It’s better to be cruel to anyone than to yourself

Alexander 2022-01-10 08:01:10

In the very limited literature and historical materials I have seen, apart from the records of North and South Korea, scholars from almost every country defined the war that took place on the Korean Peninsula in the last century as a direct confrontation between the United States and China. If you include ideology and international political structure, it is also a direct conflict between the Soviet Union and its agent, China, and the United States and its subordinate countries. The only difference is that the United States in this war did not, like all other proxy wars, won a victory even on the surface. Instead, it was a complete failure. However, in any case, in all these records, there is no positive description of the Korean nation, the North-South Korean government and its military. It seems that both sides of the war regard that piece of land and those people as a background, a bunch of numbers. On the contrary, when describing this period of history, both North Korea and South Korea, without exception, played down and even ignored China and the Soviet Union behind it, the United States, and the multinational forces under the name of the United Nations. In "Flying the Tai Chi Flag", the Chinese People's Volunteers only showed a shot of charging across the mountains and plains, and the poor U.S. Army didn't even give a shot of a frontal character except for a bunch of planes. Fortunately, the historical background such as the landing in Incheon cannot be avoided, otherwise it is estimated that MacArthur's name will basically not appear in the movie.

This is the sadness and humiliation of a nation. From a colony to a battlefield, the two sides who dominated the war had no good intentions towards this nation. But in the war, the most ruthless and thorough killings and massacres are precisely those puppets controlled by both sides of the war. And these puppets were originally brothers.

Similar scenes are not uncommon in human history. In China's modern history, the Russo-Japanese War is another example of almost similar situations. In modern Chinese literary and artistic works, about this period of history, there is no valuable and bright work at all. From this point of view, all Chinese, especially those Chinese who call themselves cultural people, should go home and stand in the corner for a while.

The fate of the puppets is almost always imposed, so the reflection of the descendants of the puppets is mostly about resistance, indomitability, and anti-war. It seems that all crimes are due to war. Once the two sides of the war are put on ideological masks, they will be completely reduced to two completely different species. Any possibility of mutual discussion and communication is completely insulated between these two species. Therefore, under the scene of the cruelty of the war, the brother's biggest accusation against his elder brother is "XX was killed by you...", "If you don't go, XX will not die...". My younger brother would not go to blame the Korean People’s Army on the opposite side of the front in such a painful manner. All South Koreans who watched movies would probably also not think that, in fact, those people died under the gun of the People’s Army. Even if my brother didn't take a risk for a medal, a verbal promise, or a wish for his brother. These people on the battlefield, under the battlefield, will die under the gun, and die in the hands of their compatriots.

Looking back at the history of China and the history of the development of various nations and countries in the world, we will without exception see that the two sides fighting in the war, no matter what the reason is, how deep the hatred between each other has accumulated. But if you talk about being cruel, and talk about killing happily, then it is better to be cruel to anyone than to yourself. This phenomenon does not distinguish between geographical, ethnic, cultural and time constraints. Counting from the beginning of modern times, after the American Civil War, the North’s massacre of the South, the Soviet Red Army’s lack of outstanding commanders at all levels in the early stages of World War II, the famous return home regiment during the War of Resistance against Japan, and the occurrence of mainland China and Taiwan 49 years later. The things that happened in the Korean War, the bloody incidents between the North and the South during the Korean War, and after all these things happened, the historical bias left on them. It has been proved that the painful killer to one's own people and to one's own brothers is almost the commonality of human beings. When faced with powerful threats from the outside, there are so many people in every ethnic group who are good at attributing their inner fears to their relatives and compatriots around them, thinking that if it is not your fault, if you can bear it more Some, retreat, and sacrifice yourself, the war will not break out, the killing will not occur, I can go home, and my life will be in a bloody color, maintaining the original fantasy. Furthermore, this kind of complaint will naturally be transformed into hatred and action, and all the slaughter and cruelty will be thoroughly rehearsed in one's own house.

The fundamental reason is that the people on the other side of the battlefield do not speak of brotherhood, so the harm to the brothers around him is relatively safest and least risky. Furthermore, in the face of interests, there is no brotherhood, so it is relatively safest and least risky to harm those weak compatriots. So, when I saw my brother on the battlefield so righteously, in the killing, to blame my brother, and look down on my brother who is a killer with a high standard of anti-war, all I can see is a mentality. The willfulness and ignorance of children who have not yet grown up at all. When I saw my brother’s fiancee finally fell under the gun of the counter-offensive alliance, my first reaction was: when faith is elevated to become a religion, it naturally has anti-human factors, and ideological disputes. , Almost without exception can be attributed to the category of religious wars. In this context, the annihilation and distortion of human nature, as well as being more cruel to one's own people than to the enemy, has always been a necessity.

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Extended Reading
  • Georgiana 2022-03-27 09:01:14

    War films are anti-war, and model dramas are about war.

  • Crystel 2022-03-17 09:01:06

    After watching "Eight Hundred", "King Kong River" and "Changjin Lake". I watched the "Flying Tai Chi Flag" again, the description of the war, the depiction of human nature... I found that 20 years later, Chinese films have not been able to catch up, let alone surpassed it.

Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War quotes

  • Young-shin: [while trying to decide what to take along as they evacuate the house upon declaration of war] There's Kimchi pots buried in the yard. What will happen to them?

  • Jin-tae: [tears up the last will that Jin-seok was writing] Wills are for dying people. You've got to be strong.