"My Car" And Democracy
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Despite all the complaints, worries and warnings concerning the rapidly increasing number of cars in the major cities throughout the country, more cars are being produced and more people are buying them, and the trend seems to ever go up. Ever increasing car accidents and the subsequent casualties, ubiquitous traffic jams and frustrations, relatively shrinking roads and parking lots, car exhaust and pollution threatening our health - all these problems caused by cars do not seem to be a downer that cools or discourages the heat and passion for people to own and drive "my car". You may well wonder if some day in the near future the entire land of our country might not be transformed into roads and parking lots.
The irony of the situation is that cars, an embodiment of convenience and speed for transportation, seem to have become a monster that hinders and blocks the traffic itself. Once we were greatly puzzled at the news, several decades ago, that hundreds of people were killed in auto accidents on the highway in the United States, home of automobiles, during Christmas or Thanksgiving holidays. It was when driving "my car" was a wild dream for most of us and we had no clear idea what the highway really looked like. Now we are accustomed to the similar number of casualties during holidays in Korea. What's wrong with us? With cars? Should we prohibit or, at least, limit the production or purchase of cars by law?
No. I say a firm and clear 'no' to the above proposition. The number of cars driven by ordinary people in a country is proportionate to, I would dare assert, the amount of economic and political freedom they enjoy in it. In other words, the number of people who can afford to buy a car, drive it freely disregarding his or her social position or status, and can go and come anywhere anytime, is a good index of democracy in a country.
Besides the cars, vehicles for transportation are many and various - trains, ships, buses, and airplanes. But all of these are supposed to run the prescribed roads or ways on schedule. Often you have to queue or wait for tickets, and sometimes you have to give up the scheduled trips due to unexpected cancellation of service. More often than not, you are asked to present your ID card to policeman or MP aboard. In short, these vehicles are under the control of the official authorities concerned and they allow it to be possible.
Your car, on the other hand, with you at the wheel, free you from those outside interferences and hold you entirely responsible for its operation, maintenance, cleanliness and even the beautification of it. And once all the responsibilities carried out well and faithfully, it will provide you with the comfort and speed, and satisfy the desire for freedom more concretely than any other means of transportation in the history human civilization. "Freedom to come and go" comes first and foremost among freedoms, and the countries where this basic but most important freedom is not allowed or significantly limited for any reasons are none other than the 'backward' countries politically as well as economically, and one of the most conspicuous example can be found in North Korea.
Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, has everything it ought to have like any other capital cities in the world - high-rises, subways, department stores, and luxurious hotels. And large and well-kept parks with beautiful trees and fountains, spectacular cultural centers and stadiums and gymnasiums. What makes it different from Seoul is, judging from TV screen, the number of cars running in it. A few of very expensive cars (mostly black and imported ones) are monopolizing the empty streets. We do not know who are in the car, but we can easily presume that they are very important persons there, as it was here in Seoul when there were only a few 'my cars' decades ago. The mechanical, but all unnecessary exercises of hand of the police-girl controlling traffic is another good index of the sad political and economic reality there.
So long as we remain a democratic country, and as long as the desire to come and go freely and pleasantly is deeply rooted in us, the heated arguments over the negative aspects the cars inevitably bring about will never make a real and strong case. More cars will be made and more people will buy them, and they should. More people should be able to afford to have cars and better cars with less noise, more safety and no exhaust should be made.
I have never experienced democracy in our country more acutely and lively than in the testing place for driving licence. There men and women, young and old, high and low, rich and poor, were literally equal before the law. Each of them had the same goal in common: passing the test. A plump woman in her late 50's was shouting in triumph and joy, while a college student was leaving the place in gloom and anger for another failure. I heard a young man confess that he has passed the bar exam and currently working in a law firm as a lawyer, but has successively failed in the test five times. My instructor in the driving school told me that college professors fail most frequently in the simple written test of traffic regulations.
When there were a few cars in Seoul, and owning a car belonged exclusively to a privileged few, the licence could easily be obtained with money or through the good offices of some influential friend or friend's friend, they say. Recently I hear no one around me spread these kinds of tips. With the increase of the cars, has the law-abiding spirit in us also increased? Have we become suddenly civilized and done away with the incorrigible national vice of bribery?
No, of course not. It is the virtue born of necessity. Not for others, but for the driver himself. We have simply arrived at the realization that the driver's licence without driving skill means death. One of my friends quit drinking after he bought and began to drive his car. He came to love his life and his new car more than alcohol. All the problems brought about by cars will, like all the other problems in a democratic country, find the clue to their solution, only when we begin to realize that the problem is mine, not yours.
(May 5, 1992)
The irony of the situation is that cars, an embodiment of convenience and speed for transportation, seem to have become a monster that hinders and blocks the traffic itself. Once we were greatly puzzled at the news, several decades ago, that hundreds of people were killed in auto accidents on the highway in the United States, home of automobiles, during Christmas or Thanksgiving holidays. It was when driving "my car" was a wild dream for most of us and we had no clear idea what the highway really looked like. Now we are accustomed to the similar number of casualties during holidays in Korea. What's wrong with us? With cars? Should we prohibit or, at least, limit the production or purchase of cars by law?
No. I say a firm and clear 'no' to the above proposition. The number of cars driven by ordinary people in a country is proportionate to, I would dare assert, the amount of economic and political freedom they enjoy in it. In other words, the number of people who can afford to buy a car, drive it freely disregarding his or her social position or status, and can go and come anywhere anytime, is a good index of democracy in a country.
Besides the cars, vehicles for transportation are many and various - trains, ships, buses, and airplanes. But all of these are supposed to run the prescribed roads or ways on schedule. Often you have to queue or wait for tickets, and sometimes you have to give up the scheduled trips due to unexpected cancellation of service. More often than not, you are asked to present your ID card to policeman or MP aboard. In short, these vehicles are under the control of the official authorities concerned and they allow it to be possible.
Your car, on the other hand, with you at the wheel, free you from those outside interferences and hold you entirely responsible for its operation, maintenance, cleanliness and even the beautification of it. And once all the responsibilities carried out well and faithfully, it will provide you with the comfort and speed, and satisfy the desire for freedom more concretely than any other means of transportation in the history human civilization. "Freedom to come and go" comes first and foremost among freedoms, and the countries where this basic but most important freedom is not allowed or significantly limited for any reasons are none other than the 'backward' countries politically as well as economically, and one of the most conspicuous example can be found in North Korea.
Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, has everything it ought to have like any other capital cities in the world - high-rises, subways, department stores, and luxurious hotels. And large and well-kept parks with beautiful trees and fountains, spectacular cultural centers and stadiums and gymnasiums. What makes it different from Seoul is, judging from TV screen, the number of cars running in it. A few of very expensive cars (mostly black and imported ones) are monopolizing the empty streets. We do not know who are in the car, but we can easily presume that they are very important persons there, as it was here in Seoul when there were only a few 'my cars' decades ago. The mechanical, but all unnecessary exercises of hand of the police-girl controlling traffic is another good index of the sad political and economic reality there.
So long as we remain a democratic country, and as long as the desire to come and go freely and pleasantly is deeply rooted in us, the heated arguments over the negative aspects the cars inevitably bring about will never make a real and strong case. More cars will be made and more people will buy them, and they should. More people should be able to afford to have cars and better cars with less noise, more safety and no exhaust should be made.
I have never experienced democracy in our country more acutely and lively than in the testing place for driving licence. There men and women, young and old, high and low, rich and poor, were literally equal before the law. Each of them had the same goal in common: passing the test. A plump woman in her late 50's was shouting in triumph and joy, while a college student was leaving the place in gloom and anger for another failure. I heard a young man confess that he has passed the bar exam and currently working in a law firm as a lawyer, but has successively failed in the test five times. My instructor in the driving school told me that college professors fail most frequently in the simple written test of traffic regulations.
When there were a few cars in Seoul, and owning a car belonged exclusively to a privileged few, the licence could easily be obtained with money or through the good offices of some influential friend or friend's friend, they say. Recently I hear no one around me spread these kinds of tips. With the increase of the cars, has the law-abiding spirit in us also increased? Have we become suddenly civilized and done away with the incorrigible national vice of bribery?
No, of course not. It is the virtue born of necessity. Not for others, but for the driver himself. We have simply arrived at the realization that the driver's licence without driving skill means death. One of my friends quit drinking after he bought and began to drive his car. He came to love his life and his new car more than alcohol. All the problems brought about by cars will, like all the other problems in a democratic country, find the clue to their solution, only when we begin to realize that the problem is mine, not yours.
(May 5, 1992)
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