“I am the state!” – Louis XIV, the Sun King.

I can't quite recall the exact time, but it feels like it was over 10 years ago...

Koreans currently living in Angeles, and even those back in Korea, probably remember this saying.

They say if you go to Southeast Asian countries like the Philippines or Vietnam, you can live like an emperor, driving a car with a chauffeur, playing golf, getting massages, and having maids in a mansion, even if you only earn 2 million won a month or just bring 100 million won!

This was featured in various news outlets and on TV, and even in the movie "Inside Men," where columnists have conversations as if it were true.

This saying became a trend, sparking a wave of retirement immigration to Southeast Asia.

Of course, those who naively believed it and went there likely ended up frustrated, realizing they were duped by baseless rumors.

Now, these rumors have faded significantly, and most people either don't believe them or don't encounter them anymore. However, there was a time when such rumors were all the rage.

Suddenly, I found myself reflecting. When I thought about it carefully, I felt like these rumors were somehow caused by people like me.

While I didn't create or spread the rumors, it seemed obvious that people with personalities like mine were the ones who fabricated them.

A baseless confidence that allows one to superficially skim over things, make assumptions about others, and dismiss them without truly understanding. In some cases, it's the art of sophistry, exaggerating with bravado to obscure the point and judgment. It's the language of belief in one's own country's economic superiority.

It's an attitude and a sense of chosenness where one takes for granted the benefits of that superiority, which they didn't create, and tries to project a sense of superiority and pretentiousness onto others.

I believe these factors combined to create these bizarre rumors.

However, even knowing it's wrong, it's somehow hard to suppress, almost like a basic human instinct. Because I feel that in certain situations, without my conscious will, the suppressed pretentiousness and the base, snobbish instinct to feel a sense of relative superiority will emerge.

I once told a friend, "If you see me acting snobbish towards Filipinos, please stop me and talk me out of it." He nodded, but then said, "If it doesn't involve danger, anything is possible here with money. Truly, anything. If you really want to show off, as long as it's safe, it's not a bad idea to try." I agreed with him, but at the same time, I felt a sense of bitterness and mulled over his words for a long time.