By Bernard Rowan
Recently, I read The Korea Times and took note of an article about two famous performers from Big Bang finishing their military service. I enjoyed and thought apt the story of Taeyang and Daesung's completion ceremony. Many adoring fans showed up, and the two pop idols paid their proper respects. They appear as fine examples of young Korean gentlemen serving their nation in defense and vigilant security readiness. Security and freedom need nothing less.
When I performed a Google Search about Korean military service, several entries had to do with "When do K-pop idols do their service?" and the possibility of exemptions denied to members of another group, BTS. Stories about military service, both unfavorable and favorable, appear. Information about military service in South Korea also shows up. I'd like to talk a bit about this part of South Korean life and my impressions.
South Korea makes adult males serve the better part of two years sometime after their 18th birthday and before their 28th. Five weeks of training also occurs. Women don't face the service requirement. However, women may join the military voluntarily.
Much used to happen to finagle exemptions. Crackdowns occurred. Today, the physically and mentally able without disease must serve. Wikipedia notes that Olympic and Asian Games medal winners may have exemptions. They still perform "Grade 4" Service, more civilian in nature. Certain types of artists get a pass, curiously, but not pop stars or actors. South Korea doesn't respect conscientious objectors.
I respect military service. South Korea is a democratic country and people with a continuing history of advancement. However, her security environment isn't automatic or guaranteed. Despite Moon's peace overture, nothing has changed, sadly. There's every sign the forces arrayed against the South have grown more powerful. Machiavelli says the best protectors for a people in a republic are her own citizens, as opposed to mercenaries or auxiliaries. Military service creates a reserve of well-trained recruits should military action become necessary. It raises each generation to assume responsibility in this imperfect world. It continues the line of Korean peoples' sons (and daughters) who protect Korean lands and civilization for centuries.
I won't romanticize Korean military service. It's written about also as an experience still too often touched and perverted by inappropriate and unnecessary acts. Hazing and bullying aren't essential to "making men." Behaviors of false honor and corrupted code or chain of command can cover up shameful acts and practices. Such practices should end.
Having recognized this limit, there's something else, equally valuable about military service. I say this as one who's followed a dozen or more friends and their children who've performed their service. It's a rite of passage and one linking generations of sons to the brave Koreans, Americans and others who fought during the Korean War. Military service teaches that freedom doesn't come free. It reminds us of the sacrifices of many women, men, munitions and much money and wealth. It reminds us that a people can do what no individual could carry out alone ― awesome accomplishments, such as forming a new country and society. It means civilians should support the military, in peacetime.
One of my friends' fathers was of the first generation following the Korean War. He spoke to me movingly of the beauty of Korea's lands and forests. He shared the high feeling to stand at the top of a mountain during his service, and of how much it meant to see his sons perform their service. It sets up a chain of existence between Koreans of different ages, times, and places. It's a constitutive event in the life of a Korean man. It shows responsibility and service above self.
Plato warned of the entropy attending politics and government in Book Ten of The Republic. Specifically, if the benefits of advancement don't find balance, sons of democrats assume behaviors of the crowd. Easily and foolishly dismissed as the nostrums of a bygone era, reflection teaches that Plato has a point. We should train our children to value what is ours and from where it came. Else, we soon lose ourselves and all we've made. South Koreans can rest better knowing they preserve the tradition of common self-sacrifice that is Korean military service.
Bernard Rowan (browan10@yahoo.com) is associate provost for contract administration and professor of political science at Chicago State University. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University.
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When I performed a Google Search about Korean military service, several entries had to do with "When do K-pop idols do their service?" and the possibility of exemptions denied to members of another group, BTS. Stories about military service, both unfavorable and favorable, appear. Information about military service in South Korea also shows up. I'd like to talk a bit about this part of South Korean life and my impressions.
South Korea makes adult males serve the better part of two years sometime after their 18th birthday and before their 28th. Five weeks of training also occurs. Women don't face the service requirement. However, women may join the military voluntarily.
Much used to happen to finagle exemptions. Crackdowns occurred. Today, the physically and mentally able without disease must serve. Wikipedia notes that Olympic and Asian Games medal winners may have exemptions. They still perform "Grade 4" Service, more civilian in nature. Certain types of artists get a pass, curiously, but not pop stars or actors. South Korea doesn't respect conscientious objectors.
I respect military service. South Korea is a democratic country and people with a continuing history of advancement. However, her security environment isn't automatic or guaranteed. Despite Moon's peace overture, nothing has changed, sadly. There's every sign the forces arrayed against the South have grown more powerful. Machiavelli says the best protectors for a people in a republic are her own citizens, as opposed to mercenaries or auxiliaries. Military service creates a reserve of well-trained recruits should military action become necessary. It raises each generation to assume responsibility in this imperfect world. It continues the line of Korean peoples' sons (and daughters) who protect Korean lands and civilization for centuries.
I won't romanticize Korean military service. It's written about also as an experience still too often touched and perverted by inappropriate and unnecessary acts. Hazing and bullying aren't essential to "making men." Behaviors of false honor and corrupted code or chain of command can cover up shameful acts and practices. Such practices should end.
Having recognized this limit, there's something else, equally valuable about military service. I say this as one who's followed a dozen or more friends and their children who've performed their service. It's a rite of passage and one linking generations of sons to the brave Koreans, Americans and others who fought during the Korean War. Military service teaches that freedom doesn't come free. It reminds us of the sacrifices of many women, men, munitions and much money and wealth. It reminds us that a people can do what no individual could carry out alone ― awesome accomplishments, such as forming a new country and society. It means civilians should support the military, in peacetime.
One of my friends' fathers was of the first generation following the Korean War. He spoke to me movingly of the beauty of Korea's lands and forests. He shared the high feeling to stand at the top of a mountain during his service, and of how much it meant to see his sons perform their service. It sets up a chain of existence between Koreans of different ages, times, and places. It's a constitutive event in the life of a Korean man. It shows responsibility and service above self.
Plato warned of the entropy attending politics and government in Book Ten of The Republic. Specifically, if the benefits of advancement don't find balance, sons of democrats assume behaviors of the crowd. Easily and foolishly dismissed as the nostrums of a bygone era, reflection teaches that Plato has a point. We should train our children to value what is ours and from where it came. Else, we soon lose ourselves and all we've made. South Koreans can rest better knowing they preserve the tradition of common self-sacrifice that is Korean military service.
Bernard Rowan (browan10@yahoo.com) is associate provost for contract administration and professor of political science at Chicago State University. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University.
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