U.S. President Donald Trump

His name was Cole Tomas Allen. He was only 31 years old. While absurd shooting incidents occur frequently in the United States, he was too young to commit such an outrageous act. Even if a person's life is not long, it is still too long to spend in prison.

The president called him anti-Christian, but it is said that the manifesto he sent to his family ten minutes before the incident argued that his actions were not contrary to Christian teachings.

He argued that the passage, "If anyone slaps your right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also," cannot be applied in situations where others are being oppressed. Therefore, he asserted that in such situations, one must kill the oppressor to break the chains of oppression.

Each time, I am uncomfortable saying that I am not a Christian, but even with my limited understanding, his views are sophistry. The distinction between the ideology of love and the ideology of hatred would be precisely in the situation he pointed out.

There seems to be nothing as difficult to fathom the depth of as the command to love your enemies. Korean literature has a long history of interpretation regarding the implications of this statement. In Jesus' time, there were Zealots who believed that if each of them killed one Roman soldier and was prepared to die themselves, the Jews could be liberated. This issue was of great importance to Koreans during the Japanese colonial period.

Lee Hyo-seok's play "History" (Mun-jang, 1939.12) was the first work to directly address this issue. Kim Dong-ri's full-length novel "The Cross of Saban" (Hyundae Munhak, 1955.11-57.4) sought an answer to this problem in the new reality after liberation.

In Lee Moon-yeol's "Son of Man" (Minumsa, 1979), the protagonist Ahhas Pertz sought to validate nihilism or hatred as human, and therefore stood in extreme opposition to Jesus.

When faced with a choice between struggle and love, we, the "sons of man," are not free from the ideology of struggle. The U.S. President called the young man Cole Allen "a sick person" and said, "We are living in a crazy world right now," and that statement is not wrong.

In this world of extreme struggle, finding a path in love, not struggle, is by no means easy. It might even be nearly impossible. Even those who speak of love are talking about fighting against a corrupt world, inverted justice, fraudulent elections, and totalitarian constitutional amendments that distort events, making love seem utterly useless.

The 'thinkers' of hatred, who explain the world from beginning to end solely through the struggle of opposing forces, have no hesitation in advocating for struggle in the name of love.

Therefore, although the would-be assassin in America is undeniably mentally ill, there will always be those who praise him and lament his 'failed attempt' on one side.

This American friend is certainly very sick, as he stated his intention to eliminate high-ranking officials in the U.S. administration in order of seniority, and according to the context, it was because they are criminals whose deeds are difficult to contain in this writing.

Cole Tomas Allen, who attempted to assassinate U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents' Association annual dinner on the 25th (local time). [Photo=Truth Social·AP]

Is that really true? The heinous crimes he speaks of refer to matters related to a certain criminal named Jeffrey Epstein, whose whereabouts are uncertain, whether he is alive or dead.

However, those who differ in their views argue that those who committed the crimes have no connection to the current administration and that figures from opposing political factions such as Clinton, Obama, and Biden are deeply involved. Where does the truth lie?

Now is an era where facts and truth are more obscured by darkness than ever before in history. As long as any fact or truth becomes a political issue, nothing is self-evident. Whether an attempted assassination is a staged event or a real one is not as self-evident as one might think, despite the confidence of those who are certain it is true.

There are always small details that can be interpreted as pointing in the opposite direction. What may seem like mere trivialities can, in retrospect, turn out to be the crucial keys to approaching the truth.

This is the era of fake news in which we are currently living. It is said that darkness cannot overcome light, but as you can see, is darkness not overcoming light?

At the current moment, as darkness truly overcomes light, those who are accustomed to darkness believe that light is overcoming darkness. What an era of Black and White turned upside down (黑白顚倒) and falsehood confusing truth (以僞亂眞) this is!

Those intoxicated by darkness are full of confidence. Trump is a madman, Israel is full of cruel people, and someone else is called a traitor. They say that America's attack on Iran is the extreme of the law of the jungle. They call it interference in internal affairs and violation of sovereignty. They claim to have been Marxists from time immemorial.

Ho ho, well. I suppose Marxism is no longer dangerous in the world. The skill of stepping back from the world's dangers, looking around, and then raising a paw when the meal is served! Truly an excellent intellectual (知飾人). A knowledgeable person (知殖人). A corrosive person (知蝕人). A parasitic person (知息人).

The intellectually stunted individuals, who have been too slowly poisoned by outdated totalitarian Marxism and are immersed in darkness when others awaken, mistaking it for righteousness, have a peculiar ability to empathize.

It seems they even offer prayers for those who slaughter tens of thousands of their own citizens. Their earnest dedication to discussing world peace with those who grind the freedom and right to survival of the people into daily bread is something that cannot be praised enough.

You who turn darkness into light, you who turn hatred into love, you who perform the miracle of turning totalitarianism into democracy.

I absolutely do not believe that the upcoming local elections are real elections. No matter what flowery language they use for constitutional amendments or how thinly they slice the salami, I will not be fooled. I will no longer allow heinous criminals to defile my hands with their sins. This is my unparalleled empathy for this era.

Even so, I have no intention of ever hating you. Like all the unfortunate people living in this dark world, I certainly love you. We are all in this fleeting world. We must all leave this beautiful life behind someday.

◆ Professor Bang Min-ho

Ph.D. in Literature, Professor of Korean Language and Literature at Seoul National University. He is actively working as the chief editor of the quarterly literary magazine 'Maek' (since 2022), as well as a poet, novelist, and literary critic. His published works include 'Lover Sim Cheong' (2015), 'The Language of Pain' (2019), 'Re-questioning Korean Criticism' (2021), and 'Seoul Literary Journeys' (2024).