How to blame others for anything

Yeh Young-june

The author is chief editor of the JoongAng Sunday.

The attribution theory by Austrian Psychologist Fritz Heider (1896-1988) deals with how individuals find the reasons for a success or failure. A common error here is the self-serving bias — the tendency of people attributing their successes to internal factors, while blaming external factors for their own failures.

The bias works best for political circles in Korea. It is one of the best prescriptions for opposition parties to win the next election by finding any fumbles by the incumbent government and attributing them to it. In his book “Presidents’ Misfortunes and Political Structure,” Prof. Hahm Sung-deuk, an expert in Korean presidency, wrote, “Finding any dirt on the government and provoking it to take a dangerous path is the easiest strategy for opposition parties to take power.” For the opposition, blaming the government for whatever policy decisions could be its raison d’être.

The ruling front was no exception. Governing parties have long used their treasured sword of blaming the previous administration for whatever reasons to help consolidate their vote base. They conceal their mistakes or failures by citing a critical lack of policy means due to the sticky structural leftovers from the previous administration.

Democratic Party Chair Lee Jae-myung, far left, and members of the supreme committee of the majority party watch remarks by officials of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration — including Kim Hyun-sook, the minister of gender equality and family — over the government’s preparations for the 2023 Jamboree at Saemangeum, at a meeting in the National Assembly, Aug. 7.

The liberal Moon Jae-in administration steadfastly put the blame on the conservative Park Geun-hye administration during the past five years. It didn’t matter whether the economy showed slow growth or the real estate prices soared or the people suffered critical damages from massive floods during summer. The Yoon Suk Yeol administration was no different. It does not show any sign of letup in blaming the Moon administration even after more than a year has passed since the launch of the conservative administration. The minority status of Yoon’s People Power Party helped fuel the attribution. As a result, the unique blame game is in full swing in Korea.

The fiasco of the 2023 World Scout Jamboree at Saemangeum, North Jeolla was a national shame. After watching the glitzy K-pop concert in a football stadium in Seoul, many teenagers from around the world exclaimed, “This is the first time in my life!” But if the government interprets it as an appreciation for a successful ending of the Jamboree, that’s another shame. What the scouts said reflects their first-ever experience of the dramatic transformation of the Jamboree event to a survival game in the reclaimed tidal flat and then to a program to enjoy Korean culture. The staging of a K-pop concert as a last resort cannot be a magic wand to morph a failure into a success. Social media is packed with lovely stories about Korean citizens rushing to buy the scouts a bag of ice creams out of their compassion and regrets on behalf of the host. The emotional stories show that at least ordinary citizens are ashamed of the ill-prepared Jamboree.

But politicians are engrossed in the shameless game of attributing anything to their opponents. The responsibility for the Jamboree debacle falls on all of us. Six years have passed since the North Jeolla province was selected to host the Jamboree in August 2017 during the Moon administration — and 15 months since the Yoon administration began to prepare for the international event. It is not the time to start a battle between the governing and opposition parties. Any yet, they are bent on attacking each other for nonsensical reasons. It is regrettable that such a shameless blame game is embedded in Korean politics over nearly all issues.

In the West, there’s an old saying that victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan. It means that when things go well, many people claim they are responsible for the success, but no one comes forward to take responsibility when things go wrong. The saying can apply to Korea, politicians in particular. Unless they do some deep soul searching, they will repeat the same fumbles over and over.