interview with Ryu Hyuk

I happened to see a picture of an interview with Ryu Hyuk, the inspector general of the Ministry of Justice, who submitted a letter of resignation saying that if it is an illegal martial law meeting at an emergency convocation on martial law, it cannot be followed. His words that what a civil servant does after an illegal order is no different from what a major general who worked at the Auschwitz gas chamber did are touching to me. On the other hand, when he submitted his resignation letter, it is infuriating that the answer of Justice Minister Park Sung-jae was "Do it" in one word. To hear such words from the attorney general, who is the head of the law-abiding body, is simply Park Sung-jae and Ashall, so I have nothing to say.

It reminds me of Hannah Arendt's "ordinaryity of evil." The words in the book observing the trial of Adolf Eichmann, who was in charge of the Holocaust, "the banality of evil..." These are about ordinary people who can participate in evil deeds without critical thinking, participate in evil deeds without thinking deeply about the consequences of their actions, and lose personal responsibility, especially in systems such as bureaucracy, by passing it on to their superiors and colleagues. Everyone else is saying that... The minister of the Interior and Safety, the chief of staff, and the vice minister of defense who attended a hearing at the National Assembly today, all said in unison that the president and the minister made them do it, and that he did not know.

If martial law had been successful, lower-level officials would have realized the mediocrity of evil at the behest of their superiors. The English dictionary explains that the word banality used as mediocrity is commonplace. In Japanese books, it is written as cliché, not mediocrity. Wouldn't the cliché, commonplace, be a more accurate expression? Anyway, Ryu Hyuk, who did not sympathize with the mediocrity of evil, I am proud and grateful for you. Thank you Zola. If we meet by chance, I will buy you a meal...