In the Let's Us All Be One column of the Catholic Times a university professor in the social welfare department, reflects on our need to reveal the evils of the disaster-stricken society.
The news we hear these days is shocking in itself. In a situation where we are already exposed to politicians' deception, hypocrisy, incompetence, and defeat daily, the addition of these shocking incidents further brings great sadness to those who hear about them.
Just thinking about some of the recent events, such as the Itaewon disaster, the deaths of field workers (including suicides), the suicides of victims of rental fraud, the successive deaths of newborns, the Osong underpass disaster, the suicide of an elementary school teacher, and the recent repeated murders gives us sorrow and questions.
The trauma caused by the shock of a disaster causes problems in the way we think, preventing victims from escaping the painful time and space where the incident occurred, and preventing them from returning to the healthy emotional state present before the injury.
Moreover, the more complex the nature of the disaster, the more difficult the trauma can be for victims to understand and recover from what has happened to them. For example, if it appears to be a natural disaster on the surface but is in fact a man-made disaster, or if it is clearly a social crime (physical, sexual abuse, and violence) but the perpetrator is a family member, the victim may suffer greater emotional pain.
The role of the state in the face of unexpected disasters is truly important. It is necessary, but it is also the reason for the existence of the country. First of all, it is important to clarify responsibility for disaster occurrences and reveal why they occurred. And what has been revealed must be reported to the victim or bereaved family as is. And we must properly reorganize the social system to prevent this from happening again. This is the way for victims and their families to recover.
In addition, the full support and accommodating attitude shown by the state to the victims and their bereaved families gives ordinary citizens who observe this the belief that they can be protected by the state under any circumstances.
Regarding suicide and murder cases, we should not limit ourselves to the individual offender's problem, dismiss it as the individual's mental illness or criminal tendencies, and only strengthen punishment. Suicide is a suicide, and a murder is a murder. Individual incidents must be deeply analyzed to find commonalities between seemingly separate incidents and to understand the essential meaning of the social structural context in which such incidents occurred.
James Gilligan, a psychiatrist who studied the social context of suicide and murder, also said that the state's attitude in responding to the problem of suicide and murder is not to focus only on individual treatment and punishment, but on the 'lethal violence' in suicide and murder. The goal is to improve the political and economic systems that promote inequality, shame, and despair in society.
In fact, the majority of suicide deaths and murders are caused by family and social environmental problems such as family discord, absence of care, violence and abuse, sexual violence, school maladjustment, long-term social isolation, unemployment, a sense of unreality, and severe financial pressure since childhood.
The ancient Chinese philosopher Xunzi said: "A good farmer does not stop farming just because there is a drought." In this dizzying time of disaster, The columnist misses the image of a benevolent farmer.
