In Thailand: Is the loss of one's intellectual peer group a unique form of silence?

[GammaGlobulin]

Dear Folks,

 

Intellectually speaking.....

Coming to Thailand......

Does coming here sometimes represent for you loss of intellectual stimulation?

A loss, compared to what you had known, in your former life?

 

Or, to put it more plainly:

 

This morning, a grand, gloomy-sounding notion popped into my head, and I know that you lot are the only ones who might get it without me having to draw a map and provide footnotes.

 

It’s that particular quiet you notice when you realize you’re the last person in the room who knows the punchline to a certain kind of joke.

You know the one. You start to tell a story about some political gombeen from the '80s or a GAA match that went spectacularly sideways, and you’re met with a sea of polite, blank, well-meaning foreign faces.

They're trying their best, God love them, but you can see you might as well be explaining quantum physics.

 

That's the silence I'm talking about. It’s the sound of your own references echoing back at you off a wall of polite incomprehension.

 

It’s bad enough at home, where the herd thins out from sheer bloody-minded attrition. But for us, the self-imposed exiles, it's a double whammy.

We’ve voluntarily become the last known speakers of a dying dialect—the dialect of home. You end up the sole, slightly boring curator of your own memories.

 

So, the Topic is:

 

How much do you miss being able to talk on a higher plain, now that you have arrived, and met your significant others?

 

Of course, it really does not matter what country one might be in...and the point is that if you and your partner are not speaking the same native lingo...then...

This always happens....

 

Very infrequently can you have an intelligent conversation around here, just due to the language barrier.

 

Do you agree?

Of course, you do.

 

But, does this bother you?

 

Let's talk about this, why not?

 

I mean, can you talk to your wife?

Probably not.

 

Gamma

 

NOTE:  The Topic headline is about one's peer group.  Do you miss your intellectual peer group, now that you have left your home country?

 

NOTE2: Or, have you been able to find your intellectual peer group, reconstituted, here on ThaiVisa?????

 

 

 

[short-Timer]

Dear Gamma,

 

Truly, a tour de force of reflective melancholy. A lamentation worthy of ancient philosophers… if those philosophers had been exiled to a tropical climate and found themselves explaining Benny Hill reruns to a crowd that only knows TikTok dances.

 

And yes, Gamma, I too know that silence. That dead-eyed, blink-blink stare you get when you make a clever quip about Thatcher or drop a sly reference to Monty Python, only to be met with the same expression you’d get from a water buffalo pondering astrophysics.

 

You have captured it beautifully: the tragic, noble burden of being the last keeper of the sacred intellectual flame, bravely reciting tales of political farce and pub trivia to an audience that just wants to know if you want sticky rice with your som tam.

 

Do I miss it, Gamma? Oh, every single day. I miss the warm comfort of witty repartee, the sparkling back-and-forth of shared cultural shorthand… all of it now replaced with the steely-eyed determination to mime out what a direct debit is to my bank manager.

 

But fear not, Gamma. For when the world seems dim, when the sharp edges of our minds risk going dull in the tropical sun, we always have this little corner of cyberspace… a sacred circle of scattered madmen and misplaced academics… keeping each other just intelligent enough to feel superior to the world around us, and just self-aware enough to realise it no longer matters.

 

Long may we grumble. Long may we whinge. And long may we cling to these final scraps of smug intellectualism, even if it’s just to make ourselves feel special while ordering noodles.

 

With utmost reverence,

Another proud curator of useless knowledge

[GammaGlobulin]

17 minutes ago, short-Timer said:

Truly, a tour de force of reflective melancholy. A lamentation worthy of ancient philosophers

 

Truly...!!!

[GammaGlobulin]

19 minutes ago, short-Timer said:

cling

 

Now you have me thinking of CLING PEACHES.....

 

And, of course, from peaches, we go to....what else but.....

 

 

 

[proton]

OP not in Thailand then, or up at 4am!

[GammaGlobulin]

Just now, proton said:

OP not in Thailand then, or up at 4am!

 

Or both.

[Maxbkkcm]

Plenty of thais to have deep conversations especially in bkk

[HappyExpat57]

45 minutes ago, proton said:

OP not in Thailand then, or up at 4am!

I have trouble sleeping past 2 am. That's not a proper litmus test for living in LOS.

[GammaGlobulin]

24 minutes ago, HappyExpat57 said:

I have trouble sleeping past 2 am. That's not a proper litmus test for living in LOS.

 

OK.

 

Then, I wish you something, such as a good morning, from the Velvet Underground....

 

 

Today is Sunday....

Right?

 

[GammaGlobulin]

2 hours ago, short-Timer said:

Benny Hill reruns

 

So many years ago, now, that I can barely, or dimly, recall.

 

I love Benny Hill, even though he may not have been included in my intellectual peer group.

 

Years ago, while in Taiwan, under marshal law, as I recall it, Benny Hill was very welcome, and almost our only entertainment.

 

Those were the days when Three is Company was the highlight of our week.

 

So amazing just how much marshal law can improve any mediocre comedy show.

 

So many fond memories.

 

I would sacrifice and relinquish all of my worldly wealth and goods just to return to those simpler days.

 

What good is it to have all I have now, when all around me seems to be falling down?

 

So many Fawlty Towers, all round, falling down......

 

Literally and metaphorically......

 

 

 

[daveAustin]

I’m sure back home buddies miss all this stimulating conversation. When you going back?

[1FinickyOne]

4 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

Does coming here sometimes represent for you loss of intellectual stimulation?

What was too often passing for intellectual stimulation was a bunch of phony status seekers trying to show off knowledge in clever clever land - 

[proton]

3 hours ago, HappyExpat57 said:

I have trouble sleeping past 2 am. That's not a proper litmus test for living in LOS.

 

That would be understandable if it was just him, but all 4 of these 'odd' posters appear to be up posting long drivel posts at 4 am.

[unblocktheplanet]

I have mostly of my intellectual conversations by email and my witty repartée on videocall. You're right, though: It's not the same. Some do laugh at my wordplay jokes in Thai, some backfire.

[Stocky]

6 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

The Topic headline is about one's peer group.  Do you miss your intellectual peer group, now that you have left your home country?

Do you not maintain contact with your friends/peers whilst in Thailand, no WhatsApp groups?

[saintdomingo]

Never been in any company where GAA has been mentioned.

[MarkBR]

7 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

Dear Folks,

 

Intellectually speaking.....

Coming to Thailand......

Does coming here sometimes represent for you loss of intellectual stimulation?

A loss, compared to what you had known, in your former life?

 

Or, to put it more plainly:

 

This morning, a grand, gloomy-sounding notion popped into my head, and I know that you lot are the only ones who might get it without me having to draw a map and provide footnotes.

 

It’s that particular quiet you notice when you realize you’re the last person in the room who knows the punchline to a certain kind of joke.

You know the one. You start to tell a story about some political gombeen from the '80s or a GAA match that went spectacularly sideways, and you’re met with a sea of polite, blank, well-meaning foreign faces.

They're trying their best, God love them, but you can see you might as well be explaining quantum physics.

 

That's the silence I'm talking about. It’s the sound of your own references echoing back at you off a wall of polite incomprehension.

 

It’s bad enough at home, where the herd thins out from sheer bloody-minded attrition. But for us, the self-imposed exiles, it's a double whammy.

We’ve voluntarily become the last known speakers of a dying dialect—the dialect of home. You end up the sole, slightly boring curator of your own memories.

 

So, the Topic is:

 

How much do you miss being able to talk on a higher plain, now that you have arrived, and met your significant others?

 

Of course, it really does not matter what country one might be in...and the point is that if you and your partner are not speaking the same native lingo...then...

This always happens....

 

Very infrequently can you have an intelligent conversation around here, just due to the language barrier.

 

Do you agree?

Of course, you do.

 

But, does this bother you?

 

Let's talk about this, why not?

 

I mean, can you talk to your wife?

Probably not.

 

Gamma

 

NOTE:  The Topic headline is about one's peer group.  Do you miss your intellectual peer group, now that you have left your home country?

 

NOTE2: Or, have you been able to find your intellectual peer group, reconstituted, here on ThaiVisa?????

 

 

 

Use internet for communicating with like-minded people.  Obviously, not some news/social media websites & people on them.  Partly it will depend on age, at 63 beginning to encounter this problem to a small degree.  Just a matter of socialising, in person or via suitable social media, with similarly intelligent individuals who can debate rationally, even if you do not agree with them.

[mudcat]

Ran into this at work fifteen years ago when the lunch bunch included Bob L. from Hong Kong, Sam A. from Beirut, Hassan from Daka, Garth H. from South Africa, and me from New York.

 

I would make a allusion to cultural touchstones from the 50s and 60s and got blank looks. Coincidentally those were the end of a common culture in the U.S. 

 

Comes from working with a group that grew up as the smartest kid in the room (all engineers, some of them even civil) leavened with me, the smart ass.

 

 

[short-Timer]

14 hours ago, proton said:

 

That would be understandable if it was just him, but all 4 of these 'odd' posters appear to be up posting long drivel posts at 4 am.

Yet somehow you summon the strength to spew drivel at any given moment of your choosing. Truly, a masterclass in dedication. A driveler of the highest order. Bask in your fine achievement sir, you have rightfully earned it.

[still kicking]

20 hours ago, proton said:

OP not in Thailand then, or up at 4am!

I don't go to bed before 4 AM 

[Harrisfan]

4 hours ago, still kicking said:

I don't go to bed before 4 AM 

You live by yourself. Must be watching porn.

[Harrisfan]

20 hours ago, proton said:

 

That would be understandable if it was just him, but all 4 of these 'odd' posters appear to be up posting long drivel posts at 4 am.

They live alone. Its porn or these topics.