The Jolly Roger (and later, Real News)
In more important news, Thailand may have just begun a revolution of sorts. Gunfire has broken out in Bangkok, just a day after I left it. I am safely in Chiang Mai, but I am worried. I am worried for the protesters, and I am worried for Thailand. This is a wonderful country with wonderful people, and it deserves better than violence and blood in the streets. I have my opinions on this whole situation, but this isn't really the place to voice them. I just hope this ends up being one of the most important moments in modern Thai political history, rather than the 3rd in a long line of political disruptions that will prevent Thailand from fully realizing itself as a country.
I came here two years ago to try and help with that, and I most likely didn't. But it would not be fun to watch the hard work of my friends (both Thai and Volunteers) be lost in a maelstrom of people using the wrong means to get their chosen leaders into power.
Americans can take a lesson. No matter how much we may hate the bureaucratic tomfoolery of our politicians, we cannot take for granted that the "two sides of the aisle" see things much more similarly than we think they do. I have been watching Fox news from here, and, yes, it is a joke, but it isn't really different than the news in general.
We have long since ceased to pay attention to the substance of our politics and have relegated them to a novel form of entertainment. We set up straw men and burn them to the ground, dancing around the flames. We let them distract us with handwaves and extremely partisan issues, and we give them undeserved power through laziness and sloth. Indeed, I suspect that our having turned politics into a circus arises out of our desire to do as little work as possible. If politicians are all corrupt, and bureaucracy is always a useless hassle, then I don't have to pay attention to it. We don't have to pay attention to it. You don't have to pay attention to it.
And you don't. Welcome to one of the primary privileges of being born an American. You can live your whole life ignoring politics, and everything will still be done for you. You just raise your voice in a slight protest around tax time and a slight argument around election time, and spend the rest of your days ignoring it. If there is anything that the last few days have taught me, it is that the rest of the world does not have that luxury.
-Pocket is a citizen of the United States of America.
I came here two years ago to try and help with that, and I most likely didn't. But it would not be fun to watch the hard work of my friends (both Thai and Volunteers) be lost in a maelstrom of people using the wrong means to get their chosen leaders into power.
Americans can take a lesson. No matter how much we may hate the bureaucratic tomfoolery of our politicians, we cannot take for granted that the "two sides of the aisle" see things much more similarly than we think they do. I have been watching Fox news from here, and, yes, it is a joke, but it isn't really different than the news in general.
We have long since ceased to pay attention to the substance of our politics and have relegated them to a novel form of entertainment. We set up straw men and burn them to the ground, dancing around the flames. We let them distract us with handwaves and extremely partisan issues, and we give them undeserved power through laziness and sloth. Indeed, I suspect that our having turned politics into a circus arises out of our desire to do as little work as possible. If politicians are all corrupt, and bureaucracy is always a useless hassle, then I don't have to pay attention to it. We don't have to pay attention to it. You don't have to pay attention to it.
And you don't. Welcome to one of the primary privileges of being born an American. You can live your whole life ignoring politics, and everything will still be done for you. You just raise your voice in a slight protest around tax time and a slight argument around election time, and spend the rest of your days ignoring it. If there is anything that the last few days have taught me, it is that the rest of the world does not have that luxury.
-Pocket is a citizen of the United States of America.