Gwangju
So I went to Gwangju for Chuseok. The bus fare was cheap and it was only an hour and a half drive from Jeonju. Jauhan Padang-Padang Panjang kayanya.
Of course, I have heard of Gwangju before. I’m a huge fan of Korean movies so you don’t have to take it by surprise that I have watched the movie “A Taxi Driver”, staring one of my favorite Korean actors Song Kang Ho, also the sweet and chic Ryu Jun Yeol. Truly a must watch on my list.
It was sunny in Gwangju that day, and I was both happy and a bit annoyed. Sunny day equals a great day to take good pictures, but I had to deal with the extreme heat.
I came to Gwangju with not much expectation. It was thanksgiving holiday in Korea which means a lot of tourist attractions were not open. But I was happy that I can still visit the May 18 National Cemetery. If you’re planning to visit Gwangju, you can easily take bus number 518. Yes, I bet it was named after the historic day.
The May 18 history or also widely known as Gwangju Uprising is one of the main reasons why my visit to Gwangju became very meaningful. I’m not the best person to explain about this democratic movement, but one thing for sure, this tragedy had caused hundreds of innocents killed in a way that is so brutal that I don’t want to talk about it in detail.
As I’m writing this, my mind travels back to what I witnessed in the exhibition hall of the May 18 National Cemetery. Silence occupied the room as soon as I stepped in. In a matter of seconds, I knew that I was about to experience something really important. Something that I will remember for a very, very long time. I was right. It was hard for me to fight the urge to cry as I started to trace every bits of memories recited by the relics of the victims. Stories were told. Gruesome stories.
I kept on questioning; why? Kenapa orang-orang berseragam loreng dan bersenjata pistol ini bisa setega itu? What exactly were they thinking when they point their gun at the innocent little girl and pulled the trigger? What were they thinking as they saw her whimpered on the ground, drowning in her own blood? Dead. And what about that time when they gang up on that middle-aged man who was just very unlucky to pass that street that day? Were they even thinking of anything?
Days after, I read this article called “How Good People Do Bad Things” by Stanley Milgram (feel free to ask me through personal chat if you ever wanted the copy, it’s a good read). Here’s the thing. Those people who killed hundreds of innocent lives might be devoted husbands and loving fathers at home. They might even be caring sons to their parents. They could easily be your nice neighbor. The big question is still, why?
Milgram demonstrated one of his ideas, referring to the 60’s classic “Dr. Strangelove” (you can go to Wikipedia for details about the movie or.. you can just watch it). I have watched it before (yes, because it’s Hitchcock’s) so I was excited to know where he was going with the reference. I remembered how everyone in the movie was so busy in handling procedural things which is in some way I find very disturbing because they were about to drop a hydrogen bomb to a land of civilization. This is what Milgram exactly think about. He pointed out how the army was so preoccupied with technical things to the point that he forgot the fact that he’s about to kill millions of lives.
Another interesting argument by Milgram is how he highlighted the idea of converting responsibility (as I would like to remember…). The man who held the gun and pulled the trigger to end people’s lives would just blame it on he authority, saying that they will not be hold responsible for killing even though the gun was in their hands and their index finger is best friends with the trigger. They just did what the authority told them. Yes. The authority apparently holds an even more powerful weapon than a Remington 870. Legitimation. It’s powerful, and can be deadly.
As a person who has never possessed any great power as a president of a nation or a CEO of a multi-national company, or even an army general, I’m truly curious. Are power, money, and dignity that worth it to the point that you’re willing to sell your sense of humanity?
