Seoulscapade

(My apologies for some of the pixelated photographs that follow. I would most certainly have shown the uncensored versions if I could have obtained them.)

A primitive mentality operates behind the idea of seeking out scapegoats as objects of sin. It is a delusional action that goes back to the days before science and rationality. Yet even with science and rationality, the “scapegoat” impulse has remained, disguised in sophisticated belief systems and cloaked in ceremonial practices.

For example, the myth of Christ’s atonement came from the old tradition of animal sacrificing. As the Old Testament explains, a person could transfer sins and then be forgiven for them through the offering and the pouring out of the blood of, for instance, an “unblemished” lamb (cf. Lev 4:32). Later, Christ took on the role, but initially an animal was used a kind of ritual substitution object.

Thus, the animal takes on a meaning significant only to a select group of humans partaking in a collective delusion. The animal’s individuality is all but lost, and it regrettably receives no benefit, even though it is the one sacrificing everything. We can be as sure of that animal’s innocence as of its complete lack of comprehension of the moronic farce going on around it.

Unfortunately, such barbaric practices did not end some 2000 or 3000 years ago. They are still performed in Korea, a land that has modernized so quickly that the minds of some people do not seem to have advanced beyond a kind of backward and simple peasant ignorance.

But the people who attended this protest rally are more than just primitive, backward and uneducated: they are also evil and demonic. At least Christianity, despite its primitive beginnings, has become synonymous with a message of goodness and compassion. We do not see anything of that nature in the incident pictured here. We can safely assume therefore that Christians were not present at this satanic ritual.

No animal deserves to suffer and die like this.

This two-month-old pig was ripped apart with a knife and was then disemboweled at a rally attended by about 1,500 protesters in Icheon. It was a protest about a US military facility (or perhaps only an office) being relocated to the area. The mayor of Icheon was there, by the way, along with other officials, all of whom did nothing to stop the evil ritual.

Well, I guess I expected too much from a country that boasts 5000 years of culture and a miraculous modernization. Nor should I be surprised if some of its people insist on barbaric rather then cultured behavior, given that it happens wherever you find humans. But what a shame Korea has come so far and has achieved so much, and yet it still cannot entirely demonstrate an enlightened culture.

What could it possibly gain anyone to torture an innocent animal to death? Well, as I mentioned in my preamble about sacrificing animals, it all comes down to symbolism and analogy. At Korean protests, murdering an animal like this is supposedly to express the depth of feeling the protesters feel about an issue. Yes, it’s just done to express “emotion.”

This is not the first time protesters in Korea have viciously tortured and slaughtered a pig for the purpose of expressing “emotion.” In a protest a couple of years ago, a group of former South Korean commandos hacked to death a squealing pig daubed with the word “Koizumi” to protest against the Japan’s Prime Minister at the time, Kiozumi, and his surprise visit to a notorious war shrine.

Here you can see that something like an axe or knife has already been used on the poor animal. Primitive, barbaric, ignorant, evil, uneducated, small-minded, pathetic, demonic—this is what is says to me, and most of world I should think, regardless of the symbolic meaning it is supposed to convey, or what it means to small minded people. Clearly, they don’t have intelligence tests to screen commando applicants in Korea.

Koreans do get carried away at protests. Usually they strive to hurt themselves, and I’m all for that: if it’s emotion you really want to show, then using a substitute creature just doesn’t cut it for me (no pun intended).

So, the follow people are genuinely impressive and convince me of their emotion. In front of the Japanese Embassy in 2005, a 68-year-old mother snipped off her little finger with pruning shears and her 41-year-old son cut off his finger with a butcher knife. This was again against Koizumi and to protest the Dokdo issue (an ongoing tussle for a big rock in the ocean between Korea and Japan). Now, those acts show commitment. Elsewhere, a few wimps burned Japanese flags.

People like those at the protest in Icheon who torture young animals are wimps and cowards, too. Let’s make it plain what they are doing. Let’s put it in perspective and recognize that in the world of pigs, the animal they tortured to death was a small child. I know—people eat the children of nonhuman animals everyday because that’s what the meat industry serves up. Nonetheless, these barbaric theatrics pictured here should be seen for what they are: child abuse and torture.

The state of animal treatment throughout Asia is bad in general, and it’s no exception in Korea. I’m so ashamed of this country, a country I have made my home, when such abuses go on unchallenged. The laws are weak, as weak as the will of authorties to stop such abuse. I get the impression it’s the ingrained thinking in Korean society that is also to blame: widespread backward thinking about animals prevails alongside an otherwise modern system.

I don’t see any real excuse for practices of ancient stupidity and ignorance in this day and age, no matter what culture. Especially in Korea, a country that values education so highly, there’s no excuse for uneducated barbarism like this. It is totally unforgivable. Shame, Korea, shame. Some of your citizens are a disgrace to humanity.

So, I’m writing about this as my contribution towards change, for with improvement to its animal welfare laws, Korea can really show it does have an enlightened culture and not be the target of disdain from around the world. I don’t want to be ashamed of Korea, and I don’t want other people to be ashamed of the country, either.

But these are the people who have brought shame on Korea–look at them all–that’s all they have achieved: shame and disgust.

I’m also writing about this incident because I felt some emotion, and I wanted to have my own little protest. I wanted to say that you people who did this are low-life peasant-ignorant scum (this is the censored version of what I really think of you).

And now, I’ll just let stand the truth in words and pictures for all the world to see. That’s what usually happens in civilized countries, when we want to show our emotion.