"Opportunism" is taking advantage of circumstances, which can be interpreted as either positive or negative way. If people are patient and keep their own standard in lives as their belief (e.g. a good citizen), we can say that these people are not being opportunistic but they have their own principle. On the other hand, people who are taking advantage of any circumstance to gain benefit, are considered as being opportunistic. It could be wise or smart way to live the lives, however, it is important to make sure that behavior is in the border of morality and justice.
As an example, I want to bring up Korean history, the period of Japanese colonial rule (1910~1945). This history affect that Korean people unconsciously think that opportunism is bad. In this period, administration of Japan ruled Korea in political, economical, and diplomatic sovereignty as a country. Japanese government, police, educator, and so on are occupying the country with assaulting and punishment. They forced not to speak Korean, and change our last name to Japanese-style last name. It was such a disaster. No right for Korean. They were raped and get assaulted every day. However, there were still a great deal of people who contest against Japan to reclaim independence to restore our country. They spoke out for independence from Japan. In this situation, many Korean people had to decide whether to convert their nationality to Japan and obey them, or remain as Korean to restore our nation. A former choice might be for people who are opportunistic and a latter choice might be for people who are not opportunistic.
In this situation, many people yielded their nationality and started obeying to the Japanese government. Of course, Japanese administrators provided a lot of benefit to them because it was an efficient way to gather crucial information through them. This behavior spawned that people with same nation fought and even killed each other. By doing so, Korean people who yielded their nation and obeyed Japan, stacked wealth and honor. In one sentence, some people sold their own country for their benefit. They can be called opportunist. On the other hand, other group of Korean people fight against Japan and wanted to restore our nationality. Many of them were killed, punished, and disappeared. It was obviously difficult and extreme situation to decide to keep their own belief. It was the problem of death or alive. They are hopeless because they did not afford to buy arms or even commodities, and they are not trained to battle against Japan. But they are very passionate about win back our country. Thanks to them, finally, they managed to recover our nation and it became very important event in Korean history and people who fought for Korea (Independence movement) at that time are still remembered.
If I speculate on those people who fought for independence, I cannot respect them more. In real life, people are always put in the situation of being opportunistic or not. For example, litter the trash on the street or not. People are sometimes very selfish and arrogant. But for them, instead of being opportunistic (beneficial, easy-way), they chose an extremely rough way. They could have died at any time without seeing their family. If they chose to yield the nationality, they could live comfortably. It makes me that that it is more import to follow their own virtue at least for them. Wealth and honor were not the ultimate virtue of them. It gave me lesson that it is important to catch an opportunity to make it beneficial to lives, but it is more important to construct own values for life and they have to stand on the cross of justice and morality.
1919.03.01 Independence Movement
While this is in interesting history, I didn't understand how it ties into our study of organizations. Do organizations in Korea today function in a certain way because of this history? If you can connect the post to our study of organizations, that would be very useful. Otherwise, I'm afraid that you wrote about a topic on which you are quite passionate, but might not relate to what we are studying.
ReplyDeleteI was under impression that I am assigned to write about examples of opportunism and speculate on the case. I did not connect to our study of organizations. I am sorry for confusion.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, organizations in Korea today might be affected by this history. They tend to be very collaborative and tied together. Plus, it seems to consider that groups such as family, community, organizations are more important than the individual. The history of Independence Movement might have influence on this characteristic.