Ferry Tragedy: Stop Blaming the Drowned

The Sewol ferry disaster has left the world looking for answers, wondering who to blame. And an uncomfortable number of English-language media outlets have hit on an answer, Kai Ma at Time observes: South Korea's "culture of obedience." For example...

• LA Times: The disaster and failed rescue have "cast a harsh light on a Confucian culture in which young people are taught to respect the older generation."
• Reuters: "Many of the children did not question their elders, as is customary in hierarchical Korean society. They paid for their obedience with their lives."
• Dallas Morning News: "If that was a boatload of American students, you know they would have been finding any and every way to get off that ferry. But in Asian cultures … compliance is de rigueur."

"It's called 'culture blaming,' and the media embraces it—especially the mainstream," Ma complains. "On the surface, it appears like an innocuous and thoughtful attempt to offer insight, but at the root is the suggestion that these cultures are inferior, broken, or backwards." Certainly aspects of Korean society failed here—like its "fumbling bureaucracies and the lack of protocol." But blaming it on some cultural flaw is lazy journalism, and, more heinously, "It places blame on the victims and their families as a nation grieves." Click for the full column. (More South Korea stories.)