At a recent debate for the for potential presidential candidates from the People Power Party, the same conservative party that the impeached Yoon was a part, the candidates introduced their MBTI personality type.
In Korea, we are leading up to the snap election after the final ruling of Yoon’s impeachment. This election takes place on June 3rd, leaving weeks for new candidates to campaign.
For those that might not be familiar the MBTI, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, was developed by a daughter-mother team, Myers and Briggs, during the Second World War based off of psychologist Carl Jung’s work.
It essentially breaks down one’s personality through self-assessment questions as one of 16 personality types based on a binary system of Extraversion/Introversion, Thinking/Feeling, Sensing/Intuition, Judging/Perceiving.
Most people acknowledge that it is deeply flawed as an assessment tool, and will often use it as a supplement that can assist or help in understanding how people interact and react, or even for levity.
So why then, knowing that it is a subjective tool on assessment, is it being brought up in the realm of potential presidential candidates?
By sharing their MBTI types, they were attempting to illustrate that they are all Extraversion and Judging types. ExxJ types. So they all have E something something J.
They were trying to introduce background on why they would all be great leadership material. And while statistically many leaders do have ExxJ as their personality type, that does not necessarily mean that they are good leaders. In a similar vein, simply because most of the countries around the world in the past few hundred years have had men in leadership positions, that does not mean that men are good leaders. It means that sexist, racist, capitalist, ableist, colonialism put them there for so long.
Therefore, in Korea, we understand that while one’s MBTI is not a determining factor, it can assist with giving more information about a person. And Koreans, because we have a different history than the Western colonial worship of objectivity as superior, we understand that subjectivity is important for decision-making, too. So, while it might not be something that many consider objective fact or science, it does tell a story about the human being.
Trying to gather a holistic understanding of an individual, trying to humanize a person, is not limited to certain political parties. It happens across all different parties and everyday practices in Korea, not just through sharing our MBTI, but we frequently even share our blood types with others to get to know them.
One of the messages I want to get out there, because I witnessed the vicious election process for the presidential candidate in the United States Empire, is that it is imperative to acknowledge subjectivity and the role that has in our decision-making.
The US and Western culture prioritize objectivity as if it is superior to every other method of understanding the universe. And it is simply not. People are told and taught to think with objectivity as priority. But as human beings, we cannot be only objective.
We are subjective beings. We have a vast spectrum of emotions, constantly evolving opinions and experiences, and we need all of those to form our ongoing decisions.
As we have many critical decisions to make moving forward, remember that we are deeply feeling whole humans with vibrant personalities. Emotions, astrological signs, patterns, behaviors, and yes, even blood types. Take all of that in when considering people and situations, and remember that we are so subjective.
Our whole subjective selves are not only what help us want to be liberated, but they also help us fight for that too.
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