As it happens, in 2017 I lived in South Korea for about a month.
What do I want to say?
It is a typical Asian country with a distinctive eastern mentality. Here the elder are venerated, the family values are strong, the collective is considered more important than the personal, the mores are not puritanical, but not excessively dissolved. In general, this is not Europe. But…
With all this, South Korea is a democratic country. Here, all important political posts are elected, not appointed. Officials are afraid of scandals, so behave modestly. The people can express their opinion publicly on the squares and in the media. Meetings are held in Seoul almost every day. And finally, very recently, after a corruption scandal, the people achieved impeachment of the president of the country and bringing him to criminal liability.
I know that in Japan things with democracy are the same. But there is nothing to the east of Japan.
The question arises: what kind of oriental mentality, what special path of democracy development in our country are always mumbled to us? If democracy and freedom of speech already flourish in the most eastern countries, what does stop us? The incision of the eyes, the location on the globe, a short history? What else will come up in order to justify their unwillingness to give freedom to people, to give them the opportunity to determine their own destiny, to choose their own rulers themselves?
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