You can't save the world (Korea Times, August 13, 2014)

You can't save the world

By Casey Lartigue, Jr.

Last year after I gave a speech at a high school in Seoul, one of the students earnestly asked me during the question-and-answer session: “How can we save the world?” My response, in short: The world doesn’t want to be saved. You’re likely to get shot in the process. Instead, why not focus on doing something practical to help even one person in your neighborhood, community or school?

I wish I had also quoted Henry David Thoreau: “If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life."

Cynical, perhaps, but I think I wasn’t harsh enough. A lot of people in South Korea ― and I mean, from the age of 8 to 48 ― have been swept away with, “my dream is to work at the United Nations.” Others read translations of speeches by the current U.S. president, looking for clues about how they can save the world.

Back in 2008, it seemed to many people that Barack Obama could unite the world. Fast forward to 2014, even American Democrats have grown tired of him. He wanted to save the world when he can’t/couldn’t even save young hoodlums in Chicago neighborhoods from gunning each other down. He came in talking about lowering the sea levels, but he is now drowning in a sea of criticism.

When I talk to young people and other would-be world-savers, I suggest that they refocus. Instead of going into politics to advocate for the homeless or some other cause, I recommend that they go into business or become developers so they can actually build housing for the poor. I’ve met plenty of educators and activists who say they want to save the “public school system,” even without a track record of saving even one school. If you can’t convince one school to adopt your ideas, then why try to grab the reins of an entire system to inflict your ideas? It makes more sense to create actual options to let people find what works for them rather than saving them with your plans.

Many talkers are glorified for their eloquence, but words don’t lay cement. I meet many well-intentioned people who advocate for raising the minimum wage but have never employed people. Even worse, such world-savers get lauded in the media for their proposals while the people who raise money, start or expand a business, and employ many people get denounced for being greedy or for allegedly underpaying people. The bigger the business, the more criticism it can expect. The world-saving talkers get more praise than the people actually carrying a small piece of the world on their shoulders.

It sounds like lunacy to the world-savers, but probably the best thing a person can do is to make the world a slightly more tolerable place. Not all world-savers are terrible, some have a positive impact. Some focus on their own lives, do practical things for others, or come up with nice ideas that people can use to better themselves.

I’m dismissing those who want the save the world by getting the world to do what they want it to do. In the world-saving scenarios, the ending is never “the policies I oppose will become more widespread.” In order to save the world, the energetic ones who can’t leave others alone need political power― the more, the better. Even the current U.S. president, thought to be the most powerful person in the world, complains that he can’t get his agenda to “remake America” past those pesky Republicans. Apparently, the world has more sense than the world-savers expected.

Perhaps it is experience. As Isabel Paterson wrote in 1943: “Most of the harm in the world is done by good people, and not by accident, lapse or omission.” In contrast, most of the good in the world is done by people going about the business of helping themselves, as Adam Smith noted back in 1776, with no particular desire to save the world. The eloquent talkers are admired, but people don’t call them when they need a plumber.

Today I am scheduled to speak about leadership at a camp for high school kids. I now expect the “how can we save the world” question. In response, I typically ask students what they would do as head of a world government with unlimited power.

I expect the same flurry of ideas that I hear from young people eager to save the world from itself. Very few talk about going into business to make their ideas happen. None has ever answered, as economist Ludwig von Mises did when asked what he would do as dictator of the United States: “I would abdicate.”

The writer is the Director for International Relations at Freedom Factory Co. in Seoul and the Asia Outreach Fellow with the Atlas Network in Washington, D.C. He can be reached at cjl@post.harvard.edu.

http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2014/08/137_162779.html

Get rid of that watermelon!

Part 1: When I was a youngster I used to collect Confederate money, posters and photographs with caricatures of blacks, and "No blacks allowed signs." I loved the money because it was a reminder of how far the sorry Confederacy had fallen. I had one poster of a dark-skinned black boy munching on a watermelon. I would look at that small poster and wonder, "What in the world is wrong with anyone wanting to eat watermelon?" Yes, white people, I'm talking to you. Your parents, grandparents, and other ancestors who thought making fun of blacks for eating watermelon were crazy ! Even people who say that nothing has changed in race relations must acknowledge that the many stereotypes of blacks are no longer prevalent. But then, there are also some ready to remind us of days-gone-by by debunking stuff that doesn't need to be debunked today. According to the Washington Post: The sound you just heard was yet another racial stereotype going kersplat ! Some ...

Rich talking back

The rich are talked about very often in negative terms, but how often do the rich respond in kind? Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart, who inherited most of her money but apparently has also done very well with it, recently railed against class warfare and had some advice for the non-rich : "There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire," she writes. "If you're jealous of those with more money, don't just sit there and complain. Do something to make more money yourself - spend less time drinking, or smoking and socializing and more time working." She complained about politicians raising taxes, regulations that slow investment, and other anti-business policies that harm the poor. "If you want to help the poor and our next generation, make investment, reinvenstment and businesses welcome."

Last weekend: Suicide, Kim Young Ha, NK

Credit: Joanne Cho Event 1: Friday night I went to a talk given by Fulbright junior researcher Joanne Cho. She did a great job putting together statistics about some of the most commonly cited reasons that so many Koreans commit suicide. Probably the most provocative tidbit: Cho watched 86 dramas from the spring of 2012 to now, she says that 63 had "scenes depicting or discussing suicide" in a favorable light (as a way to solve problems, that troubled people can be forgiven for their sins and are even seen as sympathetic). Another interesting tidbit: While it is often cited that Korea is number one in the world in suicide (among countries reporting reliable statistics), what I had not realized or had forgotten is that Korean men are number 8 in the world compared to men in other countries with reliable statistics, Korean women are #1 in the world when compared to women in other countries. My questions for the speaker: 1) What was a finding in your research th...

Common Sense on North Korea (Korea Times, April 2, 2012)

By Casey Lartigue, Jr. As interesting as Kookmin University professor Andrei Lankov’s writings are, there is nothing quite like attending one of his lectures. He can barely restrain himself behind the podium, often pointing and waving his arms. I also enjoy his unscripted speeches, but his answers in Q&A sessions are like the difference between watching Michael Jordan shoot baskets in warm-ups and an actual game. I have finally discovered the secret behind Lankov’s consistently solid analysis about North Korea: Use common sense. At an Asan Institute conference last summer, he argued that North Korea watchers should try to understand North Korea from its perspective. Don’t most people know that you must understand the mindset of others you are dealing with? Yet, common sense in theory gets ignored politically. From the North Korean perspective, nuclear weapons are the best thing they’ve got going. They will NOT give them up easily, even if President Obama ...

Why I won't go to North Korea (Korea Times, December 27, 2012)

By Casey Lartigue, Jr. “Have you ever been to North Korea?” This is the question I am almost always asked here in South Korea when people learn that I have become an activist for North Korean escapees. My response is curt: “No.” “Do you plan on going?” they ask next. My answer remains the same: “No.” When they start to ask a follow-up question, I cut them off: "No." People are often just trying to make conversation, I know, but I am blunt for a reason: I am not interested in going to North Korea as long as North Koreans are held captive. I could go one day, but for now, I can do without a government-guided tour by " men-stealers and women-whippers ," to borrow a phrase from American abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. I don’t mean to criticize people who have gone to North Korea for political, educational, business, religious reasons or just plain curiosity. However, some people push me on the issue, ― and I push back. A good friend wh...

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