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By Choi Sung-jin
Most Koreans are now seething with fury and frustration over a few close confidants of President Park Geun-hye unwarrantedly monopolizing state affairs and destroying the nation's foundation itself.
Far more so than other generations are people in their 20s and 30s, including college students and social novices, experts say.
"These young people have grown up amid the encouragement that hard effort will win social recognition but found the reality was completely different as they suffer from unequal opportunities and job insecurity," said a sociologist. "Faced with extreme irregularities at the top, their accumulated anger is exploding."
The so-called 2030 generation, born after the 1980s, have received far better educations than their parents and grandparents and believed that various institutions would guarantee equality. Born and reared in nuclear families with one or two children, they have also heard advice and words of support that they could succeed if they try hard enough.
As they have matured, however, these young people are finding that real life for them is not like that at all.
So much so that not just a few in this age group have given up hope of landing decent jobs, meeting the other sex, marrying and having children. Often called the "n (umberless)-abandoning generation," they find it all but impossible to rise to the same level as the class of people born with "golden spoons in their mouths," however hard they may try.
Their dissatisfaction and disgruntlement also brought about the "Are-You-Okay?" campaign, starting with large wall posters on college campuses three years ago. The hitherto politically indifferent generation then started to cast ballots en masse, breaking down the decades-old region-based elections and giving birth to the 20th National Assembly in which progressive and centrist parties take the majority.
Their shock with the "Choi Soon-sil gate," named after the mysterious woman and a shaman-like figure who reportedly has helped _ and controlled _ President Park over the past four decades, is being shown in the form of united action and street rallies, because these young people think they cannot normalize the abnormal state with just statements and declarations, the experts say.
The fury of the younger generations is also confirmed by the approval ratings of Park. The overall approval rate of the troubled leader plunged to 17.5 percent in the fourth week of October, according to Realmeter, a survey organ. Her popularity among the 20s, however, is far lower, at 3.4 percent, and 7.9 percent among 30-something respondents.
"Choi-gate broke out at a time when the younger generations were turning toward politics to find a breakthrough to get out of the deadlock, raising their explosive power to far stronger levels than those of other age groups," said Yoon Hee-ung, chief of Opinion Live, a public opinion-analyzing center. "One of the reasons is that Choi's privileged daughter is a college student like them."
An academic expressed a similar view. "Younger generations have tended to be more critical about the incumbent administration than older people have been, and the life of Choi's daughter that is in stark contrast to those of ordinary students could have ignited the fuse of their anger," said Professor Lee Byung-hoon of Chung-Ang University. "Whether this will develop into the revival of long-dormant student activism or end up as just temporary outbursts of emotions are yet to be seen, however."
