Author's Profile

Author Cha Minjoo was born in Korea. She started writing from her interest and affection for
phenomenons, objects and people that have a bright light but a small voice

She is interested in philosophy, design, aesthetics and business. She loves literature, art, music
architectures and various practical arts

She is currently researching on UX, culture and communications via image and video. She received
her dotoral degree in Arts at Hongik University, which the thesis on Communications by using
images online

It's an analysis and author's views on their perspectives behind the message in their lyrics, their
philosophy, correlation with many youths around the world, and evaluations their role in current
society.

The book is divided into four different chapters and each chapter has several sub-chapters where
the author talks about philosophy, society, BTS songs, BTS impact, BTS in Media, Art, and Literature

The author is interested in media, philosophy and popular culture.

The introduction says this book isn't about why BTS is polular.

The author studies between BTS and youth's connections in a humanistic view.
Table Of Contents
I. For the World
1. Capitalistic (Consumer) society

2. N-po saedae, it's not your fault

3.Golden spoon and dirty spoon

4. Change

5. morals and righteousness

II. For Me and My Dreams

6. Shoot an arrow of yearning towards your dream

7. Working hard is the difference

8. Existing as the person I design

9. Love yourself

10. Know yourself

11. The answer is the time that is "right now"

12. Hope in Moving on

III. For the Youth

13. Independence

14. Consolation of Despair

15. Youth's Anxiety

16. Youth's Energy

17. Young Forever

18. Temptation, Fate's secret meeting

19. Desire/Ambition
 IV. For Art
20. A New Identity called "Us"

21. Art of Conversation

22. Spread Philosophy Through Beauty

23. The Triune Choreia

24. An Artist that does Philosophy, Mousike Techne

25. For the cause of popular art - BTS's Universe and Narration

26. The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, BU, Remote Presence

27. Wizards of Metaphors

28. BTS is Media

29. Music Guides the Soul

30. Performative New World, Mimesis

Foreword
Philosophers emphasize the importance of being awakened in order to live a higher
standard of life. It is the process of becoming a 'me' who can think in a more elevated
way through understanding of the self.

In a time when philosophy and humanities education are not doing too well, BTS are
using the language of the times to comfort and lift the self-confidence of those young
people caught inside chaos and anxiety. They propose a way to climb the staircase of
self-development through ownership of self and awareness.

Now, in September of 2017, BTS are in their 52nd week in the #1 position on Billboard's
social chart. The social chart shows a ranking according to mentions on social media, but
in a way, it can also be seen as a ranking of popularity. It isn't only that they're
somewhat popular, but rather that they are enjoying huge popularity and interest from
all around the globe.

That this isn't just a shimmering phenomenon for BTS, but rather that they're
experiencing sustained support and popularity from around the world, is not only thanks
to their songs and dances. It is because of a deeper reason that they have realized in
their depths, one that makes their hearts cry out, something warm and slightly blue, a
philosophy like the dawn sky.

Young people around the world give testimony of the way that listening to BTS' music
has had a deep effect on their lives: "BTS changed my life." "When I was in the depths of
despair and nothing could comfort me, I was able to endure thanks to BTS' music." "They
made me look properly at myself when I could barely stand to, and now I think that I
should love myself more." "Thank you for telling me not to give up on my dreams, and
for telling me it's okay to lose." "For the first time, I learned that music can give
someone comfort. I wish that more people would get to know BTS and be comforted
too." "They made me become a better person. I'm very thankful." "I've heard lyrics telling
me not to give up on my dreams before, but this was the first time that it touched my
heart."

Among the values that BTS' music has, the weightiest is the good intention to make one
person's life a little brighter, and their message and philosophy of strength that can truly
help people to seek out their own universes. That warm, blue reason and their messages
of philosophy is being conveyed to young people through the most powerful mediums,
carried by their performances and music that exceed the limits of training.

I wonder if the reason that people all over the world are so enthusiastic about BTS is
because of this: their dreams and defiance and achievement, their view of a better
world, and the way that they convey it in a way that is at one extremely honest and as
beautiful as poetry.

The time that BTS has to influence the youth of today could be long and could be short.
As always, the appraisals of ordinary people these days are quite merciless. Is it because
there's no longer any mystery about existing at the same time? Schopenhauer said, "All
great achievements take time to be received, and must endure an arduous process."
What is certain is that their current popularity is proof of the value of their message,
and that as that value floats to the surface, that it will be acknowledged even further.

Hegel said, "The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk."
Similarly, it is only in the wake of BTS' huge success that I am attempting to link BTS
with philosophers on the same page, but I do not believe that it is too late to be
optimistic about their future success and influence.

Like BTS, there is some difficulty to be had in conveying philosophy—which has so many
difficult terms—in the language of the new generation, and I'm cautious in quoting many
philosophers for fear their words may be distorted. Nevertheless, if even a few young
people gain interest in philosophy through this work, then there is meaning in it, no
matter how small.

In this book, I will try to link BTS' message with the philosophies of various thinkers,
from Nietzsche—who I think comes closest to BTS' theory and philosophy—to Hegel,
Spinoza, Kierkegaard, Arendt and Deleuze, John Rawls and even Adorno. I will also try to
reason through what differentiates BTS from other idol groups, not in terms of a formula
for success but rather in terms of seeking differences.

I hope that the connection between BTS and these philosophers will allow young people
to understand philosophy with a little more ease.

I also hope that to the people who don't know BTS, that it may be a way to affirm the
strength of BTS' intense and heart-shaking message and the depth of philosophical
reasoning, provide a method of comforting lonely and struggling young people, and allow
readers to experience BTS' movingly beautiful metaphors in the language of the new
generation, which pierce straight to one's core.

There are awakenings in life that are larger than philosophy, they often feel too distant
to reach, To the young people who feel as if they can't approach the shrine of reason
and logic, it may be that BTS—who speak as a friend would, in the language they know—
are the wisest philosophers of all. This is the way of diffusing the new generation's logic
in the 21st century that they are pioneering.

In this book, BTS will be referred to by their English name "BTS," rather than 방탄소년단.
Furthermore, I have used "BTS" not only to refer to the members that comprise the
group, but also to the media known as BTS, as well as the artists who comprise the
works of art that BTS produces.

This book has been published with all of my love for and interest in both philosophy and
popular culture, but it is still lacking in many ways in both areas. Even so, what gives me
courage is a promise to myself, to take each opportunity to grow and develop.
For the World
Consumer Society
Philosopher Jean Baudrillard referred to modern society as a 'society of consumers,' and
said that people living today use consumerism as a means of cultivating differences with
others. Rather than consumerism for the sake of use, it is consumerism for the sake of
manufacturing a difference in taste compared to others.

If you use an iPhone and a Macbook, have no car, ride a bicycle, drink Big Wave, like
Wes Anderson or Xavier Dolan movies, listen to Shin Hae Gyeong and Silica GEL, read
books of poetry from independent bookstores, wear Vans and raise a cat, does that
make you a hipster? The idea of 'hipster' might, in the end, be just another way of
flaunting the assets that make up one's cultural tastes.

If you drive a Bentley and wear Brioni or Kiton, wear a Panerai, Patek Philippe or IWC
watch, use Byredo or Jo Malone cologne, and take vacations in Seychelles, then might
you be a tasteful member of the young upper class?

Instead of being by one's own will for purposes of cultivating differences, choosing
brands is, in reality, an act of subordination to the trending codes of consumer society.

Young people who are used to brand consumerism differentiate, define, and categorize
themselves and others in accordance with consumerist preferences. The most popular
brand classifications are, of course, those of the upper class. Those who want to become
part of that category imitate the brands and tastes of the upper class in an effort to
seem like them.

With shoes worth a couple hundred, padded jacket worth a couple thousand
With a watch worth a couple hundred,
you feel good about yourself
Education goes over the hill and
the student identity goes over the hill too
The class system of the 21st century is divided into two
Those who have and those who haven’t
Those who wear the shoes and those who don’t
Those who have the clothes and those who don’t
And those who try hard to get those things
What’s going on? Are you falling behind on the trend?
You whined and complained to get it, did I strike a nerve?

► from "Spine Breaker"

There was a time when a certain North Face jacket, costing close to ₩1,000,000
(approximately $1,000 USD), was popular among young people. Because these young
people would beg and coerce their parents into buying it for them, that jacket became
known as a 'spine breaker.' In their song Spine Breaker, BTS criticizes a youth culture of
burdening one's parents and childishly chasing after materialism. Nowadays, wouldn't it
be Kolon Sport, Nobis, Canada Goose or Moncler? Brands change every year, but there
will always be popular high-end jackets and name brand items. We use logos to exhibit
our tastes and attempt to enter into a higher class category.

Norwegian philosopher Thorstein Veblen believed that the excessiveness of the leisure
class is entirely for ostentation, and that the bigger problem was the 'instinct of
imitation' in the classes below. He said that though it is the labor class that maintains
the leisure class, the labor class doesn't criticize them, but rather overwork and
overspend themselves in order to imitate them. According to Jhering, once the middle
or labor classes begin to imitate them, the leisure class immediately disposes of those
items. Then those in the leisure class buy new items, the lower classes imitate them
once again, and the vicious cycle continues unbroken.

We have been trained into being accustomed to consumerism, and this drives us to
consume and keep consuming. Even if we aren't trying to imitate the upper class, the
cycle of consumerism has no end. Completing a payment doesn't alleviate our desire, but
rather our desire to desire, and a new appetite will soon be ignited.

No money but I wanna go far away

I don’t have money but I wanna relax
No money but I wanna eat Jiro Ono’s sushi
Worked hard to get my pay
Gonna spend it all on my stomach
Pinching pennies to spend it all on wasting it
Leave me be, even if I overspend
Even if I break apart my savings tomorrow
Like a crazy guy

► from Go Go

BTS mentions this culture of consuming as if there is no tomorrow in their song Go Go.
They use the phrase YOLO (You Only Live Once), which was a hot keyword in Korea in
2017, and criticize a culture of excessive enthusiasm towards consumerism. YOLO is an
outside shell that prioritizes the happiness of the now, but in reality it is a consumerist
behavior that borrows against the future in order to spend on today. The problem is, of
course, focusing on buying happiness with money.

Zygmunt Bauman said that the infinite loop of consumerism could be broken through an
educated 'cultural revolution.'

BTS criticizes the display of consumer brands and the phenomenon of putting on airs
with logos, as well as the culture of buying present happiness by taking the future as
collateral.

Through the cultural influence they possess, BTS have continuously suggested that there
are problematic aspects to today's consumer culture. They use their music to illuminate
and display not brands, but the caved-in parts of today's society and culture, its
problems and its broken places. Couldn't this be what Bauman meant when he referred
to an 'educated cultural revolution'?
Giving-Up Generation, Not Your Responsibility
"The opinion of the Right, that the injustice and poverty experienced by young people is a result
of laziness and poor choices, is something incomprehensible. A child cannot choose its parents."
— John Rawls

3 포 Generation: Love, marriage, children

5 포 Generation: The above + homeownership, employment
7 포 Generation: The above + hobbies, human relationships

(Note: The '포' in the giving-up generations comes from the Korean word 포기, or
'pogi,' meaning to give up on something.)

These are the things that young people give up on as time passes. Why do they
give up? Could it really be because they're weak-minded, like the adults say? How
could someone speak so carelessly about that abandonment in the face of such a
generational gap? At the heart of the question of abandonment is an issue of
economics.

Who is the one who made us into studying machines?

They classify us to either
Being number one or dropping out
They trap us in borders, the adults
There’s no choice but to consent
Even if we think simply,
It’s the survival of the fittest
Who do you think is the one who makes us step
On even our close friends to climb up? What?

► from "N.O"

I did as the system said, lived well and graduated from college, but the only things that
remain in my grasp are the school loans I need to repay and worries about my employment.
Ordinarily, people say that the only reason for being unable to find employment is because
one's standards are too high, but why is it that they don't understand that it's simply
unreasonable to expect to pay back student loans with the salary one gets working at a
convenience store?

A person gets a job in an effort to compromise with the reality of the situation.
But the strange thing is, even though they're working and earning money, they
have no money. Not that they don't have a huge amount of money—it's that they
lack the money to enjoy dating or their hobbies. The reason for this lack of
money is due to school loans or their monthly rent. When the cost of living
exceeds the money earned, that's when someone falls into debt.

If that person's parents aren't well off, usually people are thrust into society even
in that indebted state. It's the same reality all around the world. In 2017, the
British think-tank IFS (Institute of Fiscal Studies) predicted that the average
college student would graduate with around £50,000 (USD $66,000) of debt.

Italian sociologist and philosopher Maurizio Lazzarato said that "debt has become
the primary power that moves contemporary society." It seemed to him that the
thing that made debts sway the individual is a neoliberal system that supports
those who do well and is unable to control the scaling of benefits to those who
are already rich.

To put it briefly, neoliberalism is an economic policy arising from America and

the United Kingdom in the 1970s-1980s, a system that decreased government
involvement and prioritized the wealthy. Although 'globalization' and 'financial
liberalization' are difficult names to understand, in reality there is little
difference between those terms and an overall acceptance of 'international
moneylending.' That is the governmental and economic hegemony that influences
the entire world today.

When someone earns money through this moneylending without doing work,
someone else becomes the sacrifice. The profit from moneylending comes in the
form of someone else's backbone.

Hans-Peter Martin said that in the snare of globalization, as 20% of people

become focused on earning, things become increasingly more difficult for the
remaining 80%. He said that those sacrifices include all wage workers from white
collar workers to the lower labor class. He also worried about the weakening
fence of social security.

Modern philosophers Deleuze and Guattari said, in their book Anti-Oedipus, that
"the circulation of money is a means of creating an endless debt," and
reconfirmed that we lived in a world where money only returns to the hands of
the rich.

It's the neoliberal system that needs to take responsibility for the 'giving-up
generation.' The bigger mistake is to cover that responsibility up with individual
responsibility and senses of guilt. Because of the criticism of the older
generation, who believe that they lack effort and willpower, the young people
who were raised to be brainwashed by the neoliberal system of monetary
influence live the most beautiful moments of their lives in agony, holding on to a
sense of guilt and the idea that it is their own fault.

sampo generation? ohpo generation?

Well I like beef jerky so it’s yookpo generation
The media and adults say we don’t have willpower
condemning us like stocks
Why are they killing us before we can even try, enemy enemy enemy
Why are you hanging your head and accepting it already? energy energy energy
Don’t ever give up, you know you not lonely
Our dawn is prettier than the day
So can I get a little bit of hope?
Wake your sleeping youth, go

► from "Dope"

BTS are saying that it isn't your mistake, to ignore those criticisms and form your
own discourse. Rather than the daylight, where creditors loan out and take back
their money, this is the dawn where you and I can exist outside their
surveillance. They are telling us that our youth has the potential to be defiant,
and that we should awaken that youth to carve out some hope for ourselves. We
aren't alone—BTS are by our sides.

BTS' stance is the same as that of Lazzarato. Lazzarato tells us to reject the
regulated life suggested by the rulers of the neoliberal system, and to instead
play a different game and live a different life. This is the class struggle, and a
struggle for individual independence and identity.

Whether the older generation intended so or not, young people have been
branded with the name 'giving-up generation.' BTS is telling these young people
that they need to escape from this system. This is the beginning of that escape.

"To keep moving toward the future means to believe in the world and in the new
possibilities in life that unfold there."

This 'world' is not the world provided by the system, but rather the world of
individual independence.
Gold Spoon and Dirt Spoon
"The children of a businessman and the children of a laborer can never have the same view of
life, and when the injustice between the two is corrected, liberal society can be justified." —
John Rawls

what spoon are you to say that to me?

you say spoon this and spoon that, but I'm a person

► from "Fire"

People who dream of being a building owner or a millionaire can be seen as

ordinary. In 2017, Korea is a place where those values are awkward neither for
the person talking or the person listening.

The issue of having a lot of money can be resolved, but the new caste system
that stratifies people based on the amount of wealth they were born into—the
theory of 'spoons'—is like a poison to a generation of youth who are in the process
of trying to create their own values, rather than creating a society where money
is both a dream and a virtue.

While criticizing a culture that divides people into classes with the name 'spoons,'
BTS says "I'm a person," emphasizing the inherent value of a human that can't be
stratified.

The problems with the theory of spoons are that it diminishes a person's value by
solidifying their ranking before their dreams have a chance to unfold, and that it
makes rising through monetary ranks into a goal.

If rising through the monetary ranks is one's dream, then the process becomes
meaningless. No matter what you do, it doesn't matter as long as you earn
enough. What you want to do, what you can be happy doing, the value of doing
something that contributes to the world—none of that is important. The spotlight
falls on jobs that pay well and people with a lot of money, and those who work
hard for the world without earning much money—people who protect polar bears
or whales, people who work on behalf of the environment—are treated as fools.

One must not assess a person by the value of the currency they possess. The
pursuit of wealth must not be one's only dream.

Even Warren Buffett, one of the world's wealthiest men, said that "if you enjoy
your work, money will follow," and that achieving one's dreams is more
important. He also emphasized the morality of the process of earning money by
saying that "the most beautiful money in the world is money earned fairly."

Michael J. Sandel, who wrote Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?, worried
about the way that economic abundance was becoming biggest virtue in modern
society, and about the loss of basic values and morality.

I have crow-tit legs, you have stork legs

they say their legs are worth a million dollars
my legs are shorter, how can we do the same events?
they say it's okay, we're all from the same place
never never never
you say it's my fault? you must be joking
you say this is fair? oh, are you crazy?
you say this is justice? you must be kidding me!
quit going on about 'effort'
ah, it makes my skin crawl

► from "Crow-Tit/Silver Spoon"

While comparing the 'dirt spoons' to the Korean crow-tit and 'gold spoons' to a
stork, BTS starts a conversation about the injustice that follows monetary
stratification. They also discuss how the textbook story that "anyone can achieve
anything through effort" is something that makes the reality even more
impoverished.

American philosopher John Rawls referred to something he called 'the

contingent,' meaning the societal fortunes into which one is born—such as being
born into a rich family, the educational benefits received during one's growth,
and one's inheritance. These things can be enjoyed without any individual effort
simply thanks to the circumstances of one's birth.

BTS says that a competition under unfair terms is unjust. Since it isn't something
that can be easily overcome only with effort, it also isn't the fault of the
individual.

In that case, what is the method for transforming injustice and impropriety into
justice and correctness?

change the rules, change change

the storks want to maintain, maintain
we can't do that, bang bang
this isn't normality
► from "Crow-Tit/Silver Spoon"

BTS says we must change the rules that were made only for the storks.

Is it really 'normality' that a poor truck driver who dents a rich man's billion-won
Rolls Royce must compensate him for the entire value of the car? Plato said that
the assets held by the richest man should not exceed four times that of the
poorest man. Even if it isn't perfect justice, or the ideal society Plato imagined,
a rational system for unfair settlements must be continuously imposed. If a
system of insurance gradation is implemented to protect poor drivers—one that
changes according to the scale of the driver's assets—then we can also put a stop
to the number of families destroyed by difficulties following an accident.

In the 1900s, the way to change the rules could have been a revolution. With
those thoughts, the communist revolutions in Russia and China succeeded.

But in the 2000s, it is not a generation of coercion and revolution, but rather the
age of digital action and gentleness.

The 21st century is not a world of total fairness like the utopia imagined by the
Marxists. And I don't believe that a progressive tax system would make the
wealthy change their nationalities.

The direction in which we need to proceed is towards the diffusion of a voluntary

culture. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have established charities and are working
on behalf of society. LG, Ottogi, and athlete Yuna Kim have taken these
standards and donated their money and skills to take care of our society, taking
clear-intentioned actions to establish societal capital.

Just as people look coldly upon the neglect of a cat or dog, societal capital is a
thought that refers to the sharing of values among people. The awareness of, and
agreement with, the thought that things in abundance should be shared—whether
it's knowledge or skill—can also become societal capital if it's proliferated. If we
proliferate the awareness that monetary stratification must disappear, then faith
in society will also be proliferated, and we can cultivate this intangible societal
capital.

Only if we share the value of belief that we must do this for each other will this
societal capital be spread. Supporting people, companies, and politicians who do
the things you think are right contributes to its diffusion.

BTS' voice on the subject of the theories of spoons and economic stratification is
part of the diffusion of a societal capital that forces young people to think about
the problematic aspects of these theories. Whether or not it was done with the
intent to educate, at the moment they suggested such a topic of discussion, that
message was so valuable that its importance cannot even be estimated.

The term 'dirt spoon' contains within it another meaning: a victim of a broken
system. It also includes discrimination based on the existence or nonexistence of
inherited wealth. It is proof that something is occurring similar to discrimination
based on race or faith, sex or language.

From the time we are born, we as people have an intrinsic value that must be
guaranteed and must be respected. If we believe that stratification and
discrimination based on financial assets must disappear, then the sharing of that
thought is the beginning of the elimination of that discrimination.