The medium is the message is a saying of the Canadian theorist Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980). A different medium a different message and the world we see changes. So begins a column in the Catholic Times by a newspaper editor.
The contents of a face-to-face conversation, a telephone conversation, and the contents of a newspaper and TV are different from each other in sensitivity and response. The development of technology has expanded greatly the way news is delivered and what is delivered. The old concepts are changed: the type of media, the category of news, and the boundaries between the producer and consumers disappear.
More people in Korea consume news through the new media than the traditional media. Single person media is transmitted through online, mobile, and social networking services (SNS). Today anyone can be a reporter and a producer.
In the late 70s and early 80s, when the writer worked as a journalist, they were registered with the government as reporters. They had the authority to cover, produce and deliver the news. Compared to the present it was a time hard to imagine in today's world. Media now is an important factor in the change of modern civilization: economy, politics, society, and culture.
We divide the government into the legislative, juridical and executive and the writer puts the media as the fourth branch of the modern state. Today some put economics as number one and the media as the second.
Many reactions and challenges are present in the new civilization. Fake news media is a big problem in the world. What is fake news? News that manipulates facts and destroys trust can eventually destroy the function of society. The first requirement of news is accuracy, false news does away with this. Before the local Korean elections in June, it's natural that the election committee is tense. Democracy is the starting point and without fairness, and fictional news used by certain interests and ideologies, democracy is destroyed. Pope Francis has made this a topic of many of his talks.
When you see fire important to cry out 'fire' but more important to put out the fire. The writer has witnessed in the church situations where problems pending are left dangling with a recourse to prayer and some formalistic activity, letting God solve the problem. God does not listen to those kinds of prayers.
We are concerned with fake news. This is important but more so to do something about the situation with concrete countermeasures. We need to have knowledge of the truth, humanistic sensibilities and media literacy to distinguish fake news. This has to be translated into concrete measures. Ethic codes and outlines that world journalism has accumulated are a great help.
Within the clergy, there are few who know the reality of the media. It is not a subject in seminaries and the decision making power in the church is exercised entirely by the clergy. Making policies without knowing the workings of the media, delaying decisions and perfunctory events that the laity are made to conduct while the world civilization is being changed by the new media is not the way to go.
A new document published in early May: 'Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church' approved by Pope Francis, explores the pope's hope for a synodal church: a church that walks together as the pilgrim people of God.
This is the description of the chuch given in the documents of the Second Vatican Council. The church is a communion and the responsiblity of all Catholics for the life of the church and its mission. The pope and the bishops assisted by their priests, still retain the decision making authority but all working as partners in the mission of Jesus.
Any process of discernment needs to begin with the consultation of the laity. Both laymen and laywomen need places in the church where they can express themselves which requires a need to overcome the clercal mentality that keeps them at the margins of church life. A call to a spritituality of communion, listening, dialogue and communal discerment.
A recent editorial in the Catholic Times gives the readers an understanding of synodality, collective consensus, and the meaning for the church. It is an old concept practiced in the early church and an important concept of the Second Vatican Council.
Pope Francis particularly brings back to us the tradition of collective consensus and is leading the local church to deeper reflection on the issue.
Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, 'collective consensus' means that all members of the church will listen to each other and seek 'direction together' and respect each other. The bishops' synods and parish synods operate in the spirit of common consensus. This is different from the process of democratic consensus based on majority rule. However, church leaders are not to make arbitrary decisions regardless of the will of believers.
One of the greatest achievements of the papacy of Pope Francis in the minds of many is the revival of the "collective consensus" in the church. He also added that the journey of communicating with one another may cause tensions, conflicts and debates within the church, but it is a true fellowship.
The principle of 'common consensus' is the modus vivendi Ecclesiae, which is not limited to the synod. It is a principle that should be applied to the existential life of all members of the church, from the universal church to each local church, parish, institution, and organization. Therefore, church leaders must be in a position to respect all the reflection and judgment of all God's people through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Each
year in October, Harvard University hosts the Ig (ignoble) Nobel Prize
(parody of the Nobel Prize) a ceremony that began in 1991, also called
the Screwball Nobel Prize. An award given that can't be imagined with
our ordinary powers of thinking but is an interesting and preposterous
discovery such as the one of Professor Alberti Minetti of Italy, who
proved that humans could walk on water if only the gravity was reduced
by 22%.
One
was awarded a prize for studying why woodpeckers have no headaches. A
woodpecker pecks a tree at the speed of 25 kilometers per hour and
twenty times per second and the honor went to the awardee for revealing
that a thick sponge-like skull protects the brain of the woodpecker.
The
column in the Peace Weekly made a study of the research of those who
received the prize and found four Koreans who won a prize. The latest
for determining the reason a cup of coffee spills over the edges while
walking. The principle of winning the Ig Nobel Prize is research that
makes people laugh at first but then makes them think.
North
Korea and US summit have attracted worldwide attention and the
possibility of a Peace Prize. Some Republican members of Congress have
suggested Trump as a candidate. The contents of the letter to the
Norwegian Nobel Committee is that Trump's peace through force is working
effectively and establishing peace on the Korean Peninsula.
However,
following the fire and anger that was displayed for a time by Trump the
Ig Nobel Peace Prize is more suitable. Obviously, if the peace
settlement of the Korean Peninsula through the dismantling of the North
Korea nuclear weapons is achieved then the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize will
not be a dream.
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear
Weapons(ICAN) along with many other individuals and organizations have
made efforts to denuclearize. ICAN has often succeeded in getting others
nominated for the Peace Prize.
President
Moon is not concerned who gets the Peace Prize, Korea only wants peace.
Hopefully, the negotiations will not break down at the last minute.
Otherwise, the laughter of the world will follow and the
Ig Nobel Prize.
He ends
the column by suggesting, a crazy idea that the driver for peace
on the Korean Peninsula President Moon and two nurses who have worked on the island of Sorok with Hansen patients for 43 years, be the
recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize. He prays to God that we do get
blessed with peace and continues dreaming.
A parish priest in a Catholic Times' column tells the readers of a mother whose son volunteered to work in a Filipino slum last summer and wanted to tell her son's story to the priest. He was so different from the past.
Until he volunteered the family never had a quiet day and they continued worrying about the son. He wasn't concerned with the world nor interested in looking for a job but spent his time in his room playing computer games. However, when his mother suggested he go to the Philippines for volunteeer work in the slums he readily accepted.
His experience in the Philippines was such that during the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics he had a part time job which continued his international interest and the use of the few words in knew in English coming again to his help with his experience of overseas service. The experience in the Philippines changed his life. The mother wanted to thank the writer for the opportunity given her son.
The priest was delighted to hear that his running of the youth vounteer service for the past ten years continues to help many young people and their families. He feels this is one way of revitilizing the pastoral work of the church. Young people are experiencing a sense of crisis with the way society is moving. The 'sam po' generation is a word used in Korea for the young who because of social pressure and economics have to give up courtship, marriage and having children.
Not lilke the past when they graduated from college and got a job and went on with their lives. The young pople are confronted with great competition and face an unstable future. In the church they are also disappeaing. According to the statistics from 2017, only 13% of the Catholics are in their twenties. This is a 2% drop from 2008. With the continuance of this decline the future of the church is not bright.
The writer believes that to revive the stagnant current youth ministry is the youth service abroad and actively promotes and invests in the program. These days youth volunteer programs are rare and carried out by a small number of parishes schools and organizations. Safety of the youth and financial support are burdensome but ultimately the lack of interest in young people.
Youth volunteer activities provide a variety of pastoral results. They revitalize the youth pastoral care of the parish, inspire young people's faith, and instill a sense of service. It also gives young people an international perspective in the era of globalization. There are many other additional effects. It is a great opportunity for young people to have their own identity, cooperate with others while building bonds with others. Furthermore, what they learn from the experience remains with them for a life time and they gain the strength to cope with adversity and hardship.
The writer has experienced the good that is done with the efforts of helping the young people to do volunteer service overseas. They become wiser, the only thought of making money and being socially sucessful has been extended to helping others. Isn't this the aim of any good youth pastoral program? Experiencing overseas service will contribute to the revitalization of youth pastoral care and changing the way of life and thinking of the young.
Arrogance is a trait often experienced, an offensive display of superiority or self-importance, and overbearing pride. In Korea, we have in recent memory seen displays of this which have made the international news.
The Korean word 'Gap' used in contracts for the first party is a new word appearing often for the arrogance exhibited by authoritarian figures who have positions of power over others. A college professor who teaches in the humanities gives us insight into problems on how to work against this arrogance in society in her article in the Catholic Peace Weekly.
She gives us an example of a person who famously showed her arrogance, that was bettered by the parent in a recent incident and goes on to show that we learn much from those with whom we spend most of our time. From whom do we learn our techniques for communicating? In the womb the fetus after just five or six weeks, the sense of touch is the first system to develop. The mother's emotional life and the enviroment will influence the fetus.
What we have picked up by our studies often disappears after a period of time; what we sense, even within the womb, remains with us a great deal longer. A baby in diapers wiill not be influenced by words but by the emotional activity of the caregiver and the way they solve their conflicts. When overcome by stress, unless we understand, we can emotionally revert to our animal nature.
The mental faculties of children and teenagers, compared to adults are less developed and without experience that comes with age, the ability to control and tune the senses has been reduced. Consequently, a person who has not grown from their experience may look like an adult but emotionally still a child. When such a person receives a position with authority how will he act? It's not difficult to guess what the results will be.
As we get older without some strong stimulus changes do not come easy. With experience we do have change. Even children with small stimuli are changed, that's why the caregiver's emotions, words and behavior are so important. The 'Gap type of behavior' with experience and training can be prevented.
All of us get angry and irritable but we know that we don't want to express this feeling with violence and criminal activity. We acknowledge our anger and feelings and proceed to take control, tune down and regulate the feelings.
Being overcome with emotion is not unconditionally a bad thing. This is a part of being human. However, since we are members of communities we need to learn how to regulate the emotions. To repress the emotions we are possibly preparing for a time bomb to explode. We need to train ourselves, only knowledge of the situation will not do it, we need the techniques which come with training.
She concludes the article with examples of how this is done in certain big companies and in organizations in other countries for the members and recommends that programs be conducted in Korea.
After
the release of the first Terminator film in 1984 and the last film in
2015 we have had five in a series where machines and humans do
battle.The killer robot is no longer a scene in a move but reality. An
article in the Catholic Peace Weekly gives us some insight into what is
happening in military robot manufacturing.
Boston
Dynamics a US robot manufacturer, is developing a killer robot Atlas
with a weight of 156 kg and 188cm in height. Atlas has arms and legs that
move freely like human limbs. Russia is also working on simliar
robots.The killer robot will be equipped with artificial intelligence to
shoot guns and throw grenades, planned for the year
2025. He will be named after the movie Terminator Ivan.
Korea
has also been involved in research in the development of military
robots for infantry support by the National Defense Science Institute.
Killer robots are attractive to many in the military because they can
minimize human casualties and massive attacks without human
intervention. Initially, on sentinel duty, but with the
development of technology it becomes possible to carry out missions in
places where human beings find it hard to enter: radioacrtive
contaminated areas. Military experts believe if the killer robots
become combatants they will change the way war is waged.
In
the past it was the victors right to plunder and murder. The idea of
murdering unarmed civilians was not a war crime. However in modern
times this has changed. An example if this ethnic cleansing during the
Balkian slaughter, the commander of the Serb militia in 1995 was tried
by the International Court of Justice for the killing of 8.000 Muslim
men and boys.
In
April scholars who are leaders in global artificial intelligence
research refused to cooperate with the Korea Advanced Institute of
Sciience and Technology in their work with artificial intellegenge. It
was reported that KAIST was devloping autonomous weapons which would
search for and elimanate targets without human control. This however
has changed and the researches have ended the boycot since KAIST's
President affirmed that they have no intention to engage in develoopment
of lethal autonomous weapons and killer robots.
With
the the military robots we have another problem that faces humanity. If
the Balkan slaughter had been ochestrated by artificial intelligence controlled killer robots would not those responsible need to be
punished as war criminals? These and many other similar situations will arise with the new technology.
The Sicience fiction wirter, Issac
Asimov in 1941 devised three laws to protect human beings from
interactions with robets. A robot may not injure a human being or allow a
human being to come to harm, robots must obey the orders given by
human beings and a robot must protect it own existence as long as it
does not conflict with the first and second statements above.
When
human control over these robots is missing we will have the destruction
of human dignity and a calamity for humanity. This requires the
making and developing these robots to follow a charter on morality and rights of
human beings, otherwise we will return to the past ages.
In Korea, we have four Chinese characters which make a noun phrase, an idiom that describes a situation or feeling a proverb like expression. Something like our own Latin expressions from the past that come up often in print and in our conversations.
In the Catholic Peace Weekly, an article begins with the four-letters (寧靜致遠) which in English would
mean to face the future with peace and tranquillity in our hearts ('festina lente' make haste slowly may be one understanding of the phrase).
He reminisces over what has happened in recent weeks with our relationship with North Korea. We have those who were moved to tears at what they heard and saw in the media, on the other hand, those who acted with anger seeing the way the enemy was welcomed. In both cases we had too much emotion, which our writer does not believe is the way to go.
This is the third inter Korean summit between the North and South. The first summit was held in Pyongyang in 2000 between former President Kim Dae-Jung and the former Korean leader Kim Jong-il. We expected peace on the Korean peninsula. The second summit was between Roh Moo-hyun and Kim Jong-il in 2007 with similar hopes raised.
The recent Panmunjom Declaration was the third summit. President Moon and Kim Jong-un agreed to the denuclearization of the peninsula, the end of the 65 years cease-fire, and the establishment of a peace regime in preparation for the coming summit with the United States.
The first summit broke down with hostilities in the Yellow Sea between the North and South. At the second summit, they made plans to overcome these problems but failed. After the third summit, they installed a hotline, hoping for a thorough preparation.
Trust between the North and South is necessary and this requires keeping the promises. We need to practice what is contained in the Panmunjom Declaration. The agreement is more important than the declaration, a consensus process and experts and ongoing staff for study is necessary and the accompaniment of society.
The efforts in the past have for various reasons failed to bring about any peace treaty. In 1990 with great efforts at preparation on four different occasions, it failed to get the approval of the national assembly. In 1994 in the Geneva accord, the Clinton government and North Korea signed an agreement but this fell apart for they failed to get the approval of Congress.
Real peace will come when the Panmunjom Declaration becomes an agreement. For this to happen it requires the cooperation of the opposition party. Otherwise with the change of government you go back to the beginning. Better than going two steps forward alone is to go one half step together. This is progress. May God help us.
