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A penny for my thoughts on Jay Park |
And so Park Jae Bum left, shouldering the heavy victory of the euphoric netizens, leaving behind a league of brokenhearted and indignant fans, bringing with him the sorrow and disappointment of those around him. I'm not usually one to write an expository essay on something as frivolous as pop singers, but this is so way blown out of proportion, its mind boggling.
Yes, I like 2PM. I have a good impression of their stage charisma. My knowledge of them however, is limited to the fact that I saw them perform on Kpop Night last year, as well as three of their songs, 10 out of 10, Only You, and Again and Again. I do not have the personal history and biodata of the guys at my fingertips like some of the fangirls. I do not know the individual names of the members. In fact, they look the same to me, I can't even tell them apart. Heck, I didn't even know this guy was called Jae Bum till I stumbled on this on the Daum news portal today. Yet, I feel strongly towards this incident. The whole thing just seems so monstrously out of proportion and unfair. I could be biased, but I try not to be, objectivity and impartiality is something I value.
So we all know the notorious, korea-hating comments the guy left on his myspace account. 4 long years ago. Maybe some don't, and it would suffice to say that his comments were tactless, harsh and politically incorrect. I can actually empathise with how the local koreans must have felt at having these words slap them in the face. I've felt the same way listening to people degrade my own country so many times. Call it patriotism, egoism, whatever you like, no one would feel great reading derogatory comments about one's homeland. I definitely don't and the number of debates people have gone through with me on this attest to the fact. Even so, surely there are more civil ways to confront this difference than to throw rocks at the guy, or start a petition for his suicide. Such reactions are just pure irrationality. One thing fans another, with no one level headed enough to stop the madness, to start being logical and civil about things. You simply do not ask a person to suicide, not under any circumstances. That's just completely out of line. If the death penalty is outlawed in so many states, meaning that even judges do not have the power to decide on another's death, who are the netizens to propagate the notion of death?
People can be so selective at times. No one bothered to find out if he wrote anything good after the select few comments. Obviously situational bias would have been part of the big picture, but no one wanted to integrate the context of which he wrote the insulting comments in their judgement of the situation. No one wanted to stop to think if they would have committed the same mistake he did. No one wanted to consider for a moment if the environment might indeed have been extremely foreigner unfriendly. No one wanted to empathise. There was only one thing in mind, to hold hands all together and stoke the fire of scorned wrath, to let it spread everywhere, faster than you can say wild bushfire. Its like people completely ceased rational thought, acting only on the initial rage on hearing the comments to expel the deviant one from the in-group. Now that's he's really left, the accusations of him being cowardly, running away, leaving his teammates in the lurch come flying fast and furious. What is the conclusion that people really want?
There were many reasons given to justify his comments, we have the fact that he was having a hard time as a trainee, difficulty in adapting to an entirely new environment, youth... fair enough. We've heard his side of the story, and even if you cannot excuse the harshness of his choice of words, you would at least empathize with him to a certain degree. Everyone's been through some shit at some point in life, and while we can say not everyone reacts like he did, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say that colourful verbal expression is a common outlet for many to vent their frustrations. Especially when you were brought up in a place like America, where freedom of expression isn't just valued, its a way of life. I'm not saying that his actions should have been condoned. What he did was wrong, period. However the severity of the entire situation seems grossly inproportionate to the extent of his mistake. No one is denying the existence of his comments, they were there, he apologised, and we should move on. But this mistake was amplified to colossal hugeness, mainly because of his pop-idol status. Honestly, would this have caused such a massive brouhaha if it were written the average joe? We all know in our hearts, that it probably wouldn't have.
In many areas in life, we are given second chances. A second chance in love, a second chance to repent, a second chance to change ourselves. It looks like artistes are subject to a double standard just because of the attention they are given by the media and masses. There just aren't second chances, and there isn't any room at all for making right a wrong. The system works with an almost clockwork precision that's terrifying. A single mistake and you ought to DIE. You deserve all the rocks pelted at you, you deserve all the ugly insults hurled at you. Oh, but the average citizen like us is exempted from this. And OF COURSE I wouldn't commit such a fallacy. Even if I did say something this bad, it'd be because someone else was going overboard. Do you see where this is going? Sadly, this is really how a lot of us think in many situations, and it is not restricted to the discussion of this unfortunate incident.
Isn't it terribly ironical so many of us subject others to double standards like this just because of a career choice? Pop idols are infallible, faultless, flawless, and they don't make mistakes. Doctors are the saints of the earth, they are ethical, they save lives, they will do no wrong. Lawyers, judges, they will stand up for the oppressed, uphold justice in the world. What sets these people apart from the rest of us? Their career training? The money they spent to come this far? Or do they really have some kind of innate and intangible virtue that make them float in the air above us all? Its like we are overextending our expectations of virtuous godliness to a select group, forgetting an extremely fundamental point. We all make mistakes. Its human. Its inevitable. Godliness exists in books, in fiction, try as we might, we won't be achieving it anytime soon.
And so his biggest mistake wasn't that he wrote something so grossly politically incorrect. The biggest mistake he made was that click of his finger, he set the stage for the entire world to nose around, to pick on every single word, to point accusatory fingers at him, to fan the fire so huge that he would lose his budding career. What about his comrades, who've lost their direction with the downfall of their leader? Who can these young men with a once bright and promising future with endless possibilities blame? Already their future looks bleak, and my heart goes out to them. Already one has gone down at the airport, and I hope they remain strong to tide each other through this. I can't even begin to imagine the psychological impact/trauma the protagonist of this headline is going through. Must be the psychology training I'm getting in my course. Netizens wanted him to be punished? Don't you already have the punishment meted out? Probable death of career, wrath of just about everybody and anybody, rocks and potential lasting psychological damage. I'd say that's quite more than enough to atone for his sins from 4 years ago. Or maybe not, some others would say. Its never enough till the end. Whatever the end they're looking for is.
And with a click of my finger, I might be repeating the same mistake so many others have made.
But there's a difference between our situations. I'm not affected by the incident. I'm not a celebrity, I'm not a fangirl, neither am I a part of the netizens. I'm just an on-looker who's thoughts on this don't really matter in the aftermath of this chaotic mess.
The difference is, I'm a nobody.
posted by sarangaia || 4:54 AM Tuesday, September 08, 2009
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