One positive trend in Korean society in relation to anti-US culture that looks like it is going to continue to grow is ---- the changing attitude of university students.

They are still trained to view the US as a global bully and particularly a bully of Korea, and they are still the generations most anti-US in Korea, but they are moving away from radicalism.

They will continue to be the main shock troops in anti-US rallies followed by organized labor unions. The Unions are much less frequently called out for base or embassy protests, however.

I've noted here before the university radical groups lost much favor with the public overnight in 1997 or 1998 when in two seperate incidents, at two seperate protests, one in Seoul and one in Kwangju, they spotted what they thought was a "police spy" and took the person to a basement or similar location and "interrogated" the two men to death.

It was a shock in Korean society, and member groups dropped out of the organization all over the nation.

Now, it seems more and more of the younger generations want to focus on more than how Kim Jong Il is really a nice guy and the US is the real evil empire and perhaps more so that South Korea is still in the throes of an undemocratic government.

Now, a little on Korean history:

Activism by young adults has a long history in the society - very long.

It goes back to at least the early period of the Chosun Dynasty which began in 1392.

That dynasty was established in part by Neo-Confucian oriented scholar-officials who attacked the previous region and social system that they said was weak because it was corrupted by Buddhism.

Weak: the fall of the previous dynasty was set in motion by the take over of the nation - for a relatively short time - by the Mongols then by rule by military generals. There were continual problems with raiders from the tribes of Manchuria.

The Neo-Confucian oriented social forces claimed Buddhism caused such a weakness, and they fought to reform the government and nation along Confucian lines.

Part of this was the establishment of a National Confucian Academy (university) which you can still visit in Seoul.

The members of this university were generally highly idealistic and pushed the hardest for the Neo-Confucianization of the society.

The top governmental leaders were also former students in the academy.

Now, part of the struggle in making the society and government Confucianistic was a struggle between the monarchy and powerful families and Confucian scholar-officials.

The kings frequently didn't like being told what to do and the growing influence of the Neo-Confucianists.

Part of this struggle for control of government and social policy was protests by the Confucian-oriented scholars ---- and ----- students in the National Academy.

If the king or other part of the government tried to do something others deemed harmful to goodly Confucian rule --- or even if the King or powerful official did something in their private life deemed improper - like going hunting too much ---- it was not uncommon for students from the university to take to the streets in protest along with sit-in strikes in front of the royal palace.

I don't know if violence was used in these common protests, but the struggle between Confucian oriented scholar-officials and others in power positions was bloody at times - there were 4 purges of scholar-officials in the middle of the Chosun Dynasty.

But, Korean society was eventually thoroughly confucianized, and the activities by idealistic university students was at least a small part of that.

In more recent times, it was the student movement that led to the fall of the Syngman Rhee presidency in 1960 or 61 which eventually led to the rise of Park Chung Hee who remained in control of the government until shot in the head in 1979.

Just a quick note about something that struck me as being somewhat humorous. A few months ago, I had to go down to the US Embassy to apply for a new passport. As is usually the case, there were several "one-man" protests taking place at the entrance with the protestor wearing a placard. Note: no permit is required to conduct a "one-man" protest, so they are quite common.

I went inside and found out the photos I brought didn't have the correct background color. So I left and went to a photo service shop near the embassy and got some more photos made.

When I went back to the embassy, the protestors were all gone. I asked the security guard if he knew why they had all left. His answer, "To watch Korea play against Japan in the World Baseball Classic."

that's funny.

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