McLaren, Glenn. “Health, Order and Chaos: Finding the Right Balance for Sustained Democracy in South Korea” Process Thought and East Asian Culture: Social Science, Natural Science 15-24.[Conference paper presented at The 5th International Whitehead Conference], Seoul, South Korea, May 28.2004. 

Abstract

In this paper the rapid transition from authoritarian rule to democracy in South Korea will be discussed in relation to concepts of changing attitudes to physical activity. The history of political and economic transitions will be conceived as a series of oscillations between hedonism and asceticism. In evolutionary terms, a story will be presented involving punctuated equilibrium as stable systems decay and rare replaced by new ascetic demands. This is particularly applicable to South Korea due to the constant tension in this country between Confucianism, Buddhism and the hedonistic consumer culture of global capitalism. The important question is one of how to sustain, or continue to co-create democracy in such a context.

Process metaphysics provides a possible answer to this question and the key to flattening out future oscillations. Process metaphysics gives coherence to the concept emerging out of complexity theory of ‘the edge of chaos.’ This refers to the horizon at which a system is able to maintain integrity in the face of uncertainty. The future of democracy in South Korea, for example, will require openness to change constrained by traditional values. Too much openness will lead to chaos while a retreat to authoritarian traditions will lead to too much order. The conditions for maintaining a balance will be linked to a conception of a process definition of health. Process metaphysics gives coherence to a broad understanding of health as that which facilitates the flourishing of life. The process definition of health that will be presented is one that outlines the quality or relationships required for such flourishing. The argument will be that the future of democracy in South Korea will require the continual co-creation of such relationships.