[Kim Seong-kon] What will we find on waking up in 2018?

Last night I fell asleep while reading Robert Harris’s alternative history novel “Fatherland.” It is set in a 1964 in which Hitler had won World War II and ruled Europe. The novel induced me to ponder, “What would have happened if Germany had won the Second World War?”

Perhaps due to the influence of the bleak novel, I had a fitful night’s sleep. I dreamed I had woken up in 2018 to find Donald Trump in the White House and a Marxist president and his coterie in Cheong Wa Dae. My God, it was the most unnerving, worst combination ever, even worse than the odd couple of Roh Moo-hyun and George W. Bush. I also found that Trump, who detested South Korea’s closeness to China, had already begun pulling U.S. troops out of Korea as he had promised during his presidential campaign. In his eyes, South Korea enjoyed what he called “a free ride” by leaning toward China while unabashedly expecting U.S. to take care of its national security.

In my dream, I wrote to Trump that he should see the Hollywood movie “The Day After Tomorrow.” In this disaster flick, Americans rush to the Mexican border to escape from North America, which is facing a new ice age. The irony of the situation becomes apparent when the Americans reach the border only to find their path blocked by a huge wall set up by the Mexican government to prevent them from illegally crossing into Mexico.

According to newspaper reports, many American intellectuals said that they would move to Canada if Trump were elected as President. Matt Welsh recently wrote an amusing article titled “Tips for U.S. citizens escaping to Canada” for the Los Angeles Times. In the article, Welch pointed out that because of U.S. border officers who had given a hard time to Canadians, this time Canadian border cops would have their revenge, bluntly asking the Americans, “Why do you want to come to Canada?”

Likewise, many conservative Koreans have declared that they will move to the States if a leftist regime comes to power in the upcoming presidential election. Surely, however, it will not be easy for Koreans to emigrate to America during the Trump administration. “Why do you want to come to America?” an ICE officer will ask you at the port of entry. Perhaps you will answer, “I don’t like the leftist regime in my country.” The ICE officer will then refuse to take you in, retorting, “Sorry, but the States no longer accepts immigrants or refugees from other countries.”

I tried very hard to wake up from the nightmare, but, instead, stumbled into another dream. In my second dream, after the U.S. abandoned us, North Korea became Big Brother to the South once again, and China replaced the States immediately. North Korea began interfering with the internal affairs of the South with its usual condescending attitude. To make matters worse, China claimed that, according to an ancient map, the Korean Peninsula had belonged to China originally. Consequently, Koreans were busy learning Chinese instead of English. 

I spent the night tossing and turning in bed as I found myself in yet another dream. In my third dream, I discovered that, after the British people had voted for Brexit, the U.K. had lost its influence in the international community and was reduced to a shadow of its former self, with Scotland and Northern Ireland declaring independence. Other European nations, too, fearing the massive influx of Muslim refugees, which they believed would expose them to Islamic terrorism, left E.U.

In my dream, I found that the European fear of Muslim refugees resembled the Roman fear of the massive influx of refugees from Germania into the Roman Empire. At the time, the great migration from Germania was caused by the belligerent Hun. Likewise, the present day migration of Muslim refugees is caused by the belligerent IS and its followers.

Will European civilization, too, be annihilated by the influx of Muslim refugees? British patriotic conservatives, xenophobic unemployed and older people seem to think so, whereas young people in the U.K. do not. I watched a British man declare on TV, “This is our Independence Day!” On the contrary, the once mighty U.K. will likely end up being isolated, powerless, and heavily dependent on other nations. From the British case, we have learned a valuable lesson; it is risky to let the people decide their country’s fate by voting.     

In my dream, I wanted to advise the Europeans to see the movie “World War Z.” The apocalyptic film portrays each nation’s efforts to prevent zombies from flooding in. Some countries build a huge wall while others isolate themselves, and yet their efforts invariably fail. 

In my troubled sleep last night, I saw the grim future of human civilization. I woke up in the middle of the night, perspiring all over. Then I realized it was still 2016. I was relieved. They were just bad dreams, I thought.

By Kim Seong-kon

Kim Seong-kon is a professor emeritus of English at Seoul National University and president of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea. -- Ed.