South Korea’s Gen-Z and the turn to extreme politics

When you take away the social contract, you cannot expect attitudes to the international to stay the same.

South Korea’s Gen-Z—those born from the mid-1990s to early 2010s—are coming of age in a country where the promises extended to previous generations no longer hold. For decades, South Korean society operated on a relatively predictable formula: study hard, enter a decent university, secure a job at a chaebol or in the public sector, buy a home, and prepare for a stable retirement.

That linear path is now broken. Young South Koreans can no longer secure what their parents took for granted - all that is left is the incessant competition and boundless consumption fed by social media. As the security net frays, and young South Koreans realize how they’ve been screwed, many are turning to political extremes. Young South Koreans are turning from the centrist status quo that failed them.

Employment? Think again. Once, a secure job at a major conglomerate (chaebol) like Hyundai, Samsung, or LG was the ultimate goal—…