Flunkeyism

[fluhng-kee]

Flunkeyism (also spelled flunkyism; Korean hangŭl: 사대주의 (事大主義), romanisation: Sadae juŭi) is a term indicating toadyism, servile attitude, or worship of the powerful. The word derives from flank, being on the side, and is also associated with lackey. It is first recorded in Scottish writing from 1782, meaning footman, sidesman, the person attending on the side. The word serves a major role in North Korean political rhetorics, and is in particular used to describe South Korea's supposedly servile attitude to the USA.

In Kim Il Sung's Master of Leadership (1976), the chapter on "The people are the masters of the revolution" contains the following, pertaining to flunkeyism: The people are the masters of the revolution in each country. It is like putting a cart before the horse that foreigners carry out the revolution for them. The revolution can neither be exported nor imported. [...] Long ago, some people developed flunkeyism towards great powers – the servile attitude of not believing in their own strength. Flunkeyism towards great powers was not eliminated even later and, accompanied by dogmatism, did great harm to the development of our revolution. The main reason for the collapse of the nationalist movement and the failure of the early communist movement [...] lay in flunkeyism and sectarianism resulting from it. When a party takes to flunkeyism it makes a mess of the revolution.

The word is used more broadly and also in other contexts, and may apply to any instances, perceived or genuine, of servile attitude, unquestioning obedience, taking orders from the powerful without applying one's own judgment. Thus most North Korean politicians and officials suffer from flunkeyism, for example.

In the East Asian history, the word Sadae (事大) mostly appears with Hanja (Chinese chracters) in various historical documents and records. The origin is from 以小事大 (pinyin: yǐ xiǎo shì dà) which appears in Mencius's (孟子) book, that means Serve the great with the small.