Korean Education and the Politics of Incitement

A few days ago, a writer who had a pretty rational discussion attacked the president. Even if I write logically, they are different people, just as I cannot do the president's job. They live in different worlds even though it is called a confrontation between the brain and the practitioner. In my opinion, the practitioner is unconditionally correct on the premise of working hard.

 

When it comes to politics, there is a chronic disease in Korea. Koreans are vulnerable to instigation because of cramming education and competitive education. As a result, politicians and citizens try to move the hearts of the people rather than immerse themselves in policies.

 

Today, when I start a discussion with AI

 

1. Does biased thinking connect with madness?

2.What is the difference between crazy and not crazy?

3.Is the far right or far left insane because they are both out of their minds?

4. Is religion easy to convert to madness because logical compromise is impossible?

 

I tried to put in the back thesis.

 

Artificial intelligence developed logic using absolute and relative philosophy as a frame. It is said that the far-right or far-left cannot be directly linked to madness because the spectrum is prone to change with the times. And it is said that religion itself is less upsetting because it admits that it does not move within logic from the beginning. However, ideologies such as scientific socialism (Marxism) are said to commit atrocities in the mask of rationality. In fact, yes. We have seen many cases where smart humans go crazy and the world goes crazy. They always use the tool of rationality to make strong arguments, but the substance is crazy. Artificial intelligence also says that ideologies that wear the mask of rationality cause bigger problems than such religions.

 

It is said that the reason why Koreans' spiritual world is unstable with ideology and religion is that they have no rational thoughts and no ability to resist agitation. And it is said that it is because of cramming and competitive education.

 

Let's not think about anything and believe in artificial intelligence unconditionally - this is how crazy it is.

Education, Epistemic Closure, and Political Fanaticism

A Note on Ideological and Religious Polarization in Korean Society

Lee Hyeong-chun

I. Introduction

The term “political fanaticism” is used widely in everyday discourse, yet its criteria remain vague. The common intuition — that a position is “more deranged” the further it sits toward either pole of the left-right spectrum — does not hold up analytically. Abolitionism was extreme by the standards of its day yet proved historically correct, while “moderation” under totalitarian regimes has often amounted to silent complicity. Position on the spectrum, then, cannot by itself serve as a marker of mental soundness or truth. This paper proposes that the more reliable criterion lies not in position but in the structure of reasoning — specifically, openness to falsification and the degree of epistemic closure — and examines this hypothesis in relation to Korea’s educational structure.

II. Defining Fanaticism: Procedure, Not Position

Karl Popper argued that a theory lacking falsifiability should be classified not as science but as pseudoscience. This criterion can be applied analogically to political and ideological belief systems. When a position absorbs every piece of counter-evidence into itself, reinterpreting it as further confirmation rather than disconfirmation, the problem lies not in the intensity of the position but in the epistemic structure through which it operates. In this sense, “political fanaticism” can be defined not by ideological content but by a state in which openness to evidence, falsification, and the perspective of others has ceased to function.

III. Psychological and Physiological Mechanisms

1. Need for Cognitive Closure

The need for cognitive closure (NFC) theory developed by Arie Kruglanski describes a motivational intolerance of ambiguity and a corresponding drive for quick, definite answers. Research indicates that individuals high in NFC tend to adopt rigid belief systems, conform to group norms, and defer to authoritarian leadership. This tendency cuts across left and right alike, and is reported to respond especially strongly to black-and-white narratives that frame the world in terms of good versus evil. Empirical work has also linked experiences of significance loss to heightened NFC, which in turn fosters radicalization.

2. The Authoritarian Personality

Theodor Adorno and colleagues’ 1950 study The Authoritarian Personality identified a cluster of traits — conventionalism, authoritarian submission, authoritarian aggression, and rigid, stereotyped thinking — as a coherent personality syndrome. One of the study’s most consequential implications concerns education: pedagogy that emphasizes critical thinking, open-mindedness, and exposure to diverse perspectives can help temper authoritarian tendencies, whereas education built around conformity and rote memorization of correct answers risks reinforcing rigid, typological thinking.

IV. Korean Education and Resilience to Demagoguery

Korean education has repeatedly been characterized in the academic literature by an exam-centered, competitive structure and rote-based learning. Studies examining why the critical-thinking movement has failed to take root in Korea point to teacher-centered instruction and exam-driven memorization as structurally entrenched features. This is not merely a question of academic achievement; it concerns the internalized habit of accepting conclusions handed down by authority without independent verification.

This structure appears to operate on two levels. First, one-directional instruction without debate internalizes a reasoning habit in which the conclusion comes first and evidence is mobilized afterward to support it — leaving adults without the epistemic capacity to test unfalsifiable ideologies or conspiracy theories when they encounter them later in life. Second, chronic ranking-based competition keeps threat perception persistently activated, reinforcing a binary worldview that divides peers into allies and enemies — a disposition that can carry over into adult political polarization.

When these two mechanisms combine, the cognitive habit of accepting conclusions without verification and the physiological habit of reasoning under constant perceived threat reinforce one another, producing individuals with markedly diminished resistance to ideological or religious demagoguery. This offers a structural hypothesis for the recurring intensity of ideological conflict and religious dysfunction observed in Korean society.

V. Religion and Ideology: Two Paths to Fanaticism

Within this framework, religion and ideology follow distinct paths toward fanaticism. Certain religious beliefs explicitly declare themselves beyond the domain of rational verification, claiming an overt exemption from argument. Ideology — particularly ideology that invokes the rhetoric of being “scientific” — instead conceals its avoidance of falsification. The conclusion is fixed in advance, and evidence is retroactively assembled to support it, in what amounts to an institutionalized confirmation bias; yet because the adherent genuinely believes the process to be rational and scientific, they remain unaware of their own fanaticism. In this sense, ideological reasoning that masquerades as science can be more dangerous than religious faith that openly declares itself outside reason — though this danger is not confined to any single ideological camp, and applies equally to any political position that invokes rhetoric of “necessity” or “law” to immunize itself against falsification.

VI. Conclusion and Recommendations

Political fanaticism is more consistently and durably defined not by left-right position but by the cessation of epistemic procedure. The recurring ideological and religious dysfunction observed in Korean society can be understood as a consequence of one-directional, debate-free instruction combined with chronic competitive structures that erode citizens’ capacity for falsification and epistemic openness. This connects to existing analyses of credentialism and governance failure as two symptoms of the same root cause: an education system that simultaneously produces credentialed elites who have never learned to think and a public vulnerable to demagoguery for want of verification skills. Education reform should therefore extend beyond restructuring entrance examinations, toward a pedagogical philosophy that embeds the lived experience of debate and falsification.

References

Adorno, T. W., Frenkel-Brunswik, E., Levinson, D. J., & Sanford, R. N. (1950). The Authoritarian Personality. New York: Harper & Row.

Kruglanski, A. W., Szumowska, E., Kopetz, C., Vallerand, R. J., & Pierro, A. (2021). On the psychology of extremism: How motivational imbalance breeds intemperance. Psychological Review, 128(2), 264.

Kruglanski, A. W., Pierro, A., Mannetti, L., & DeGrada, E. (2006). Groups as epistemic providers: Need for closure and the unfolding of group-centrism. Psychological Review, 113(1), 84–100.

Lee, S. et al. Educational Fever and Credentialism in South Korea. ERIC (ED665166).

Popper, K. (1959). The Logic of Scientific Discovery. London: Hutchinson.

Roets, A., Kruglanski, A. W., Kossowska, M., Pierro, A., & Hong, Y. (2015). The motivated gatekeeper of our minds: New directions in need for closure theory and research. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 52, 221–283.

Webber, D., Babush, M., Schori-Eyal, N. et al. (2018). The road to extremism: Field and experimental evidence that significance loss-induced need for closure fosters radicalization. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 114(2), 270–285.

“Why has the critical thinking movement not come to Korea?” Asia Pacific Education Review (Springer).