Rain and Reflections

Today was a rather drab, humid, rainy day in Ulsan, and I found myself wandering around the downtown area this evening looking for bug spray (the squeeters here are killer) and a good coffee shop, which I found!! Huzzah, finally! Once in said coffee shop I sat down with my latte and proceeded to reflect on the mood I was in, which wasn't the most cheerful, and also on the culture, or perhaps better stated the inundation of culture that I saw around me. Here is what I said:

I find myself feeling really depressed by Korea's America worship. English words, brands, and celebrities endorsing products (shot of George Clooney's big mug next to a watch on the side of a building larger than life. Shot of me laughing out loud b/c for seriously? Yup, guess so.) are on display everywhere here. I feel there's this sort of un-analytic lack of integrity inherent in this grappling for western things and western ways.
Being abroad makes me realize (even more) just how much I dislike the superficial cultural aspects of my country of origin, in part b/c I see the worst of it on display everywhere here.

A voice in me argues: why should I be so concerned with their trend of westernization? What right do I have to judge? What is simply is, and I shouldn't discard the reality that there are both positive and negative aspects bound up in this westernizing trend, as there is with anything.

Though I do find myself strangely sympathizing with a one Kim Jong Il. Ha, only a little though. How very like me to empathize with a crazed dictator (:D).

Honestly though, it just makes me sad to see a culture rich with 5000 years of history readily giving way to the superficiality and materialism so inherent in the aspects of the western culture they're embracing. While the English language is a tool in a global world, in my opinion, the emptiness and meaninglessness implied in American pop culture are not.

The message is all wrong. It's the message that happiness can be bought, that the surface has greater value than substance. These are the kinds of ideals that tear people to shreds.

But maybe this is a necessary embracing of the void for the Korean people. Maybe the current trend of assuming destructive and hollow ideals will pave the way for generations to come, affording them them the opportunity to step back and reflect on the damage done, and perhaps giving birth to insights that would otherwise never have come to be.

All things change, and entropy is inevitable. In the words of author Graham Greene destruction is a form of creation.

So we shall see Korea, we shall see.