I'm from Hartford CT USA. I'm 69 years old and been here 13 years. I didn't come here to immerse my mind in "geopolitics" or rub my nose daily in the caustic projectile vomited excrement that passes for news. My days of activism and self immolation over the world's problems are long behind me. I found out that I can't change the world, but I can change the way that I interact with what's around me, and inside of me. I came here to live a happy life and to preserve my mental health, and to do some good if I can. The world will do what it will regardless of my thoughts or ideas or endless barroom arguments with drunken Brits or MAGAs, and I'm sure I'll survive just nicely. (BTW I don't do arguing). I'm pretty happy to not have died of covid, and of the prostate cancer that I had treated last year. Perspective helps. My concern is that I contribute to who and what I can around me in a positive and meaningful way, to make people laugh and smile, to share joie de vivre. It's not my job to nail myself to the cross of international turmoil and outrage, and as far as my interaction with Thailand I'm not walking around waving an American flag wherever I go, and I'm not out to stick my nose into and dictate the affairs of a country that's generously allowed me to live as a guest. I'm not going to superimpose my "American" moral conscience here - to do so would be the epitome of arrogance. I came here in peace and humility. There are activists and journalists out there who are fighting and protesting on behalf of justice - here and abroad - they have taken up the gauntlet and God bless them, but that ain't me. There's nothing for me to be gained by anything that doesn't have a direct positive purpose and end result. I'm an artist and a rock and roll musician, I create and I entertain. Now, my opinion. "Curiously awkward"? If you want to call attention to yourself as an American in this way when you're hanging upside down on the other side of the world then you are the one creating the awkward position for yourself, painting a target on your back even, or at the very least you're overthinking it and burning up your own positive mental energy resources. Being American doesn't automatically grant you the moral high ground. If you think it does, yeah, that's "awkward" all right. Especially when no one recognizes it. If you're unsure how to disentangle and reconcile your own social and moral conscience against the "geopolitics" of Thailand and the world I'd say you have a very long and tiring road ahead of you, especially if you can't disengage your emotions sufficiently enough from that toxic mess to preserve your own peace of mind. If I were you I'd fold up that flag, put it in a drawer, and remember where you are and your place here, why you came here, and concentrate on the good people and things you see all around you. Because that's what really matters. BTW, this is as close as I'll ever get to discussing the ills of the world publicly. I don't engage in conversations that serve no positive purpose, and I'm certainly NOT EVER going to discuss the horrors of the current US fascist murderous criminal regime, for reasons I already stated. Only 2 more years. Maybe less. And still, I'll be here living peacefully.
