[OUTLOOK]A brief lesson on food chains

There are two kinds of food chains. One is the grazing food chain and the other is the decomposer food chain. The former is the food chain of the living, the latter of the dead and buried.

The decomposer food chain decomposes dead organic matter into smaller particles. Corruption is another term we use for this process.

Gaseous odors and heat are produced by the decomposers. Wherever the dead lie, be it a grave or a compost heap, there is a grand feast for the living masters of the netherworld, the saprogenous bacillus, also known as the decomposing germs.

The food chain we usually think of is the grazing food chain. This chain consists of four different categories: plants, herbivores, weak carnivores, and strong carnivores.

Gui refers to the political and bureaucratic powers during the period of absolute power, starting with the king down to the lowest bureaucrat, who would be the carnivores. Wealth, under these circumstances, was usually acquired through plundering, not earned by production. Plundering between states happens during war.

The plundering of helpless peasants by the gui during the times of absolutism happened through the legitimate, if not just, means of exorbitant tax rates and individual exploitation, rather than outright corruption.

In the history of many countries in East Asia, where absolutism and shared crop agriculture were the political and economic structures, the gui naturally became synonymous with wealth.

But times have long changed. Absolutism and shared crop agriculture have been replaced by freedom, democracy and an industrial market economy based on private property. Only production is allowed and plundering is forbidden, at least within the state.

Democracy means having the political and bureaucratic powers bound by the laws of the state. We call this the rule of law. Democracy is the antonym of power expropriation.

Market economy only works under the assumption that wealth is a guaranteed right. This also goes against the concept of centralized power.

That is why the gui has now descended to the position of public servants. Those who had once been the carnivores living off the flesh of weaker beings are now mere herbivores in the service field.

Despite these changes, there are some anachronisms, public officials who refuse to accept the death of the gui. They think we are still living in the food chain of an absolutist agricultural society with their roles being the carnivores.

And now, forces have boiled up to lead this rottenness straight to death. The corruption of the living and the decomposition of the dead have met.

Mutant decomposing germs have ventured into the daylight from the netherworld. They have set up venture businesses affiliated with organized crime, stock-related companies, or construction firms and set themselves around the political parties and their subsidiary groups like viruses.

They are treating those who had corrupted themselves in the living world to a chemical reaction much like that of the decomposition occurring underground after death.

Their known guests are the Blue House officials, the police, the National Intelligence Service, the Financial Supervisory Service, and the National Assembly members. Any other agencies and people involved will sooner or later find themselves surrounded by the stench and the heat.

The enzyme needed for the smooth progress in the decomposing workshop had been everyday average investors. Their share of participation was providing the money so that it could be collected through stock price manipulation sponsored by the generous loans from the financial institutions.

It was a triumph of biology to discover that there is actually a useful aspect to the morbid chemical reaction.

The useful aspect is that of the elimination of all the pathogenic bacteria, insect eggs and parasites living off the dead carcass. Thus the grave, the sewage and the compost heap are purged. Calling the DJ administration alive is a mistake.

O, what were the DJ-style "Sunshine Policy", "Regional Equity" and "Democracy and Market Economy" doing when the mutant decomposing germs came alive?

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The writer is the editor of the Millennium - Emerge monthly.

by Kang Wee-seuk