A few weeks ago, my old blogging buddy Ron Davison sent me a copy of his new book The Fourth Economy: Inventing Western Civilization, which examines the pattern of progress from an agricultural economy to an industrial one, then from industrial to an information economy, and predicts what the next generation will see with the rise of an entrepreneurship economy. If you feel the same entrepreneurial rumble around you right now as I do, we’re only just seeing the tip of the iceberg.

Already in the first few pages it had me absolutely spellbound, so I wanted to share. Ron’s thesis revolves around how the evolution of society has always depended upon invention… but he points out how we tend to think of invention solely as a technological act… when in fact there is another, equally important form of invention that almost invisibly shapes society: social invention.

I’ll quote extensively from Ron’s first few chapters, as he’s much more eloquent and academic about this important claim than I could ever be (emphases are mine):

“Money is only money because we agree it is money. As soon as we all agree that Confederate currency no longer has any value, it no longer has any value. When we agree that information on magnetic strips affixed to plastic has value, it has value. Whether someone is a slave, employee or part-owner of an enterprise is not inherent in any physical reality or dependent on any brute facts, but is—instead—true only as an institutional fact [i.e., a social invention –Cody].

[…] “A technological invention results in a product that can be seen independent of any agreement about it. While its use might require some instruction, instruction that might be something akin to declaration or agreement, its existence does not. A steam engine translates heat into motion and even if it requires an operator to do this, its existence falls more into the category of brute fact than institutional fact. By contrast, a home loan is a [social invention]. Without a contract specifying terms and even who owes what to whom, the loan makes no sense. Further, the loan assumes a whole other set of [social inventions], from money to banks to a real estate market to determine the value of the home for which the loan exists.”

…Ron goes on to explain the immense importance of social invention, including all the institutions that you’ve become accustomed to in your lifetime, in shaping society—nation-states, churches, banks, corporations, money, democracy. At some point in history, each of these things was invented, agreed upon, and eventually accepted as the status quo. But these things haven’t always existed, they haven’t always been the norm, as we tend to forget.

“A set of inventions defines a culture or civilization.

“We recreate civilization in each child. We call it education. Look at the huge amount of time and attention we devote to ‘civilizing’ a baby to become a member of society. The gross effort it takes to recreate society in each child should be testament to the fact that a culture is not a ‘natural’ or spontaneous state; it is, instead a social invention that takes great effort—every time. Language and manners, what we question and what we accept, social roles—all of these end products represent the teaching of parents, teachers, and even the media and are essentially conventions that work to construct meaning, to create the modern life. Rather than see them as inventions, we often see social inventions as simply ‘the way things are.’ Should you want a reminder that social inventions are just made up, however, raise a child. Mothers know that the curious, rebellious, stubborn, and lazy child will challenge social inventions. My family lives close to the Mexican border and when my daughter was protesting her car seat, she would say, ‘Mexican kids don’t wear seat belts.’ She, like every child, knew that things could be different and questioned why they were not. And of course, travel, news reports, novels, and history all remind us that our social inventions are not universal or even stable. What makes you successfully fit into your neighborhood in Manhattan would make you stand out in Afghanistan. Or even Montana. What made you fashionable in 1972 makes you look silly in 2012.”

He implores the need for social progress, for us to become more conscious about social invention. And I love how he describes our opportunity to create a new social reality:

“Perhaps teachers and parents should add this to their list of admonitions and lessons: ‘Warning: contents of this society have been known to create feelings of anomie and alienation; provoke wars, homicides, and suicides; and pollute the habitat you need for survival. Most of what we tell you should be questioned and could be improved upon. This is, really, just the best we’ve been able to do up until now and it could be that improvement will actually overturn much of what we now accept and advocate. Learn about your culture and your place in it, but don’t cling too tightly to it. What we’re teaching you probably needs to change, and soon.’”

[…] “a hypnotist, in a matter of minutes, can program you to do things you don’t normally do and to believe what is not so. […] how much more powerfully can society program you during the course of your life, given that it has so much more time and so many more persuasive tools at its disposal than does a hypnotist?”

[…] “If social invention is to become more widespread [ie: and we are to harness our inherent abilities to pave our own destinies and craft our own world –Cody], the individual will have to become more aware of how his or her life is also an invention. Up until now, it is the few who have defined society and the many that have been defined by it. A few receive the divine revelation and many receive Mass. Think about a world in which the direction is increasingly reversed, a society in which the individual is less social invention than social inventor. Or, rather, imagine a world in which more people engage in acts of social invention. If social invention becomes to this century what technological invention was to the last, we’ll witness such a change. Or, rather, we’ll create such a change.

“If daily life is an invention, the question is, whose invention is it? It is hard to underestimate the importance of inertia in defining society. Yet entrepreneurs challenge this inertia and invent something new.”

[…] “an entrepreneur is a social inventor. Their work is to create a new social invention, an organization, an institution, a new market, or a new business. Social entrepreneurs might start a new non-governmental organization (NGO) or nonprofit or charter school. I’m going to include under my broad umbrella of entrepreneurs not just business entrepreneurs like Bill Gates and Henry Ford but political and religious entrepreneurs like Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther.

“The next economy will popularize entrepreneurship in the same way that the Information Age popularized higher education and knowledge throughout the twentieth century. As entrepreneurship becomes more popular and diverse in its expression and application, social invention will become as normal as technological invention.”

My wish for 2012 is to see more interesting people building interesting things—projects, businesses, organizations, art, nonprofits, social inventions…

I am excited to see this become the new norm—to see many more people wake up to the realization that they don’t have to be a slave or an employee, but can instead choose to be creators, artists, shapers of the world around them, entrepreneurs. If you find these ideas and trends as fascinating as I do, I highly recommend you pick up a copy of Ron’s book The Fourth Economy for a much more in-depth look at the entrepreneurial revolution he predicts will sweep across the world.

I only hope we can play a small role in this huge societal shift with what we’re doing here and at Digital Nomad Academy, by enabling many more ambitious trailblazers to use their inherent abilities to create and shape things around them to help move the world forward.

On that note, I’m very excited to announce the recipients of our 2011 DNA scholarship and have a couple very special people join us inside soon.

The decisions were extremely difficult between 24 incredible video submissions. You guys attracted over 2,100 views on YouTube, 403 comments, 122 Likes, 44 tweets, 4 Google +1′s (where are you guys on +1??), 251 Shares and a bunch of Stumbles… I don’t think I’ve ever had a blog post as popular as the last post.

THE FINAL DNA SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS:

So after lots of consideration and tallying all the qualifying votes, here’s a big congratulations to the winners of the $1,500 spots to join us inside the Digital Nomad Academy! The DNA students and Thrilling Heroics community overwhelmingly voted you as the most energetic, ambitious candidates to join us:

• Eileen Campos
• Rodrigo Flamenco

And, because there was such a flood of outstanding videos, Ms. Claus and I decided to offer another “wild card” scholarship to a third excellent applicant whose story really resonated with us. That spot goes to:

• Tim Juliussen

Please keep an eye on your inbox over the next 24-48 hours for follow-up details.

BUT THAT’S NOT ALL!!

HUGE thanks to my friend and fellow nomad Maneesh Sethi, who has been good enough to offer up something special for the three runners-up here as well (you each deserve major thanks)! For showing up and making such an effort, you’ll receive a free copy of his Online Marketing Master Class (a $367 value). That means you: Janet, Peter, and Jeff, please email me at cody at thrillingheroics dot com and we’ll get you set up.

Sincere thanks to all who submitted video applications—Jamie, Chad, Michael, Iván, Alex, Sondra, Rick, Naomi, Berrak, Sidney, Marty, Michael, Daniel, Isabelle, Sergio, Tim, and Libor. You’ve all inspired us with your videos, you’ve stepped out of your comfort zone and put yourself out there, and you’ve been amazing sports. You rock!

For everybody: Maneesh is also giving away a sweet mini ebook exclusively for Thrilling Heroics readers called Taking Advantage Of The System, where you’ll learn a ton of awesome stuff, including specific steps to get a free round-trip international plane ticket, and free office space in almost every country of the world. Grab it here.

If you’re not one of our scholarship recipients, please stay tuned as we will have many more opportunities like this in the future, and I’ll work to ensure we make Digital Nomad Academy affordable for the people who need it most and get the right people inside. I hope to have many more of you join us inside in the months ahead.

You are the pioneers of the Fourth Economy. Here’s to creating an improved, more connected, whole, healed, better society through entrepreneurship in 2012 and beyond! 

Photo credit: Abode of Chaos

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: How You and I Are Going to Shape the Next Century Together (PLUS Scholarship Winners!)

From March through May, Bangkok, Thailand was victim to intense political unrest, involving skirmishes between anti-government “Redshirt” protesters (UDD), Royal Thai Army soldiers, Bangkok riot police, and third-party elements scattered all around the city.

It had lasted two months but thankfully been fairly isolated in other parts of the city, but in the last few days, for the second year in a row, the clashes very suddenly focused right on Thanon Ratchewithi, the main road that I walk along every day to get to Bangkok’s public transit, the BTS Skytrain.

Friday, May 14th. Everything up until this point in our neighborhood had been fairly quiet. Early afternoon, my girlfriend and I parted ways—she had to do some business errands at the bank and the post office and head to her apartment 5 minutes up the boulevard from me.

Two hours later, I get a phone call. “Someone’s shooting right outside my condo. I can see people running up the street. We’re stuck inside the building, they say it’s not safe to go downstairs.”

Not long after, worried sick about Nikki and her roommate getting stuck in their tower for days (and the potential of losing power, water, etc.) I wandered out with Sean to see what there was to see right at the end of our soi. Demonstrators were subtly provoking the soldiers, who were slowly advancing up the street in our direction. They had blocked off the road to traffic, but there were a few locals trickling out of the sealed-off area, so I was sizing up the situation to see if I could get to them… I was wondering whether there was a back entrance to their property if I went down Soi 1 and climbed the fence…

As Sean and I were getting ready to head back home to safety though, in our last moments of stupid curiosity a few loud shots fired in our direction and we frantically ran for cover with the crowd of onlookers, dodging behind a small pickup truck as the adrenaline started pumping. Just another day in Bangkok, I started off dodging bullets with Sean Ogle, but our neighborhood then fell under siege for the next six+ days.

Looking up Ratchaprarop Road about 300 meters from Nikki’s condo before everything went to hell. (Photo by Sean Ogle)

A protester prepares to hurl a Molotov cocktail up the street from me. (Athit Perawongmetha/Getty Images)

A burning tire rolls toward the line of Thai soldiers moving to disperse Red Shirt protesters on Friday, May 14, 2010 in Bangkok, Thailand. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)

Red Shirt protesters create a burning barricade on Rama IV road to stop army soldiers from advancing in Bangkok May 15, 2010. (REUTERS/Adrees Latif)

A Thai man believed to be a Red Shirt demonstrator lies dead in the street after being shot by an unidentified sniper Saturday, May 15, 2010, in Bangkok, Thailand. (AP Photo)

A Thai man removes a can from a burning barricade in a main avenue of Bangkok during clashes between demonstrators and security forces on May 16, 2010. (PEDRO UGARTE/AFP/Getty Images)

Anti-government protesters carry a man who was shot by live ammunition during clashes between demonstrators and security forces in Bangkok on May 16, 2010. (NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images)

This is literally 200 meters away from my door, at the end of my soi in Victory Monument. Bangkok on May 16, 2010: a war zone. (Athit Perawongmetha/Getty Images)

Thick black smoke billows through the air behind the main Chulalongkorn hospital near the Red Shirt encampment on Wednesday May 19, 2010 in Bangkok, Thailand. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

An armored personnel carrier moves toward a burning anti-government barricade during a military crackdown Wednesday, May 19, 2010, in Bangkok, Thailand. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)

An anti-government protester piles tires on a fire at a shopping center Wednesday, May 19, 2010, in Bangkok, Thailand. (AP Photo/Wally Santana)

A statue and a torn Thai national flag remain in front of Bangkok’s Central World shopping mall, which was gutted by fire after army soldiers advanced towards an encampment of thousands of Red Shirt protesters, May 19, 2010. (REUTERS/Adrees Latif)

Friday night, I watched right outside my window as rioters dragged heaps of sheet metal, scraps, and rods onto my soi to build a makeshift road blockade, watched them throwing Molotov cocktails over my neighbors’ roofs at the police and Army at 4 in the morning. Rubber bullets were flying, tear gas is in the air, and homemade explosives were going off all through the night, grenades being launched in the air, gunfire, and numerous reports (via Twitter) of unidentified snipers on rooftops throughout our neighborhood shooting at protesters, soldiers, and even uninvolved onlookers.

This is the scene that unfolded literally right outside Nikki’s front door on Saturday morning, May 15th—Thanon Ratchaprarop became one of the two main “Live Fire Zones” where soldiers were shooting on sight. Protesters created a tire barricade 15 meters up Nikki’s condo driveway, and at least two or three protesters and bystanders were shot and killed. Their bodies were dragged inside her lobby where a doctor (or a paramedic?) was trying to tend to them. There is also video taken from above by some other residents in her building, from one of the upper floors of The Complete Ratchaprarop condominium. That bursting loud gunfire sound echoed throughout our entire neighborhood all day and all night.

Nikki called me at 10:30 Saturday morning. Needless to say, it had been a rough night to try to sleep.… and I missed the call since I’d only finally passed out three hours earlier. Her third attempt woke me: finally, after she’d been trapped inside for about 24 hours, she had been evacuated from her building by soldiers, guided out the back of the condominium, through an adjoining garden park, and had to use a ladder to get over the back wall.

Without hesitation, I packed a bag in about 10 minutes, taking all my most important items I couldn’t stand not to ever see again. Several of the buildings on our road were torched, as you can see from some of the photos above. Rioters set about 35 major fires around the city, and Asia’s second-largest shopping mall, Central World, was completely destroyed.

Thankfully, we were finally able to meet and get out of the city safely. We took a bus headed to Kanchanaburi, a small countryside town about two hours northwest of Bangkok, to stay alongside the River Kwai for a few days. There were plenty of places in Bangkok that were left untouched, and on some streets life went on like normal and you almost wouldn’t have any idea anything was wrong, but we found ourselves right in the center of the worst of it, so we spent the next four weeks away from home.

But even for the first week well away from harm, I was concerned for the safety of many of my friends who live in my building, or up the street from me, including (you can read their accounts of the events too) Sean Ogle, Dwight Turner, Mark Weins, Jodi Ettenberg, my friends May, Joel, and others…

All around Bangkok, protesters and rioters sacked shops and malls, torched electricity companies, municipal services buildings, the Thai Stock Exchange, provincial halls in areas outside of Bangkok, they shot at firefighters trying to put out fires in Siam, attacked TV stations and newspaper headquarters. After days of rioting, torching, and clashes with Army troops, much of my neighborhood, Victory Monument, Rajavithi Road and Din Daeng intersection in Bangkok, were reduced to rubble.

Peaceful demonstrations and violent uprisings

Our universe revolves around a cycle of creation—life is created and fades, energy is formed and consumed…

In my mind, as human actors in this reality, we have three modes of interaction with this system: production, consumption, and destruction. We create offspring, we distill and consume energy, we produce and consume things of value. Sometimes, we destroy life, or we destroy things of value, so that they are of no use to us or to anyone else.

War is destruction. Don’t let politicians fool you into believing war is about freedom. You don’t need to wage war on another society to become free, or to protect your freedom. Sometimes it is about securing resources for one nation’s future consumption, to someone else’ detriment (like all the US’ wars in the Middle East), but usually it is nothing but destruction.

I don’t condone governments that wage illegal wars. I don’t like seeing soldiers in the streets shooting people. I find all the “collateral damage” of conflict that lasts for decades despicable—the adverse effects on families and societies, the mines that kill and maim children thirty years later in places like Vietnam and Cambodia, for example.

But anti-establishment, anti-government movements are destructive too. They rise out of an opposition to injustice, or opposed to something they see as unethical, which are valid and good motivations. But all too often these groups—even the most organized forms of counterculture movements like Marxism and communism—tend to become as corrupt as the regimes they originally opposed. They use violence and destruction as a means to overthrow the existing systems and institutions.

“What is the point of anyone feeling proud of being the winner, when standing on a pile of ruins and rubble?” –King Rama IX of Thailand

As an aside: I am a capitalist, and until I find a better solution, I think I always will be. The capitalist free market is about both production and consumption. Businesses and entrepreneurs must create value—things and ideas of value—for others to consume. Yes, there are thousands of unethical businesspeople and corporations out there, but ethical entrepreneurs and corporations capitalize on whatever situation they find themselves in in the most effective way they can without causing hardship to those around them—in order to create the best possible outcome from their situation—creating jobs, income, products, services, and new ideas and solutions for problems that society faces.

In the last few months, there has been an interesting discussion unfolding in the online personal development and lifestyle design communities (see here and here, including the comments) about the merits (or lack thereof) of consumerism, pitting capitalist thinkers against anti-capitalist thinkers. But I don’t believe that solutions to the world’s problems—hunger, disease, poverty, war—are mutually exclusive from capitalism. Yes, we need to strive for a more ethical lifestyle design movement for example, and yes, the world deserves more ethical business. Definitely. But a radical abandoning of capitalism in favor of a radical leftist movement isn’t the answer. Anti-consumerism and anti-corporate attitudes aren’t really the answer, and in fact, while I agree with much of what my colleagues who hold those beliefs say, I think going too far down that road is dangerous.

The only way to create true positive change in the world is to find unconventional ways to work within the system, and change it from the inside out. You don’t create long-lasting positive progress with uprisings, by forcefully casting down the existing system, violently overthrowing the ruling elite, or the incumbent institutions. Once you spill blood, you forfeit your credibility entirely.

We are all participating in our own constructed fantasies, and none of us realize it. We are all trapped in prisons we cannot see.

Like Eric Schiller said in his recent critique of the lifestyle design and personal development communities, “the problem is not that we are participating in a fantasy, but the fact that we do not realize it is one.” We are the stories we tell ourselves.

Yes, I have my fantasies, and you have yours. But we need to take off the Che Guevara t-shirts. We need to stop idolizing the mythical “freedom fighters” without fully understanding the details of their lives. (Seriously, read about El Che and all the violent acts he committed before you put on that t-shirt again.) Rejecting consumerism and saying “fuck the system” like you’re Tyler Durden seems cool and trendy, until it leads to running around in ski masks blowing up Starbucks shops and financial buildings.

The protests in Thailand were largely bankrolled by someone very rich and very powerful, and I watched as these people were fed a certain story by protest leaders shouting propaganda over the radio every night for two months. I’m all for peaceful demonstrations, but you either stick to your principles or you don’t, and there’s a big difference when you incite an angry mob to violence. This was more like brainwashing, to the point that it became normal and acceptable to these people to come to Bangkok and destroy people’s businesses and homes, put their own children in harm’s way, kill their own countrymen in the street, and go back home to sleep in their own beds. (Please note: I don’t really support any side here, not the Redshirts, the Yellowshirts, the Army, or anyone. Everyone has some responsibility to take and I just hate seeing people killing each other.)

There is definitely a place for real heroism in the world, but we need to stop painting ourselves in the role of David against Goliath. Governments and people in positions of power use these types of stories to breed nationalism, racism, and hate, and pit us against each other. But if we believe these stories, we end up fighting each other in the street. Instead we must see reality for what it is, and stop believing these myths that it is “us” against “them”, “good” versus “evil”, that we are in some epic battle against injustice which justifies any means to an end.

Society has steeped itself in myths and ideologies about heroism and the fight for what is “right” for millenia—you see it in our stories, in our comic books, in our movies, you see it on television. It’s the reason why the US has occupied Iraq and Afghanistan for nearly a decade. It’s the reason why Christians, Jews, and Muslims continue to murder each other every day.

But the only way to peace and prosperity for everyone is through nonviolence, through rationality, and through conversation.

After being there in the middle of a so-called “people’s uprising” for two consecutive years—a socially- and economically-fueled revolt against the “system”, against the elite, against the people who pull the strings—all I can say is I don’t want any part of it. These things happen all the time, all around the world (we’re pretty sheltered in America). There certainly are important disparities and inequalities that need to be examined and resolved, but we must not sink to the same level of corruption and violence to solve the injustices in the world.

We must embrace rationality. This needs to happen at every level of society, all the way down to you and me. For lifestyle designers, personal development bloggers, and online marketers like us, perhaps we need to reexamine the language we use. We need to stop calling ourselves “radicals” and “revolutionaries” when we’re really not. We need to stop reinforcing the myths of “revolt against the system”. Because I think if you step back and ask yourself if you would truly want to be a part of a real revolution in the streets, I think your answer would be “no”.

We must destroy our idols. We mustn’t make our lives about what we are against, but make them all about what we are for. Whether you’re for liberating people from the cubicle, saving the environment, helping the oppressed and disadvantaged, or otherwise making the world a better place, we need to band together and focus not on destroying what we don’t like but on producing. On creating alternate solutions.

Photo sources:

• Protests turn deadly in Thailand – The Big Picture – Boston.com
• Crackdown in Bangkok – The Big Picture – Boston.com
• Bangkok Street Fighting Intensifies – Photo Essays – TIME
• Terror in Thailand – Photo Gallery – LIFE

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Dodging Real Bullets: Revolutionary Behavior & Violence in the Real World

It’s been a very eerie day.

I went out on the town as usual with my boys David Walsh and Sean Ogle last night. The weather was perfect and we had a comfy cabana at one of the luxury rooftop bars on Thonglor Soi 10—playground of Bangkok’s high society—listening to some chilled-out Thai bossa nova band. Supposedly this was a spot to rub shoulders with Thai celebs…at least there were Lamborghinis parked outside.

Then we moved down to the thumping nightclub downstairs, and on to a third and fourth venue along Thonglor’s trendy club row. We ended up in a warehouse-style nightclub like one might find in New York or downtown L.A., and we even met up with Nomadic Matt and Jodi Ettenberg (aka: Legal Nomads). Finally, the bottle of Sang Som (Thailand’s favorite, cheap 40-proof rum) I’d split with Ogle took control of my head and I’m still hazy about what happened after that…

But my Saturday morning hangover was different this time…usually the afterglow from a night out is satisfying, but today I found myself in a funk. I’ve already been in a creative rut for the last few weeks—a thousand thoughts in my head but for some reason I can’t bring myself to put pen to paper at all.

Many of my best friends in Bangkok are out of town or out of the country. Thailand’s New Year—the Songkran water festival—is this week, but it appears I’ve already missed the train. I was hoping to spend the holiday on the beach with my “extended family” back down in Krabi in time to see a good college friend before she moves back to California, but plans aren’t going my way.

Additionally, Bangkok’s political protests have been heating up. For the last few weeks, the National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD)—also known as the “Redshirts”—have been rallying against the current government and demanding that the Prime Minister dissolve the house and step down.

Today the protests turned violent. Depending on who you listen to: up to 11 deaths, hundreds of injuries, and millions of dollars in economic losses due to closed businesses and slowing tourism.

[See The Big Picture, The New York Times, and the Economist for photos and background on the protests.]

Soldiers clash with Red Shirt supporters of former PM Thaksin Shinawatra at a television satellite center on April 09, 2010 in Bangkok, Thailand. (Athit Perawongmetha/Getty Images)

History Repeating

It’s an exact replay of this same time last year: All official Songkran celebrations cancelled. After our very first Bangkok Tweetup last April, I was awoken at 4am one morning by automatic gunfire in the street outside my window. Riot police and soldiers in my neighborhood, M79 grenades, gas bombs and Molotov cocktails being thrown, rubber bullets, tear gas, city buses hijacked and set aflame to block roads, tanks rolling through the streets juxtaposed against a backdrop of designer shopping malls.

One of many hijacked buses on Ratchewithi (This photo is from LAST YEAR, April 2009)

Producer Tom Vitale, who snuck out and did some guerilla-style shooting during the height of the state of emergency in Thailand. These were, as you might imagine, moments of extreme uncertainty. Barricades of hijacked buses and trucks on fire, violent confrontations between heavily armed military and protesters. Actual shootings. Assassination attempts. Government ministers being dragged out of their cars and beaten by angry mobs. What looked at the time like it could be a coup, a revolution…or worse. It was a dumb-ass thing to do, go looking for a riot. But brilliantly and heroically dumb-ass. The kind of dumb-ass we like. Plus, he got the shots. I’m sure our local contacts will be unhappy with the fact that we show this aspect of what was going on when we were in their country. They clearly tried their best to keep us away from it. But I dearly hope that what people see on this episode will in no way discourage them from visiting.

Soldiers keep watch over Ratchewithi Soi 2 in Victory Monument (This photo is from LAST YEAR, April 2009)

Strange Days

Again, for the second time in a row, my Songkran has been stolen from me! This elusive celebration, with promises of being the best festival of the year—where residents take to the streets with Super Soakers and buckets of ice water for a city-wide water fight… This Buddhist holiday I passed up on my favorite annual music festival for!

In a way, it inspires me to see people get fuckin’ angry and make a stand for what they believe in. There is an element of energy which we definitely lack in the West. “This would never happen in the U.S.!” I keep thinking to myself. We could certainly use a dose of political rage once in a while.

Anti-government protesters, in red, use barriers to push back riot policemen during a demonstration in Bangkok, Thailand, Tuesday, April 6, 2010. Thousands of anti-government demonstrators clashed with Thai police and military troops trying to prevent them from leaving from the capital's commercial district to stage protests elsewhere in Bangkok. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

But when you see riots bankrolled by a fugitive ex-Prime Minister who was charged with illegally laundering nearly $3 billion US, and see handouts being passed around, you know you’re not dealing with geniune democracy. [Again, see the Economist for a full background—some spectacular journalism there.]

Thailand needs a democratically-elected government that’s not corrupt. They need a PM that’s not pulling strings and buying votes, and the Redshirts need to disassociate themselves from Thaksin if that’s ever going to happen.

Red Shirt supporters of former PM Thaksin Shinawatra throw rocks at soldiers at a television satellite center on April 09, 2010 in Bangkok,Thailand. Tear gas was fired at protesters as they stormed the ThaiCom satellite television compound to demand the government restore the People Channel television station. (Athit Perawongmetha/Getty Images)

I look in the streets and I see people dying for nothing. When will people stop letting the rich, powerful elite play them like pawns in their strategic game for power?

[I should clarify: I'm definitely not trying to take sides, but I am a firm believer that violence almost never accomplishes anything. It's hard to see a country that is so peaceful turned upside-down by people who will do absolutely anything to hold onto their power. I see money and corruption on both sides, and I think Thai politics needs a new direction, but the people of Thailand deserve so much more than someone like Thaksin can give them.]

I’m certainly not just calling out Thai protesters here. Us Americans let our government brush aside hundreds of holes in their “official account” of the largest terrorist attack ever perpetrated, carry out illegal wars, let the real bad guys walk free (ahem, Osama bin Laden?), burry us deep in faulty loans, get in bed with Wall Street to bury us further in debt, fumble the ball on universal healthcare and all kinds of civil rights issues, and continue to impose draconian laws that violate the privacy guaranteed to us by the Bill of Rights. The circus-show pundits distract us with whatever’s shiny this week and we don’t bat an eyelash.

When are we gonna stop rolling over and taking it? When are we going to start thinking for ourselves rather than regurgitating what the TV tells us?

There’s a strange silence in Bangkok tonight. Thailand almost feels like it’s coming apart at the seams, and for some reason everyone’s talking about Twitter acquiring Tweetie or some bullshit.

Flip the station. Reach for another bag of Doritos. Go back to sleep.

…

All of this to say, it is for reasons like these that I will make it my life’s mission to completely opt-out of the broken, malnourished political “system” by whatever means I can. If you find the idea of transcending governments and becoming truly independent from any one nation-state interesting, let me point your attention to Emergency by Neil Strauss and SovereignMan.com…

What I Came to Thailand For

To end this weird, stream-of-consciousness rant on a positive note, I highly recommend you watch Anthony Bourdain’s Thailand episode. You can watch most of it in 5 parts on YouTube. If you’ve never been out here, it gives a full and remarkably accurate portrayal of this unique place. Here is part 1:

In the clip above, you can see scenes of my street during the April, 2009 demonstrations. Bourdain continues his journal entry from the above description of the protests with these words to say about the Land of Smiles:

There is no place like Thailand. It is one of the greatest of foodie destinations and in marked contrast to the violence of their national sport–and the occasional outbreak of political strife, one of the least dangerous, most gentle and tolerant places I’ve ever been. Thailand, in my experience, is a country where a visitor can pretty much wander at will without anything resembling a plan, eating everything in sight, relying completely on the kindness of strangers–and only good things will happen.

There truly is no place like Thailand. Even amidst all the chaos, I love it here. In the 15 months I’ve lived here, I’ve never once felt threatened or ill-at-ease with my surroundings. Although the pace at which things get done can be quite a bit slower than we’re used to in the West, hardly anyone can be called lazy—people hustle and get creative when it comes to providing for their families. And even with corruption on all sides, freedom, in some strange sense, exists in a way we don’t have it back in the States. There is tremendous opportunity out here in developing Southeast Asia. Out here you’ve got the potential to make things happen that might seem unimaginable back home.

For more reading on the situation here:

• Violence Erupts in Thai Streets from NYTimes.com
• Thailand’s succession: As father fades, his children fight from The Economist
• The Thai “Shirt” Problem and Why Elections Won’t Solve It. from John Berns
• Jodi Ettenberg’s ongoing Redshirt coverage at Legal Nomads
• Democracy, Tear Gas, and a New Guitar from Location 180

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Sangsom, Bullets & Tony Bourdain: Strange Days in Bangkok

I’m a rebel. Be afraid.

I tagged buildings in college. I ran off a handful of Sunday School teachers back in my middle school days. I wrote controversial columns for my high school newspaper that almost got me expelled and I’ve pirated more than a few MP3s in my day.

To most people who know me, though, I’m a straight-laced kind of guy. Definitely not a rabble-rouser. I may have different ideas about things, but I’m no in-your-face revolutionary. And that’s exactly the kind of reputation to I want to have.

Because you know what? I have done things (and intend to continue doing things) that make people uncomfortable, yet still I insist upon keeping a clean image and a sterling reputation.

I make it a point to obey the law most of the time.

Why? Because if I ever find myself on the wrong side of a situation, it’s much more likely that I’ll get out of it without too much trouble. Not only that, but in general society does a pretty good job at keeping things oiled and running smoothly. There are problems, sure, but the vast majority of everyday people, places and things don’t need my help to do their job because they’re doing just fine on their own; if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.

Many people I know who have revolutionary ideas don’t abide by this rule, unfortunately. They find something to rebel about and then keep on screaming at the top of their lungs (sometimes metaphorically, sometimes literally) for things to change. Once you’ve demanded one change, it’s easy to find little problems with anything, which leads to more demands, more yelling, more—let’s be honest—really annoying revolutionaries.

This is a serious problem for people with good ideas everywhere, because in all honesty, most people couldn’t care less about someone else’s ideas or complaints. To them, someone else screaming ‘Viva revolution!’ is the same as the neighbor’s dog barking or a baby crying or a garbage truck driving by at 6am…just more noise pollution to be tolerated until it can be ignored.

By exercising restraint, however, you are able to make it clear that when you speak up, what you are speaking up about is important.

If you, the clean-cut, helpful, friendly, cheerful boy/girl next door are taking action and instigating change, well, then something must really be wrong! Just make sure that something really is wrong, though, because you can only cry wolf once or twice before people start treating you as if you’ve been screaming your head off all along.

Then, of course, there are all the benefits of actually being a respectable part of society in general. Just be a good person and surround yourself with good people and you’ll have a good life. Help old ladies cross the street and hold doors for people. Be polite. Be honest. There’s no need for an ‘us versus them’ mentality for most things in life. Compete with yourself and not others and work on your confidence level. Obey the damn law.

Do these things, and your ability to influence change by drastic action will not be watered down by years of complaining and acting out. You’ll be more than ready to unleash the beast, should you really need to, and make tsunami-sized waves any time you speak up.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Obey the Law Most of the Time