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The Olympics as a nationalistic spitefest
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Moldy Rutabaga



Joined: 01 Jul 2003
Location: Ansan, Korea

PostPosted: Sat Mar 06, 2010 5:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
In short, for the Canadian sports idiot, his team's performance is just an excuse to sweep himself up in the euphoria, get plastered, and smash a few windows. Even if he does feel loyalty to his local hockey team, it likely doesn't proceed from any intense sense of civic pride.

For the Korean idiot, on the other hand, the loyalty he feels to his team springs more directly from that which he feels to his country. The guy who made death threats to the Australian referee wasn't just getting his kicks by acting out violently, he likely felt a very deep sense of humiliation, as a result of having imbued the 대한민국 ideology all his life.

Interesting post. I was on Whyte Avenue during the 2001 riots and remember watching from a bar window and seeing street revelers have fun and then gradually become more and more rowdy and aggressive to the point where they began to jump on things. My friend had a shiny new convertible parked by Gordon Price Music and I'm glad we decided it was time to leave. It would certainly have been trashed.

This is probably a good parsing of the issues, that western sports violence might often come out of a mix of booze, euphoria over winning, and who knows what else factors, and Korea's "violence" comes from the national martyr complex. I wonder whether European soccer violence is a mix of the two.

The only thing I might add is that the Edmonton riots were immediately condemned by authorities and Whyte Avenue's policing increased dramatically, just like the crackdown on Electric Avenue in Calgary, if anyone knows what I'm talking about. National outrage in Korea over perceived slights is at best ignored by authorities and often subtly inflamed in chaebol advertisements or promotions. While there may be less danger of immediate physical violence, there might be longer term repercussions of xenophobia here, no?
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On the other hand



Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue

PostPosted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 12:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm glad you referenced the 2001 riots, Moldy. Those acutally might have had more overtones of nationalist groupthink than your typical hockey riot. I was walking through the river valley from downtown to the south side that night, and there were people heading in the same direction singing the Molson "I Am Canadian" song.

Quote:
While there may be less danger of immediate physical violence, there might be longer term repercussions of xenophobia here, no?


Oh, definitely. It's basically a matter of "choose your poison", to compare between the two. For physical safety, I'd be more scared of the loose-cannons in the Whyte Avenue mob. But as for which is more indicative of overall problems in how people relate to their culture, Korea might very well have the bigger issues.
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TheUrbanMyth



Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired

PostPosted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 4:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

cwflaneur wrote:
Urban Myth, you are a bore, and I think you need to get a better grip on reality - or maybe just the English language. Any comment or observation about a nation is a generalisation, by definition. I wrote my original post as a generalisation about Korea, not as a defamation of all Koreans. Consistently using unnecessary qualifiers in every general statement is boring.

Unless I write �all Koreans� you can take it for granted that I am merely generalising.

And my (admittedly subjective) general impression of Korea during the Olympics is a negative one.



Stop trolling and go away.
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cwflaneur



Joined: 04 Aug 2009

PostPosted: Wed Mar 10, 2010 4:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

TheUrbanMyth wrote:
cwflaneur wrote:
Urban Myth, you are a bore, and I think you need to get a better grip on reality - or maybe just the English language. Any comment or observation about a nation is a generalisation, by definition. I wrote my original post as a generalisation about Korea, not as a defamation of all Koreans. Consistently using unnecessary qualifiers in every general statement is boring.

Unless I write �all Koreans� you can take it for granted that I am merely generalising.

And my (admittedly subjective) general impression of Korea during the Olympics is a negative one.



Stop having a negative impression of Korean nationalism during the Olympics and go away.


For the most part I've enjoyed reading the conversation started by my original post.

Urban Myth, please continue making no contribution to the discussion and go away. Kay?


On the other hand wrote:

Oh, definitely. It's basically a matter of "choose your poison", to compare between the two. For physical safety, I'd be more scared of the loose-cannons in the Whyte Avenue mob. But as for which is more indicative of overall problems in how people relate to their culture, Korea might very well have the bigger issues.


Well put.
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TheUrbanMyth



Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired

PostPosted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 5:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

cwflaneur wrote:
TheUrbanMyth wrote:
cwflaneur wrote:
Urban Myth, you are a bore, and I think you need to get a better grip on reality - or maybe just the English language. Any comment or observation about a nation is a generalisation, by definition. I wrote my original post as a generalisation about Korea, not as a defamation of all Koreans. Consistently using unnecessary qualifiers in every general statement is boring.

Unless I write �all Koreans� you can take it for granted that I am merely generalising.

And my (admittedly subjective) general impression of Korea during the Olympics is a negative one.



Stop having a negative impression of Korean nationalism during the Olympics and go away.


For the most part I've enjoyed reading the conversation started by my original post.

Urban Myth, please continue making no contribution to the discussion and go away. Kay?

.


It's rather telling that you feel you can only win a discussion by lying about what someone else said.

Which only proves my point that this was not a question asked in good faith, but simply made to troll.
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catman



Joined: 18 Jul 2004

PostPosted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 7:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

There was way too much jingoism in Canada during the final week of the Olympics.
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cwflaneur



Joined: 04 Aug 2009

PostPosted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 5:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

TheUrbanMyth wrote:
cwflaneur wrote:
TheUrbanMyth wrote:
cwflaneur wrote:
Urban Myth, you are a bore, and I think you need to get a better grip on reality - or maybe just the English language. Any comment or observation about a nation is a generalisation, by definition. I wrote my original post as a generalisation about Korea, not as a defamation of all Koreans. Consistently using unnecessary qualifiers in every general statement is boring.

Unless I write �all Koreans� you can take it for granted that I am merely generalising.

And my (admittedly subjective) general impression of Korea during the Olympics is a negative one.



Stop having a negative impression of Korean nationalism during the Olympics and go away.


For the most part I've enjoyed reading the conversation started by my original post.

Urban Myth, please continue making no contribution to the discussion and go away. Kay?

.


It's rather telling that you feel you can only win a discussion by lying about what someone else said.

Which only proves my point that this was not a question asked in good faith, but simply made to troll.


If your reading comprehension was better, it would be obvious that I was not 'lying' about anything but just ironically re-writing your post within my quote in order to correct the mistaken premise upon which it was written.

I have a negative opinion about Korea during the Olympics and I expressed it. Others have disagreed and offered a few reasonable arguments. All was fine until that point. You on the other hand have merely wasted a bit of the forum's time.

So that is why I hope someone eventually does troll you. I don't normally wish such a thing for my enemies, but you've bored me, and I don't like that.
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shinramyun



Joined: 31 Jul 2009

PostPosted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 10:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

YAWN, people b!*ching about korea and nationalism again.

obviously because this doesn't happen in other countries. Rolling Eyes
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conrad2



Joined: 05 Nov 2009

PostPosted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 12:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

shinramyun wrote:
YAWN, people b!*ching about korea and nationalism again.

obviously because this doesn't happen in other countries. Rolling Eyes


Im sure it does happen in other countries, and I bet people discuss it on message boards pertaining to those countries.
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