Harnessing new energy in the Year of the Horse to defeat the enemies of democracy | By Hyun Park (Winter 2026)
In Lewis Carroll’s classic children’s book, Alice in Wonderland, the protagonist Alice falls down a deep hole while chasing a white rabbit. The world she encounters on the other side is a strange place where common sense and logic hold no sway. Its inhabitants include a queen who shouts, “Off with his head!” at every turn, holds arbitrary and nonsensical trials, and where vicious fights break out among groups during games that have unintelligible rules.
When I reflect on the past few years of Korean society, it feels as though we’ve fallen down a rabbit hole as well.
The past few years have been a harsh test of democracy’s limits. The first lady has been playing the role of queen of a democratic nation, while her husband the president attempts to take over the country by declaring martial law with the support of military leaders and his acquiescent Cabinet. Though his attempt failed, the majority party and far-right forces have risen to the aspiring dictator’s defense — all of which has shaken the constitutional order to its core.
Even the judiciary, believed to be the final bastion of law, held a tilted scale and betrayed its own principles. Yet our democracy did not collapse. This was thanks to the steadfast shield formed by the citizens who poured out into the streets in front of the National Assembly and Gwanghwamun Square, including many young people in their 20s, braving the bitter cold to resist in solidarity.
Korean democracy has consistently demonstrated astonishing vitality while at the very edge of the precipice. But now, even that resilience must not be taken for granted. The world is being swept into great chaos. The “return of empire” driven by Putin and Trump, the irreversible Pandora’s box of artificial intelligence, the accelerating climate crisis, the populist storm, and political polarization are all converging simultaneously. It feels as if forces beyond human control are shaking the world to its very foundations.
In Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI, historian Yuval Harari argues that humanity’s tendency to summon uncontrollable forces stems from our species’ unique capacity for large-scale cooperation. He also notes that human networks of mass cooperation rely on fictions and illusions to bind communities and create order. When the masses follow such false belief systems, dictators can seize control.
As in the case of Nazism, the civil unrest caused by far-right populist (past) President Suk-yeol Yoon is an instance of this phenomenon. Unfortunately, our world today resembles the era of Nazism in the 1930s in many ways. Nationalism, pursuit of economic self-reliance, and racism are gaining ground, centered around the major powers of the U.S., China and Russia. In particular, Trump’s MAGA movement — a false belief system rooted in white supremacist ideology — is swallowing the global superpower and threatening the entire world.
At the root of this chaos lies the rise of political polarization and the use of social media tools to propagate it, notably YouTube. Using this combination of fuel and tools, populists, dictators and authoritarians are running amok across the globe. The masses are beguiled by their demagoguery, and society is becoming increasingly fractured.
YouTube our present era’s rabbit hole, amplifies anger and conspiracy theories. In his 1964 book Understanding Media, media commentator and philosopher Marshall McLuhan observed that the introduction of new media technology causes audiences to fall into a state of paralysis, which gives rise to societal chaos. At the time McLuhan offered this insight, he was commenting primarily about television, which had taken Western societies by storm.
It is arguable that the destructive power of YouTube today far surpasses that of the TV. It is far too easy to see and hear only what we want and agree with, due to algorithms that prioritize stimulation over truth and confirmation bias over deliberation, driving citizens apart. A distorted public sphere is the ideal breeding ground for populism. Democracy’s enemies always grow from within.
We must rebuild the cornerstones and pillars of democracy. Only then can we protect this institution when a tsunami strikes unexpectedly.
In order to do so, we must first make those who attempted to overthrow Korea’s democracy pay the price for their actions. At the same time, we must move quickly to amend our Constitution to limit the concentration of power and strengthen checks and balances. If we fail to overhaul our imperial presidential system and unchecked military, there is no stopping the rise of another, more powerful band of insurrectionists.
Second, we must work to alleviate the current extreme polarization in our country, and spare no effort in solidifying the socioeconomic underpinnings of democracy. Inequity is more than an economic issue, it is the root of division among people.
Third, we must redesign the public sphere of debate for the digital era. While respecting freedom of speech, we must strengthen social accountability for incitement, hate speech and disinformation.
Fourth, fated to be situated betwixt great powers, Korea must pursue a balanced diplomacy that stands with the U.S. while seeking friendly relations with China and communication with Japan and Russia. We must do everything to ensure that we do not become a pawn on the chess board of greater powers and are swept into a war.
2026 is the Year of the Red Horse. The energy of the red fire and the vigor of the horse heralds a year of great impetus. We must transcend the disorder and use this year as a turning point in creating a new world.
In Carroll’s sequel book Through the Looking-Glass, Alice conquers the Red Knight and successfully advances to the final square of the chess board to become a queen. In the real world, we are also trudging through our turbulent times, and forced to play games in which the rules seem to suddenly change. The future will be trying and involve setbacks. But if we take a page out of Alice’s book and confront nonsensical and unreasonable powers with wisdom and courage, we can create and change the trajectory. It could be a new world, where nothing is impossible.
With each day, we must move forward, until we have surmounted this age of absurdity.
This essay originally published in Hankyoreh.
