During the election season, Koreans could often hear that “There are no candidates who are suitable leaders for us.”  As you may know, most people have hoped for a ‘good leader’ to make Korean society more ‘desirable.’  However, have you ever thought about exactly what is a ‘good leader’ and what is ‘desirable’ for Korean society?  William H. Gates, the former CEO of Microsoft and Warren Edward Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. recently presented what American values are with one voice in a documentary from PBS (a U.S. public broadcast station), Go Back to School.  They pointed out, “Equality is a value as American as apple pie, with its roots based on fairness, flexibility, and equality of opportunity.”  Moreover they highlighted, “That’s why we won’t hand over all our property to our offspring.  If someone who has rich parents becomes a success because of his pre-existent wealth, that wouldn’t be American and couldn’t find accord with the values of the U.S.."

Just like the men above, respected heroes have always emphasized what is precious in the values of their community and society, and have tried to keep those protected.  Let’s look at a couple of heroes who were established as leaders of their communities and have been loved for a long time.

Politics – John F. Kennedy

(May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963)

The thirty-fifth President of the

“So, let us not be blind to our differences - but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal."

- (John F. Kennedy, 1963 in a commencement address at American University, Washington, D.C)

 -John F. Kennedy’s Career and Results

 Kennedy represented the state of Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953 as a Democrat, and in the U.S. Senate from 1953 until 1960.  Kennedy defeated then Vice President and Republican candidate Richard Nixon in the 1960 U.S. presidential election, one of the closest in American history.  He is the only practicing Roman Catholic to be president, as well as the youngest elected to the office, at the age of 43.  Kennedy is also the only president to have won a Pulitzer Prize.

John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th President at noon on January 20, 1961.  In his inaugural address he spoke of the need for all Americans to be active citizens, famously saying, "My fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not whatwill do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man."

He also asked the nations of the world to join together to fight what he called the "common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself."  In closing, he expanded on his desire for greater internationalism: "Finally, whether you are citizens of or citizens of the world, ask of us the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you."

On June 26, 1963, Kennedy visited West Berlin and gave a public speech criticizing communism. Kennedy used the construction of the Berlin Wall as an example of the failures of communism: "Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in."  The speech is known for its famous phrase "Ich bin ein Berliner."  Nearly five-sixths of the population was on the streets when Kennedy said the famous phrase.  He remarked to aides afterwards: "We'll never have another day like this one."

Kennedy first verbalized the goal of landing a man on the Moon when speaking to a Joint Session of Congress on May 25, 1961, saying “First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him back safely to the earth.  No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish."

Kennedy later made a speech at Rice University on September 12, 1962, in which he said, "No nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in this race for space." He added, "We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."

Husband of novelist Maude Hutchins

Educational philosopher

Dean ofYaleLawSchool (1927-1929)

A president of theUniversity ofChicago (1929–1945), and its chancellor (1945–1951)

“When young people are asked, "What are you interested in?," they answer that they are interested in justice: they want justice for the Negro, they want justice for the Third World.  If you say, "Well, what is justice?" they haven't any idea. ”

—(in Berwick, 1970)

Hutchins answered that students should be exposed to these conflicting ideas so that they may weigh and balance them in their own minds, boiling down the arguments and synthesizing a view of their own.  In this way, and only in this way, can students learn what justice, beauty, and good really are.

-Robert’s Principal Career and Achievement

 Robert Maynard Hutchins became Dean of Yale Law School in 1927 at the unusually young age of 28.  In 1929 he moved to Chicago to become President of theUniversity ofChicago at the age of 30.  Over the next several years, Hutchins came to question of Legal Realism, which he had previously championed, and grew skeptical of the ability of empirical research in the social sciences to solve social problems, especially in the face of the Great Depression.  Particularly through contact with Mortimer Adler, he became convinced that the solution to the philosophical problems facing the university lay in Aristotelianism and Thomism.  In the late 1930s, Hutchins attempted to reform the curriculum of theUniversity ofChicago along Aristotelian-Thomist lines.

Hutchins served as President of theUniversity ofChicago until 1945, after which he served as the University's Chancellor until 1951.  After leaving his position at the University, Hutchins founded the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in 1959.  Hutchins described the Center's goal as examining democratic institutions "By taking a multidisciplinary look at the state of the democratic world - and the undemocratic world as well, because one has to contrast the two and see how they are going to develop."  He further stated, "After discovering what is going on, or trying to discover what is going on, the Center offers its observations for such public consideration as the public is willing to give them."

 - Robert’s Education Sought for the Future

According to Hutchins in ‘The University of Utopia,’ "The object of the educational system, taken as a whole, is not to produce hands for industry but to teach the young how to make a living.  It is to produce responsible citizens."  In ‘The University of Utopia,’ Hutchins described a country that has evolved to become the perfect society, Utopia, as well as their educational system, which has the well-defined purpose of "promoting the intellectual development of the people."

He argued that education is becoming nothing more than a trade school, and a poor trade school at that.  Hutchins discussed the relationship between a foundry and the local college in a particular town in California .  This college offers courses on doing foundry work, which instruct students to become workers at the foundry.  In this way, the college is satisfying the need of the community for foundry workers rather than the intellectual needs of the individual.  Further, Hutchins asserted that the foundry students actually receive poor training since educators do not have the practical experience of working in the foundry.  Hutchins believes the students would receive a much more efficient and thorough education on working in a foundry by actually working in that foundry.  He claimed, “Universities should instead teach intellectual content, specifically the intellectual content related to the occupation, but that the occupation itself should take responsibility for training its employees.  Hutchins also warned that education has shifted its focus from being educational to custodial.  He charged that many schools have become no more than baby-sitting services for adolescents, protecting them from the tumultuous world of youth.

 According to Hutchins in his essay, "The Idea of a College," the specialization of American education has robbed students of the ability to communicate with other students outside of their field.  He argued that a student of biology cannot converse meaningfully with a student of mathematics because they share no common educational experience.  Also, it is not the object of a college to make its students good, because the college cannot do it; if it tries to do it, it will fail; it will weaken the agencies that should be discharging this responsibility, and it will not discharge its own responsibility. The schools should not be in the business of teaching students what right and justice are; it should be in the business of helping students make their own determinations.

All of the abovementioned men are heroes who have led Americans and the world.  No one can deny that they were all individually very competent and successful.  In contemporary Korean society, there are also many people who are competent and successful in as well.  In spite of that, why can’t the present Korean leaders get as much respect as American leaders? 

That’s because Korean leaders and the public have been lax in anguishing over values sought for the Korean community.  While has developed a unique and universal culture through its long history, the dramatic and abrupt development of democracy and capitalism brought disorder to Korean society during a relatively short time.  Still, Koreans aren’t unpracticed in establishing values for their community.  As we have seen, American society has been supported and its values upheld by many heroes.  In other words, the has raised their leaders according to their preferred values.  Society has treated as a hero whoever has fitted their values in diverse ways.  Hence, minor leaders drive their society to be as desirable as their hopes, and the public have been willing to support and respect their leaders, while monitoring their actions.  In this way, a powerful nation could have numerous leaders from various circles.

Now is the time to contemplate and establish Korean values.  Considering in American history, they may take a very long time to form.  However, this is the way, and only in this way, could Koreans get a powerful leader like Hutchins described.  

What do you think Korean values are?       

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