One night, mostcertainly on one ofthe paved asphaltroads of Korea, the inevitablehappened. A scream, a tear,and I was unconscious on the ground. Myfriends hurried next to me and I was carriedinto my dorm room.
Next morning, I was dizzy on my bed. Ayawn rendered all other tests unnecessary.Alcohol. A lot of alcohol and dizziness. Self-deprecating acts of the night had given birth toa late sun and I had to drag myself clumsilyinto the shower. After washing, I grabbed thefirst clothes that came into sight and hurried forrecitation. On the way I noticed a strange tree.Numerous times, had it been rushing to classor biking along the road to meet a friend, had Ipassed by it but only this time did I recognizewhat kind of a tree it was. It was an Oak tree,one that looked very similar to the ones I sawback in high school biology field trips.I started to look closer at the Oak. A suddenbreeze revealed the blue pill that was hiddenunderneath the strewn brown leaves.
The social atmosphere in Korea seems to beturning more and more pessimistic day by day.The Sewol ferry disaster marked a deep dentin the minds of the Korean public with notonly the wrongdoings of the captain and crewof the ship but also the incompetent reactionof the government to the incident. Along withthis came a decrease in economic growth andan increase in social and economic problemswhich, previously unnoticed, became widelybroadcasted by the media. Now the currentsituation is being compared with Japan’s “GreatRecession”, also known as the Lost Decade.Words such as “Hell Chosun” — Chosunsymbolizing how the corruption of the rich andpowerful is making the country go backwardsin time — refer to Korea as a society that isfurther away from a just society and closer toone where money and authority ruled.
As philosopher Albert Camus has said,‘pessimism does not necessarily have to lead tounhappiness.’ However, the status quo attitudein Korea is a pessimism of a more tragic nature.The conflict seems to be one that will never beresolved, a puzzle fiddled to have no end by thepeople who dictate the policies.
What does it mean to exist in Hell? Does itimply that the human entity, after having reachedthe afterlife still lives on with a purpose? In themovie The Matrix, Neo decides to take the redpill and confront reality: a dystopian worldwhere the only key motivation behind one’saction is the instinct of survival. If this is thecase, then nihilism would reveal the essenceof life to simply be survival, as existence is agiven condition. One has to either introduceperturbation theory through a red pill or nevertouch the equation through the blue pill.