Work · East Asian Philosophy
Only a Thinking People Can Survive
An essay in the journal Sasanggye criticising the division of Korea and the governments in North and South: the people must think for themselves instead of following the powerful; it led to his arrest.
Introduction
The essay appeared in the August 1958 issue of the journal Sasanggye, which was then a leading forum of critical opinion in South Korea. Ham Seok-heon criticised the division of Korea and the governments of both North and South and argued that the Korean War had been fought by people who did not understand why they were fighting. Only a people that thinks for itself, he wrote, can survive and avoid being used by the powerful. The essay led to his detention, and its title became a slogan of the later democracy movement.
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