Many of them, especially the 1st and 2nd generations of the postwar Korean immigrants, cling to the mores and political views of the past that most South Koreans had already discarded decades ago. Sort of like flies in amber, immigrant-style.

The Americans are no different, because the mechanism at work is basically the same even though the strong myth of American individuality gives them a peculiar double-edged standard when dealing with what they correctly or incorrectly surmise as anti-Americanism. Some of the expats here don’t even allow us the ability to think clearly or critically, it seems. Just like that rat of a general who compared the Koreans to field mice 30 years ago, many of them feel rather smug and comfortable to see the people of their host country as….eh, cattle.
(I’m not talking about you or your post Chris, so don’t get concerned.)

Anyways, fascinating stuff, no matter how you look at it. 😉

— John Adams Wickham, Jr., commander of the US forces, Korea, 1979–1982,in an interview with the New York Times in early Oct. 1980, in the aftermath of the Kwangju Massacre.

Well your thoughts on the Confucian roots of our “herd instinct” is far more preferable than the disparaging soldierly remark above which is more than 2 decades old.

But South Korea is a fast changing society, you know. And It is not always easy for a foreign sojouner to catch up with all those changes that happen in a matter of years, if not decades. Also, it is only natural for you to turn your eyes towards what the social scientists call ‘synchronic’ attitude, which tries, among other things, to conservatively’encapsulate’ the culture and society they find themselves in. It is a legitimate academic approach, yeah, but you should bear in mind that it must be balanced with diachronic, or historical, viewpoints.

The American populace has often been accused of appalling ahistoricity of their thought processes, but perhaps they are changing, too. Obama for America! ^^

–A Korean candle holder