[Kim Seong-kon] Calling for peace between polar opposites

It is well known that our world is composed of opposites: fire and water, land and sea, east and west, black and white, animals and plants, man and women, to name just a few. Our bodies, too, are made of opposites, such as the left side and right side.

The important thing is that the two opposites are equally important and valuable because they are reciprocal and function interdependently. They need each other to accomplish something meaningful. It is difficult to walk if we have only one leg or one foot. Likewise, we often need two arms and two hands to lift heavy things. If you are one-eyed, you may struggle to measure distance, and if you have only one ear, you will find it hard to hear clearly.

Often, one part of the body compensates for the other side. If one of our nasal paths is blocked, we can still breathe through the clear nostril. Our internal organs, too, have a pair of lungs and kidneys. When and if one of them fails, the other will take over the function and allow us to live on. If they provoke and fight each other, however, we will undoubtedly suffer and possibly die. That is a valuable lesson we can learn from ourselves.

Opposites are equally important and mutually complementary. Take men and women, for example. Instead of antagonizing and detesting each other, they fall in love, get married and bear children. They call each other “my better half.” Surely, that is nature’s law and God’s providence.

Unfortunately, we humans are slow learners. When it comes to politics, for example, we are hopelessly divided into progressive and conservative camps, the left or the right, socialism or capitalism, and whatever side we pick, we seem to become hostile to the other without the possibility of reconciliation. In doing so, we become extremists who ignore the gray area between two antagonizing opposites.

Yet even these opposites are complementary. There may be conservative liberals and liberal conservatives. Likewise, socialism and capitalism, too, can be integrated, adopting each other’s merits and advantages.

Although he is the king of the underwater world of Atlantis, Aquaman also embraces the land because his father was on earth, raising him in a harbor town. Since he belongs to both the land and the sea, Aquaman can transcend the boundary between these two seemingly incompatible worlds.

At the end of 2023's “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” Aquaman comes to the land and delivers a monumental speech at the United Nations in New York, calling for peace and harmony between the land and the sea. He says, “I come here today as a representative of two worlds: land and the sea. And I stand here as proof change is coming to both. And I am calling for global unity for a global crisis. ... With your knowledge of the air, and our knowledge of the seas, together we can write the next chapter in our story, rather than its ending.”

Indeed, if united, both the land and the sea will become invincible kingdoms. If divided, however, both will be doomed. Although the differences may seem too radical, we can overcome our biases and understand each other. In that sense, Aquaman’s speech is illuminating: “Sometimes, it’s going to seem like our differences are too extreme, but all we have to do is look beneath the surface to see that we are all here on this planet with the same goals and aspirations.”

It is true that the land and the sea look very different. Nevertheless, they are mutually dependent and thus can coexist peacefully. They merge in the ebbs and tides every day. By bonding in peace, both the land and the sea become stronger and provide a better future for our descendants.

Aquaman concludes his speech by saying, “Even when our customs might seem strange and unfamiliar, by overcoming our prejudice, we’ll become stronger and learn more about ourselves. We can seize this moment to create a better, more hopeful future for our children and our families.”

Recently, experts have pointed out that the world is now witnessing conflicts and clashes between the continental civilization and the oceanic civilization. Listening to Aquaman’s speech, however, we realize that the two civilizations do not really need to antagonize each other and fight. As Aquaman says, we have the same goals and aspirations for creating a better, more hopeful future for our children.

If we hate each other and begin a war, we will annihilate both human civilization and the future of our descendants. But if we reconcile and coexist, our future will be bright. The choice is ours.

Kim Seong-kon

Kim Seong-kon is a professor emeritus of English at Seoul National University and a visiting scholar at Dartmouth College. The views expressed here are the writer's own. — Ed