[Trans] The Delusion of the People Who Live in the Kingdom of SMEditor’s note: This is a translation of an opinion piece was written by a fan. It does not necessarily represent the opinions of TheJYJFiles but it does provide some food for thought.
The Delusion of the People Who Live in the Kingdom of SM
파플즈 난데모네 작성
파플즈 usappi번역
(Written by Poplez Nandemone, Translated by Poplez usappi)
The Kingdom of SM has a unique business culture. Even though it’s a business run on contractual relationship just like any other, in a bizarre way, it claims to be a family. This is the reason why the residents of the Kingdom of SM can’t think of any other reasonable response to give except, “ungrateful jerk” whenever something like this happens. They say that it’s like betraying the father who raised you as well as the family unit.
But let’s think about this a bit. Where in this world is there a father who suffocates to death his children just because they have left the house?! No father in this world, no matter how strict, will do that to his child, no matter how obnoxious the kid. Does a person who rails against his children who’ve left the house, calling them traitors, promising revenge until his teeth are worn and cutting off all their means of livelihood, does such a person have the right to be called a father?!
Those who believe so easily that SM is a family are living in a delusion. Lee Soo Man is most absolutely not their father, and SM is most definitely not their home. It’s only within SM that such an ardent comparison to the family unit is being circulated, and so it’s only the people within SM who believe it. And all the while those in idol history who have managed to escape SM are testifying how detestable SM really was, are they not?
As I watched the residents of the Kingdom of SM parrot each other one after the other with “ungrateful this ungrateful that”, I immediately recalled a film I saw a long time ago, ‘The Truman Show’ with Jim Carrey as the lead actor.
There was a man called Truman. Unbeknownst to him, his life was being broadcast live 24/7 around the world on television. He was completely unaware that the life he was living was one big studio set, that the people he was meeting were actors, that the one who was really in control of his life was not himself at all. He was convinced that the fake life he was leading was in fact his real life. However, one day he finds out by chance the whole truth. He comes to realise that what he took for reality is in fact life in a delusion, in a ready-made studio set. The stage producer tries to persuade him, “There’s nothing beyond the set but a harsh and painful reality!” But even so, without hesitation, [Truman] runs into that lonely and harsh but real reality with all his might.
In truth, whenever I look at the loyal idols who live in the Kingdom of SM, more than anger, what I feel is pity. They, who believe that the SM that is playing the role of their father and acting the role of their family is their real father and real family, are a lot like Truman inside the studio set. And so, even if others point out to them that the lives they are leading, the lives they are so convinced are real, are in actuality fake they obviously wouldn’t be able to accept it just like that! It’s only natural that they would respond to such counsel with “What the hell do you know?” It’s because SM’s idols continually revere SM. This is why they can’t do anything besides parroting SM’s position with speeches on ungratefulness. On top of that there’s the connection/fellowship that naturally forms between kids who spent long trainee periods together as well as the staff who look over the kids. This much at least is something that can’t be denied! The true culprit here is the giant management company that uses these warm and precious feelings as a flashy pretext to construct ‘an ideology of the family’ that maintains and feeds the inequality and unfairness that have become its raw material.
Until recently, I thought JYJ were also Trumans inside a studio set. [Knowing nothing but] our father. Our family. That no matter how unequal or unfair they had to put up with it all for the sake of the family.
However, after going through a series of experiences, they came to see little by little the existence of a suspicious black curtain that was wrapped around their life. And eventually they came to know that beyond that black curtain is the beginning of the real world. Upon pushing aside the curtain, they came to realise that they had been living their lives on a studio set, that the person they thought was their real father was in fact an actor playing the role of their father.
The stage producer of this entire show is SM. “If you go beyond the curtain, I will never leave you alone. What awaits you out there is cold reality!” But they’ve already figured out that they were living on a studio set, so now how could they be expected to continue living their real lives aware of the fact that they’re on a set!
“Even if a sharp and cold wind blows, even if I lose everything in the process, I want to live a life that’s real.”
I think this is the real reason why JYJ left SM.
The reason why I support JYJ?
Because everyone has the right to live a life that’s real [and not make-believe].
Source: Poplez
Translation by: Jimmie of TheJYJFiles
Shared by: TheJYJFiles
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