A theme in each chapter and story Jung presents is a sense of the shared pain and resentment that women in South Korea felt over their awful mistreatment by men in their society, especially online. This communal pain and anger creates the kind of solidarity necessary for effective social change, but it can easily perpetuate the desire for revenge. Those emotions need some sort of outlet individually and collective. Can this be done in a healthy way at such a large scale, when the group that is mistreated is so large (ie all women)? I think addressing a group’s shared sense pain and anger is one of the difficulties of contemporary gender discourse. How can men and women acknowledge the fraught dimensions of their present and historical relations to the other without falling into the snares of revenge and contempt?
I asked a writer friend of mine to do a piece on the underused, old English word, "scoff". I think it is the perfect word for today's political climate, one group scoffing at the other, without real arguments being considered. Propaganda often takes the form of "mockumentaries", clips of silly interview questions and answers, strung together without context, designed to be scoffed at, to enkindle anger after the bitter laughter. I would suppose the obscure word used in the New Testament, Matthew 5, "raca" is pretty close to "scoff"?
This is so important. A phrase comes to mind: “The enemy is not the enemy.” (That is, the problem is, or should be, the common enemy.) I’m pretty sure I’m quoting or riffing, but not sure whose the original words might be.
For my part, I know humor - attempting to be funny - is dangerous. I have embarrassed myself with attempts at humor more than anything else. This happened with my son-in-law just last week. So I work to hesitate before‘joking’… And for persons not oriented towards love, humor can be downright destructive.
A theme in each chapter and story Jung presents is a sense of the shared pain and resentment that women in South Korea felt over their awful mistreatment by men in their society, especially online. This communal pain and anger creates the kind of solidarity necessary for effective social change, but it can easily perpetuate the desire for revenge. Those emotions need some sort of outlet individually and collective. Can this be done in a healthy way at such a large scale, when the group that is mistreated is so large (ie all women)? I think addressing a group’s shared sense pain and anger is one of the difficulties of contemporary gender discourse. How can men and women acknowledge the fraught dimensions of their present and historical relations to the other without falling into the snares of revenge and contempt?
I asked a writer friend of mine to do a piece on the underused, old English word, "scoff". I think it is the perfect word for today's political climate, one group scoffing at the other, without real arguments being considered. Propaganda often takes the form of "mockumentaries", clips of silly interview questions and answers, strung together without context, designed to be scoffed at, to enkindle anger after the bitter laughter. I would suppose the obscure word used in the New Testament, Matthew 5, "raca" is pretty close to "scoff"?
> fight injustice without inculcating contempt
This is so important. A phrase comes to mind: “The enemy is not the enemy.” (That is, the problem is, or should be, the common enemy.) I’m pretty sure I’m quoting or riffing, but not sure whose the original words might be.
For my part, I know humor - attempting to be funny - is dangerous. I have embarrassed myself with attempts at humor more than anything else. This happened with my son-in-law just last week. So I work to hesitate before‘joking’… And for persons not oriented towards love, humor can be downright destructive.