Thailand: Permanent Vacation vs. Political Reality.

for now let's move on to Thailand where
next week it will hold a constitutional referendum if the eyes have it Thailand will adopt its 20th Constitution Bob what are some of the key features of the proposed Constitution well it's interesting to note first of all Stewart and then run-up to this great deal of concern on the the military who runs Thailand that there not be you know politicking ahead of this referendum in terms of opposition rallies and so forth or even really much of a drill down and what the referendum is about people have been in jail there's a very tough act that was enacted referendum Act that would put people in jail for up to 10 years for violations of this sort of blanket order of no protests and so forth and the referendum itself makes repeated reference to efforts to cut down on corruption and the whole referendum process has made a repeated reference to corruption and cutting down in corruption and this is gonna stabilize Thailand and so forth and so how would it do that well it's proposing that the reintroduction of an upper house of the legislature in Parliament so a Senate a 250 person Senate that would be appointed not directly elected and some members of it would be from the Armed Services if it sounds like over tons of Myanmar it is although me and Maher seems to be moving in an opposite direction from Thailand at this point there are also mechanisms for the Senate to have power and choosing the Prime Minister and generally ways in which the military would have levers for dissolving Parliament if it saw fit you know having a military holding all these levers is usually not a recipe for for both stability in the long run as well as cracking down on corruption it's just corruption of a different sort it does seem ironic to see the u.s. opening to Myanmar on the one hand where things although not hardly perfect are seem to be going in a positive direction but obviously was considered really a rogue state or Praia state from the perspective of the United States for a while and yet things going in a sense in the opposite direction as you point out in Thailand which obviously is remains a storm to us treaty Ally two years after the military seized power in Thailand voters are being asked to approve a new constitution which critics say could extend the Army's influence well into the future Prime Minister Prayuth chan-ocha suppressed political activity since the coup and banned all criticism of the new charter come out because today is important for the future please don't think it doesn't matter that it doesn't count whether you come to vote or not this is for the future of the country but Thailand's first female premier al stood days before the coup banned from politics for five years and now on trial rejects the charter is undemocratic you know in the in the debates about atheism one of the snotty self-righteous things that atheists like to say is that the difference between science and religion is that science still matters even if you don't believe in it now sad fact is some science still matters even if you don't believe in it there are actually many theoretical questions many interesting fascinating areas of scientific research that do not impact people's daily lives in any way if they're unaware of them if they don't believe in them it's certainly possible to sleepwalk your way through life being ignorant of huge areas of scientific knowledge and you know many of them fascinating may them may be rewarding to you personally to put your time into you know reading as a layperson sitting by the fireside reading a tome on theoretical physics or they may matter to you as as matter as part of your profession as part of your um your passion in life you know maybe an area where you do original research whoever you are watching this video but it's a funny thing because you know political science politics political science still matters even if you don't care about it even if you ignore it even if you don't believe in it and it still impacts your daily life anywhere you are in the world anywhere you are that's inhabited by other human beings you ignore it at your peril and you really when you ignore it you really are impoverishing yourself mentally emotionally in so many ways this question of permanent vacation of being a long-term expatriate in a country like Thailand many other examples living for years in the country we have no contact with no concern with political reality it's one that I've addressed on this channel again and again and the current events in Thailand and the total silence the total lack of any comment from my fellow vegans living in Thailand on on recent political events I could speak for two hours about it easily unscripted scripted or unscripted at you know it's something I feel strong but I have a lot to say about but for this video I want to make a very simple point only and and leave this as a short statement of the matter this question of living in a state of voluntary ignorance voluntary disengagement from political reality to me it is parallel to one of the core questions we ask in veganism parallel not the same doesn't mean there's any point of contact between them parallel as a vegan when you talk to meat eaters often enough you're gonna meet people who respond to the issue of animal suffering of you know the exploitation of millions of animals on an unbelievable scale animals living their whole lives on a concrete floor in a steel cage suffering from the day they're born the day they die sometimes never seeing a blue sky etc etc the horrors from their conception birth life of exploitation for example in the dairy industry to their execution to be cut up and used as food there are people who respond to that by saying to you and they may explain it at length by saying to you sincerely that they just don't care or that they care a little bit but they care much more about the pleasure they get from mead drinking milk etc they care about something else more self-indulgence of some kind and then you as a vegan may find yourself in the awkward position of looking them in the eyes and trying to ask them to care right that's the hardest thing in the world there's an ancient Latin saying about that you know I think it's villain on this couture you can't teach the will you can't teach them to want something you know you can teach somebody facts but you can't teach them how to want to learn you can't teach them out of want it whatever it is your your teaching you know I can't teach you how to care right I can show you the facts I can tell you what the milk industry really is how the meat industry really works but can I make you care about it no and it's a tremendously weak position to be in as a vegan to have to be asking someone to care if you're in Thailand for a period of a year or several years and you you just don't care what do I do if I find myself in that position of having to look in your eyes and ask you to care it's actually not to make Thailand a better place you know it's not it's actually inviting you to be a better person and it's it's the same thing with veganism face-to-face eye-to-eye on that level of one person refusing to drink milk or eat meat there's no way you can really claim to be saving the life of an animal it's it's merely symbolic it's merely a drop in the bucket there's no sense in which you and I and five of our friends are having some kind of impact on the aggregate demand for beef that's gonna close down a slaughterhouse or save the life of even one cow I wish it was true but it's not but what changes is you what changes is who you are how you see the world how the world sees you and that change starts because you care it's not the same issue this question of politics pure and simple brass tacks politics real politics political science and that question of caring about animal welfare suffering etc it's not the same but there is a parallel there that I can draw and last things first I can ask you to care but I don't have to argue on that point because this isn't a religion we're not talking about things that only exist if you believe in them we're not talking about things that only matter if you care about them political science is still important even if you don't care consequences still count it still matters even if you don't care the millions of tons of untreated sewage from pig farms and cow farms that get poured into rivers ultimately into oceans it still matters actions have consequences whether or not you care and on the ecological side of veganism that's where it doesn't matter whether or not you care about the animals it doesn't matter actions still have consequences when we scale up the consequences of millions of people eating millions of animals those consequences are truly terrifying truly frightening to poll and when we scale up the consequences of public indifference of millions of people like you choosing to live in voluntary ignorance whether it's voluntary ignorance of political reality or voluntary ignorance of ecological reality we have a parallel hmm Banas yen