Korea's Narcissists / Small Dictators

When I was a student, I had a lot of odd books in my own room. One time, my friend's eyes were on a philosophy book published by China's Yanbian People's Publishing Corporation. A few days later, the plainclothes police searched my room's house. Professor Lee Jae-sang's criminal law and criminal procedure law books were spread out under the lights while studying the bar exam at the time. The police apologized and left. In a distant future, the friend asked me for forgiveness for having committed a crime to die, but I had no thoughts at the time. I thought it was because of my bluff that made my friend feel inferior to me, who had no health, money, or a happy family. And I was very satisfied with my position. The incident that made me realize it was the Nixon and Hicks case.

At the time, a columnist with the same name as the left-wing president was in a right-wing newspaper. The columnist's book was quite critical of the government compared to the newspaper's tendency, perhaps because military politics was very authoritative at the time. The title was also desperate, saying, "Haven, earth." There was a story of Nixon and Hicks in it. When Senator Hicks insulted Nixon by saying that he was from an unnamed provincial university, he later drove Hicks to ruin, and Nixon was destroyed by the illegal eavesdropping (Watergate scandal). At that time, McCarthyism, in which he repaid his grudge by using his hateful person as a partisan, was prevalent in Korea and the United States. It was the best choice for narcissists who had no power but wanted to achieve their goals. Later, when I saw politicians from the prosecution unite as conservatives and lead the country to catastrophe, I thought that the beans were already planted.

At that time, I was living in a sea of narcissists. My friend who accused me of making myself small, or I who pushed myself to pass the bar exam and get power, were living in eight funny regions, rivers, and mountains. Later, while managing a company with a lot of highly educated talent, I was troubled by the fact that I was considered a low-educated manager. Korea, which was confused by these things, was on its way to a big problem.

After discussing with artificial intelligence, the prosecution's shift is judged to be an ongoing case. I looked at the contents of the discussion once again, thinking that social consensus was already in order in reality.

Lee Hyeong-chun | Geopolitical & Philosophical Analysis

Narcissism by Design: How Korean Society Mass-Produces Leaders Without Empathy

Competitive education, the authoritarian legacy, and the price that democracy pays.

1. Charisma vs. Narcissism — the Same Face, a Different Soul

Charismatic leaders and narcissists look strikingly alike: confidence, drive, persuasive force, a magnetism that draws people in. Yet there is a decisive difference. Charisma directs its energy outward; narcissism directs it inward.

The charismatic leader exhausts himself for the community. The narcissist exhausts the community for himself. Before power is obtained, the two are difficult to tell apart. The real test comes after power is seized — how does the person respond to criticism? The narcissist does not rebut criticism with logic. He turns the critic into an enemy.

History validates this pattern repeatedly. Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini were all initially hailed as national heroes. Their narcissism became the driving force that seized power in a moment of crisis — but it ultimately collapsed under the weight of distorted reality. Power does not build character. Power reveals it.

2. Narcissism Disguised as Altruism — Lessons from McCarthy and Nixon

The most dangerous form of narcissism speaks the language of altruism. Hitler invoked 'the German people.' Joseph McCarthy claimed to be saving America from communism. Yet behind those altruistic words was a witch-hunt staged purely for personal power and personal narrative.

Nixon's case is more dramatic. Carrying a deep sense of inferiority toward the Harvard-educated Alger Hiss — who had once dismissed him — Nixon destroyed Hiss by branding him a Soviet spy, then used that scalp as a political springboard. That same Nixon was eventually destroyed by his own illegal wiretapping. He was undone by the very method he had used against others. The narcissist's character does not change; it only becomes more explicit as power grows.

South Korea's recurring 'communist sympathizer' and 'pro-North Korea' labels carry the same structure. When logic fails, the opponent's very existence is negated. This is the political language of narcissism — a pattern invisible unless you learn to see through it.

3. What Korean Education Does to Character — the Empathy Deficit

South Korea did not accidentally cultivate narcissism. Its education system was structurally designed to produce it.

In the crucible of extreme university entrance competition, children learn early: others are not partners but rivals to be eliminated. Empathy is a luxury; hierarchy is truth. After decades of this experience, it becomes a worldview.

Those who pass through high-stakes gateways — bar examinations, civil service exams — acquire an additional layer. A tiny fraction succeeds; the conviction of being 'one of the chosen' is internalized. Without noticing, that conviction curdles into contempt for others.

The result: people who have only studied law, only passed examinations, come to occupy society's most influential positions. The soil of socially acquired empathy — having run a business, worked a factory floor, experienced injustice firsthand — is simply absent. That absence only becomes visible after power is obtained.

4. The Psychology of Authoritarian Mimicry — the 'Little Dictator' Phenomenon

To education's contribution, history adds another layer. Those who lived through the Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan eras processed that experience in one of two ways: through trauma that generates resistance, or through internalization that replicates the structure within their own sphere of influence.

The latter produced what might be called the 'little dictator' phenomenon: the individual who builds a private kingdom — at home, at the office, in the local community — modeled on the authoritarian template. He denounces Park and Chun in public while faithfully replicating their methods in private: command, submission, the elimination of dissent. This is not irony. It is structure.

The pattern reproduces across generations. Children raised under authoritarian relationships internalize that mode of relating. As adults, they replicate it wherever they hold authority. Structure makes the person; the person reinforces the structure.

5. When Structure-Made Narcissists Enter Politics

Education's competition produces empathy-deficient elites. History's authoritarianism internalizes the language of submission. These are the people who climb to political platforms — and the problem is that politics demands precisely the opposite of what they were trained to do.

Politics requires the language of negotiation and persuasion. Narcissism knows only the language of condemnation and compliance. Voters are not citizens to be persuaded but subjects to be interrogated. Criticism is not a resource for better policy but an attack on one's existence.

The outcome repeats. As the narcissist's power grows, so does his distance from reality. Those who tell him the truth disappear from his circle; those who confirm his narrative fill it. At the end of that process is always the same thing: the collapse of reality perception, and decisions that cannot be undone.

This is why it is not simply a matter of individual failure. The character was made by the structure. Without changing the structure, the same personality type will occupy the same seat again and again.

Conclusion: Without Structural Change, the Next Crisis Will Come

Narcissism is not solely a personal character flaw. Naturally there is a personal dimension. But in the Korean case, narcissism is the structural product of decades of educational competition and authoritarian legacy compressed together.

An education that never teaches empathy. A society that demands competition over cooperation. A history that taught submission to authority as virtue. When these three converge, power ceases to be a tool for the community and becomes a mechanism for confirming the self-narrative.

Democracy is an institution. But institutions rest on the character of the people who operate them. A society that teaches only competition and never cultivates empathy will eventually find its democracy threatened by the very character it produced. Changing that structure is the longest-horizon task of democratic governance — and the one most often deferred.

Lee Hyeong-chun | Geopolitical & Philosophical Columnist

This column is distributed to an international readership through the author's blog and social media platforms.