"Korea Is the World's Most Depressing Country"…an honest travelogue of a famous American writer
"Korea Is the World's Most Depressing Country"…an honest travelogue of a famous American writer
Best-selling author and YouTuber Mark Manson "It's hard to pursue autonomy at work in Korea." "Because there's no individual, it causes stress". "Korea has a rare resilience." I'll find my way out of the dangerous horizon."
Mark Manson, an American bestselling author and famous YouTuber, has made headlines by posting a video that he "traveled to the world's most depressing country" after visiting Korea. Manson, a best-selling author who has written famous self-development books such as "The Art of Turning Off Nervousness," is a YouTube creator with 1.44 million subscribers.
Manson recently released a 24-minute video on his YouTube channel under the theme of "Traveling to the World's Depressing Country." During his visit to Korea, Manson met with Americans, psychologists, and psychiatrists living in Korea to look into depression in Korean society.
Korea is surprisingly dystopian and no other country is exactly like that tbh.
The internet (and many other areas) are completely captured by monopolies that control everything. There are so many inhumane, draconian laws too. This all contrasts with advance tech and pop production so starkly it kinda breaks people's brains.
Behold the corporate state.
Well the country is pretty much run by Samsung to the point their entire economy and education system revolve around it. And the family that runs the company openly gets away with doing whatever the fuck they want.
Aw. Name more of the chaebols.
Samsung
KIA
Daewoo
Hyundai
SK
LG
Lotte
At least they didn't have 500 million cameras deployed, The real Cyberpunk 2077 is China.
Which Korea are we talking about here?
South Korea or Best Korea?
You are now a mod of c/Pyongyang
You would think a best selling author could express himself more clearly. But then again he‘s American. Perhaps he really doesn‘t know or care which one or if there is a difference.
Nicholas Plot, an American StarCraft professional commentator who has lived in Korea for 15 years, said, "One of the things that surprised me when I first came here was work ethics. They almost collapsed from overwork but didn't say anything. In an apartment in suburban Seoul, 15 to 16 game players trained in an environment similar to a PC room, using bunk beds, he said. "When there is a small ecosystem where everyone pushes each other to get better and better, Koreans completely dominate (the environment). At the same time, I had no choice but to think about the psychological slump it created," he said.
This is reasonably accurate. Korea is very heavy on the grind. If you ever want to learn work ethics and how to have fun with the short amount of free time you get, this is the place.
Source: 대한민국에서 살고 있어
It doesn't sound like the kind of work ethic I want to learn. That's basically voluntary slavery.
Individualism is great.
I agree with the first part, but I’m confused by “Individualism is great”. Not sure what individualism has to do with it.
Is this supposed to contrast with the US, a country where people work some of the longest hours in the developed world? I think the whole “the West is free and individualistic and Asians are conformist robots” thing is a myth.
Source: 대한민국에서 살고 있어
No, YOUR mother is a craven harlot!
The video title is "Depressed" not "Depressing."
He based that on the suicide rate. It's hard to have a metric for happiness/depression, but that's a credible one.
The article took liberties with the message.
He spoke directly with many people across South Korea. Interview style and not coming at it with a load of certanties.
By the second sentence he said, "South Korea."
I don't know why so many people here have to imagine a slight and then react against it.
But Korea has their superior fried chicken and the corn dogs with potatoes on the outside. It can't possibly be bad.
Seems very similar to Japan except South Korea has been gaining popularity in the West more recently.
These countries have similarities, but this seems more like simplistic stereotypes and generalizations.
South Korea's suicide rate is almost double that of Japan's. Japan has a lower suicide rate than the US, and similar to European countries like Sweden.
South Koreans work some of the longest hours of any rich country. They're closer to India and Mexico than Europe. The Japanese work fewer hours than the US. Yes, Japanese people work too much, but I think Americans don't realize that they work too much too.
I guess he hasn't been to Eastern Europe yet.
How do they compare, I've been to a few eastern euro countries and the people are happy and vibe is fun. The standard of living might not be high but it isn't high stress worker drone society boxed in by societal expectations.
You have probably been in big cities where a lot of stuff is happening but visit the countryside and it is full of broken people and dying towns.
Another thing to note is that further south you go, the happier people will seem, while in the north, long winter days and lack of Vitamin D can really mess with local people.
The people over 45 have it especially bad here, since the world they used to know is no longer there, they can't adapt to it, they don't make as much as some younger people do, and they are beginning to lose their friends and family. While life is amazing and exciting to the young adults you are most likely to talk to in bars. The contrast actually adds to depression.
When it comes to comparisons, I think the main difference is that in East Asia, people have to deal with too much order and monotony.
In East Europe, the life as you know it might disappear at any moment. Life is fragile and fleeting and everything around you and everything you know will be dead one day. Nature itself reinforces that fact every year.
"It is the result of Korea maximizing the bad points of Confucian culture and the shortcomings of capitalism."
"In Confucian culture, there are no individuals....
"In Confucian culture, we do not try to empathize with mental health problems...
"When you learn Korean culture...
I love when tourists (let's be real: rich, white, American tourists) visit a country and come back a fucking expert on the culture, filled with all the judgmental wisdom to dish out why that culture is inferior to their own.
Fuck this clown and his "wisdom."
How about you address his logic instead of going full ad personum.
You likely see this as a ramblings because barely anyone thinks about confucianism in modern times.
But it was state enforced for a while in multiple countries and left it's mark in strict social hierarchies, blind subservience to one's parents and focus on collective and ignoring individual needs and problems. Those reverberate in modern times and make the countries what they are now.
Sure, lived there 15 years and obtained dual citizenship.
I've now lived long term in my third country, so I am certainly in a position to compare living in multiple countries. If we want to focus just on depression, it's a mixed bag.
Do Koreans work longer than other countries. Yes certainly. Statistics support that. Are they necessarily working 'harder'? Not always. It depends a lot job to job, company to company.
To me the biggest thing contributing to overwork is the lack of holidays. For the longest time most statutory/bank holidays were not given additional days off if they fell on the weekend. Combine that with most companies not just giving you 2-4 weeks that you can use whenever you want, and most people worked a lot with little down time. Most companies would have a bit of time off in the summer, but they'd all take it at the same time and the prices would sky rocket meaning it was hard to enjoy what little time off you had.
This is not universal though. I know some larger companies had programs where people got specific days of the month off in addition and some had other half days on top of that.
focus on collective and ignoring individual needs and problems
This is a tough one. While they certainly do that in Korea, and things are changing in that regard as they're acknowledging individualism more, it has certainly lead to a lot of efficiencies. As an example, to exchange a driver's license in Korea it takes about 30 minutes and costs $10-15. In the UK you need to send it away, it costs £45, and takes 3+ weeks for them to process. If there are any issues, like say someone at the DVLA told you that your license officially printed in both English and Korean didn't need a translation and then some jobsworth at the DVLA decided it did upon receipt, it has to be first sent back to you before you can go correct it.
For the most part bureaucratic stuff in Korea, while often talked about on the internet, is far easier to deal with, and much faster than it is in any of the other countries I've lived in. They also have a solid, central clearing house for making complaints about any organization in the country, government or private, and it can be done in just about any language.
The biggest issue I see contributing to poor quality of life is the density. Even when you have free time, you can't enjoy anything outside of your house there. Want to go to the part? so did 1500 other people. Want to check out the cherry blossoms? Sure thing. Tag along wit your 5000 neighbours. Hit up ikea? Sure hope you like walking through it shoulder to shoulder without the ability to actually look at anything.
The density also means that no really has the ability to spread out and relax. Everyone lives in apartments/condos. Very few have yards. Those are the real day to day negatives that drag people down. I worked in companies as a proper employee and managed people as well, and while it was tough at times, it would have been so much better if it was possible to really enjoy your life outside of that. People want to, but it's just very difficult in a small space with so many people.
Society is complex, visting a country is different from living there an extended period of time and even then even small geographical distances can result in huge changes in culture.
For example if you started in London and travelled the M4 to Bristol and carried on through Newport and then Cardiff. You would find dramatic differences in housing costs, religiousness, sports played (e.g. football to rugby), views on public transport, job market, jobs people work, education level, favourite drinks, marriage, etc..
You could spend 3 months basing yourself in any one of those locations and derive completely different views on what is wrong with the UK.
Which is why the OP brushed this off as nonsense. It also isn't uncommon for Americans to go somewhere and suggest it would be miles better if it was exactly like the USA, which is why you get the ad hominem.
It would be like a British Tourist suggesting they don't drink enough larger or accusing themof being savages for putting salt in tea
The author wasn't making a logical argument, so there's no need to address his "logic."
He's a tourist who spent some time in a foreign country, and came to some very sweeping, rash conclusions about an entire country's culture. It's shallow, judgmental, and tragically commonplace among self-centered tourists who think they can understand an entire culture after 2 weeks living in a hotel on someone else's dime. I am so done with the "white dude waxes philosophical about Asian country" trope.
"The most depressing country I can book a direct flight to and book all hotels and travel arrangements online, and make do with only English for the duration"