The leak of classified documents from the Pentagon is a global concern. As a Korean citizen whose country has been bugged by the United States, it is a very unpleasant incident. However, as a member of a global village, the incident has an interesting element as the motivation behind the leak is so absurd. In the process of talking to buddies in an internet chat room, Airman Jack Teixeira leaked national secrets to show off. In the past, leaks of confidential information were usually a campaign to call for institutional reform. This is the case with Edward Snowden, Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning. Perhaps the Teixeira case will be classified as a whole new type when it comes to confidential leaks.

However, similarities can be found when compared to other recent events in the United States, not in terms of confidentiality leakage. In particular, looking back on the January 6 US Capitol attack, we can find many things in common. Teixeira and the major suspects in the congress intrusion case share characteristics of extreme selfishness. Excessive confidence in one‘s claims, intense emotional expression, indifference to the freedom and rights of other citizens, disregard for existing rules and order, disgust at political correctness, and social media dependence.

Why are there phenomena suitable for underdeveloped countries in the United States? Looking back on the history of the global community for 30 years after the end of the Cold War, there can be three reasons. First, the side effects of neoliberalism, the mismatch of democracy and the lack of order in the social media world.

Neoliberalism in the field of international politics can be said to have been a major guideline for foreign and trade policies in the 1980s in the US and UK. It has become the ideological basis for collapsing communism and transforming the global community into a unipolar world under the US leadership. Even after the end of the Cold War, neoliberalism showed a strong presence under the name of globalization. Globalization has emerged as an expansion of free trade that liberalizes the flow of capital, goods, and labor as much as possible in the trade sector.

There were side effects in globalization that the pursuit of profits was taken for granted not only at the national level but also at the individual level. Some countries gained a lot as the others lost a lot. The freedom of expression also led to the destruction of political correctness of considering others‘ situations and refraining from expressing and acting in the pursuit of their own interests, and the tendency to take for granted indifference or infringement of others’ rights.

Apart from neoliberalism, the partial inconsistency in the process of democracy‘s development also led to the damage of political correctness. Democracy means that the people are the owners of political power, and changes in human history can also be understood as the process of transferring power from the privileged minority to the majority of the people. Though the privilege has recently disappeared, there should be crucial positions to hold power, wealth, and honor in the process of running the state, and the number of positions must be limited. Therefore, the status of the people is generally upgraded to the same level as the elite, but it is divided into a small group of people who have held the elite positions (let’s tentatively call them Melite) and a large number of people who have not the positions.

As the elite class has disappeared, a new question arose; who among the people will do Melite? US citizens who stormed into the US Congress can be analyzed as vehemently expressing their dissatisfaction with the fact that other people led by Mr. Biden became the Melite. Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old Air Force private, may also have considered himself Melite.

Third, the fact that alley kings and little heroes are active throughout the cyber world due to the emergence of social media will be an important key to understanding the incident. With the advent of social media, there came opportunities to become a hero. For many people, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are exciting theaters in which they are the main characters. In chatting communities such as Discord, many people act as the captain. Unfortunately, talking in cyberspace is fundamentally different from talking in person. People can become more cruel, and they are more likely to focus on expressing violent opinions rather than political correctness. If it weren't for SNS, Private Teixeira wouldn’t have played captain, and he wouldn't have leaked secrets. The Capitol attack would not happen if there was no social platform called Twitter.

Comparing the case of Private Teixeira with the case of parliamentary intrusion, it was logically clear that political correctness was undermined. So, restoring it is what we should do. The first mission will be to reduce the side effects of neoliberalism. It should be reaffirmed that it is strictly prohibited to infringe on the freedom of others. For democracy, we need small readjustments. It is clear that the people are the owners of power, but they have to pay a price if they break the rules. Third, we need an education in online activities; infringing on the freedom and rights of certain people in social media is a criminal act. In the wake of this leak, it will be considered a blessing in disguise if political correctness can be restored in the US or advanced democracies in other areas.

Wang Son-taek

Wang Son-taek is a director for the Global Policy Center at Hanpyeong Peace Institute. He was a former diplomatic correspondent at YTN and former research associate at Yeosijae. The views expressed here are his own. -- Ed.