by K.J. Noh / October 31st, 2016
Mysticism does not necessarily lead to despotism, but many despots frequent mystics: to obtain a psychic safety net for high wire acts of political violence, to prescribe emotional narcotics to put the conscience to sleep, and in the final act, as karmic adjusters to insure against retribution from the bloodshed and suffering they unleash.
The Italians under Mussolini grew their own fascist mysticism, the Nazis were mired in occult symbolism, rituals, and mythology, and the Showa Era Japanese Empire, and Shinzo Abe’s current gang of unreconstructed, revisionist, ultra-nationalist militarists are also mystical and religious fundamentalists to a one.
South Korea’s own fascism has involved many generations of permutations on cults, shamans, and prophetic charlatans, the most prominent of them being the Reverend Moon Sun Myong of the Unification Church and his enmeshment with the South Korean government and intelligence agencies.
Its latest redux of fascist mysticism, however, involves a millionaire protestant shaman, a horse-jumping daughter, occult messages from the dead, and shoddy fashion consultations.
Here is the wretched, cautionary tale:
Blood, Sex, and Death
It’s 1961, and former Japanese collaborator — Masao Tagaki/Okamoto Minoru-an artillery and counterinsurgency officer in the dreaded Japanese Imperial Kwan Tung Army — has turned in his Japanese insignia, and has rapidly ascended up the ranks of the Korean…