Our Olympic athletes are doing well in Rio de Janeiro toward their “10-10” goal of at least 10 gold medals and a top 10 finish in the overall medal standings. It is a modest goal considering the past records since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, when South Korea ranked fourth.

For one of the “middle powers” of the world with a population of 50 million on a land of less than 100,000 square kilometers, Korea certainly has an impressive Olympic medals log, which ranked it 5th in London four years ago, 7th in Beijing, 9th in Athens, 12th in Sydney, 10th in Atlanta and 7th in Barcelona in 1992.

Having started our postwar history from the bottom, we have been much concerned, even obsessed with our place in the international hierarchy in various criteria, including sports. We shared collective gratification watching our representative athletes win championships overseas while the nation climbed up the steps of global economic standing with fast growing production and trade figures.

Pride and arrogance took hold of Koreans’ national psyche, but not for too long. Korea’s title as one of the four tigers of Asia lost its glitter as financial crises hit regional and global economies. In a period blessedly dubbed the new millennium, Koreans have had few moments of nationwide exaltation.

Declining births and marriages, high divorce rates, rapid aging of population amid unimpressive economic performances particularly demoralized the young generation. They invented the unsavory term “Hell Joseon” to describe the country out of despair from the scarcity of jobs and improbability of joining the club of haves.

Self-confidence and conviction diminished, pulling down social morality and discipline. Absence of confidence in one’s own ability and appearance explains the prospering of plastic surgery across the country, whose clientele now consists of both sexes. Pop music idols go to beauty clinics in order to perfect their brand images but other youths put their faces under scalpels to supplement their “specs” for the competitive job market.

There is ample evidence of Koreans today suffering loss of self-confidence and self-respect. Tons of garbage strewn across popular beaches every night cannot be attributed only to vacation time aberrations. The litterers are throwing away their self-respect. Sweepers complain that household garbage is not infrequently seen among the cans, bottles and food leftovers abandoned by merrymakers.

The heartbreaking news of a baby left for a whole day in a kindergarten bus in the scorching sun is not an isolated incident. It testifies to lost sense of responsibility on the part of the staff. The occasional reports of little kids beaten and ill-treated at day care centers reveal that people who take care of weaker ones have little respect for their work, and thus for themselves.

Incredible was the fact that the sales of Volkswagen cars doubled in Korea since the scandal over the company’s emission and noise-level tests shook the auto world. Those who bought the various VW models tempted by big discounts would not have made the choice if they had some thoughts about public interests beyond their household economy.

The VW purchasers would blame the environmental and trading authorities for their rather slow sanctions that will now put them at a considerable disadvantage. But people with an average degree of self-respect do not pick up merchandise boycotted by their peers in the first place.

While North Korea test-fires ballistic missiles almost on a weekly basis, security woes grow over the THAAD controversy which caused diplomatic friction with China. The national consensus, essential to tide over a critical situation like this, is undermined by opposition politicians who rouse the objecting residents of the area where the anti-missile system is to be located.

As China threatens retaliation, a group of lawmakers from The Minjoo Party of Korea visited Beijing to listen to their logic rather than to protest, as an example of lost self-confidence even within the upper echelon of society. At the grassroots level, farmers of Seongju put their community interests over security concerns, in more evidence of confused value and abandoned self-respect.

Without regaining pride and self-confidence, Koreans will fall deeper into the abyss of mutually destructive internal conflicts at this flashpoint of superpower confrontation. A new unifying leadership is sorely needed, but the people should strive first for their own renewal and recovery of the energy and conviction that the nation had so wondrously displayed until a couple of decades ago.

Our athletes in Rio spur their compatriots to do it again together. Each of the men and women archers who bagged four gold medals among them made over 4,000 shots and walked 135,000 meters to and from their targets in their challenge for Olympic glory.

By Kim Myong-sik

Kim Myong-sik is a former editorial writer for The Korea Herald. – Ed.