts is wrong in the same way that it is wrong to establish one religion as the state religion and force people to embrace it. On mountains, there sprout not just one type of tree, and, on the fields, there bud not just one type of flowers. Many kinds of trees grow together to form the beauty of a forest, and hundreds of different flowers mixed together bud to form the rich scenery of a spring field.
In the nation that we build, we should allow all religions -whether they be Confucianism, Buddhism or Christianity- to freely develop and all the great philosophies of mankind to be introduced so that they can freely blossom into flowers and bear fruit. Only a nation such as this can be rightly called a free nation. And, only in this kind of free nation will there originate the grandest and the highest culture of humanity.
I do not believe in its entirety Lao-tzu's philosophy of inaction. But, I do believe, when it comes to politics, in not applying too much artifice to what is given by nature. In general, a person cannot be omnipotent, and a theory cannot be flawless. Thus, although controlling the people by one individual's thoughts or by one academic theory may seem to bring about fast progress in the short term. This, however, eventually leads to a breakdown and brings about nothing other than violence and dialectical revolutions. Because each creature has an instinct that enables it to adapt itself to its environment and to preserve itself, the best way is to leave all creatures alone by themselves. Interfering often in the natural way of things results in more harm than good. It is definitely not good politics to interfere too much with the individual's life. people are neither soldiers in the military nor prisoners in jails. That it is extremely unnatural and dangerous to drag people along by orders of a single individual or of a few is all too well proven by the misfortunes that befell Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.
Compared to these totalitarian states, the United States seems lacking in national unity, and its way of proceeding with its affairs appears to be slow. But, when considering the end result of all this, the United States exercises the most power in the world. This is an effect of that nation's democratic political system. This system works as follows. When some matter is under deliberation, there arise at first all manner of opinions held by all segments of the population. This seems too anarchic and unlikely that the opinions will ever be gathered into one. But, as the people discuss the matter from all points of view, the opinions gradually settle into several groups and eventually into two dominant camps. These, in turn, reach one conclusion by way of majority decision and become resolutions of the national legislature. When these, in turn, obtain the executive's approval, they become law, and,. in this manner, the will of tile people becomes decided and immobile.
In this fashion, democracy is a procedure or a method by which the will of the people is arrived at and not the content of such a will. In other words, freedom of speech, freedom of vote, and obedience to the majority's decision are the three pillars of democracy. National opinion - that is to say, the content of the people's will - is decided by discussions among the people as the need arises and is not fixed by any one individual or party's philosophical theory. This is the characteristic of the American style democracy. In other words, as long as the proper procedures defined by free debate, vote, and obedience to the majority opinion are followed, any law or policy based on any philosophy can be enacted. The only thing that restrains the outcome of following such procedures is the provisions of the Constitution itself.
However, unlike in totalitarian states, the Constitution itself is certainly not sacred and inviolable, given that it can be amended by following proper democratic procedures. This is why this system is called democratic, meaning that the people are the sovereign rulers of the nation. In this kind of nation, influencing the national opinion requires not influencing the opinions of a particular individual or party among the populace but, rather, the opinions of the entire people of that nation. Opinions of the people on a small scale are determined by the interplay of self-interests, and those on a large scale are determined by that people's national character, faith, and philosophy. Herein arises the importance of culture and education.
This is because the power of culture and education allows for the maintenance, reform and improvement of the national character and also determines to a large degree the direction of industry. Education is certainly not limited to teaching of vocational skills. What forms the foundation of education is a philosophy about the universe, life and politics. In other words, education of the people is teaching a set of vocational skills predicated on a set of philosophical foundations. Therefore, a good democratic political system begins in good education. A teaching of knowledge and skills that is not based on a sound philosophical foundation does harm to the recipient of that teaching and to his nation. The same applies to humanity as a whole. From what I have so far said, it should be possible to understand the main points of my political philosophy. In every way, I reject dictatorial rules and tendencies. I shout to our compatriots. Be careful lest we find ourselves under a dictatorship. I shout that we should build a nation in which each individual among our people enjoys freedom of speech to its fullest and things are done according to opinions of our entire people. That we should build a nation in which a philosophy held by one party or class does not coerce the opinions of the majority of the others. That we should build a nation in which the logic and theories of the present generation do not restrain the freedom of thought and faith of our future generations. A nation that is as wide as the earth and as free as the sky. Yet, a nation in which the virtues of love and orders of law are maintained just like laws of the physical universe. we should build this type of nation.
All this is not to say that I am an advocate of importing the American democratic system of government and adopting it in its entirety. Here, I was only making a judgment of the American democratic system founded on freedom of speech in comparison to the Soviet Union's totalitarian democracy. What I was saying was that, if I were to choose between the two, I would choose the one that is based on freedom of thought and speech.
I certainly am not of the opinion that the democratic system of government in the United States is the final, completed form of governance for humanity. Just as all aspects of life do, forms of political governance must also infinitely undergo a process of creative evolution. Thus, a nation such as ours which has experienced different forms of political organization in its five millennia of history must not only have flaws in its structure but also some sophisticated and highly-developed political institutions as well.
Even if we only look at the more recent Joseon Dynasty period. institutions such as Hong-moon-gwan, Sa-gan-won, and Sa-hun-boo are wonderful institutions which enabled opinions of the wise among the people to be reflected in national policies. Others such as the national civil service exam and Am-heng-eu-sa107 are also institutions that deserve to be studied. If we carefully consider our political institutions of the past, I believe that we will find many useful features. Creating, in this fashion, institutions that are uniquely suited to our nation by adopting what is good in other nations and selecting the good features of our system is definitely a way to enhance our cultural progress.