Myanmar and America politics, only one we can like
Goatherd on the tracks in Myanmar? Now that’s a job I wouldn’t mind talking about.
“I think we should talk about politics,” I suggested to the table of tour members, bored senseless with the American conversation of what you do for work.
“Oh, but wouldn’t you rather be friends?” A woman responded, half joking. Maybe a quarter. Heads around the table nodded their agreement, and we discovered that Bill was an accountant.
I get it. It bums me out, but I get it. And given how much more important politics is than what we normally talk about (unless Game of Thrones really affects your life) this kinda boggles my mind, so I’ve grabbed a few theories to explain it.
Not your enemy. Not anyone’s enemy.
3: Things seem so screwed, talking about them depresses me. (I get that. But what if ignoring problems is an implicit endorsement of them?)
2: I don’t understand politics and I’m scared that if we talk about it, you’ll find that out. (Chicken or the egg?)
And my number 1 reason why I think Americans are scared to talk about politics: We’ve forgotten that disagreeing with each other doesn’t friggin mean we’re enemies. You can still be friends with people you disagree with. And personally, I think you should be friends with people you disagree with. That might help our impasse, and lessen the ease with which we demonize and ridicule those with other opinions, instead of understanding and connecting with them.
So I’m delighted that Rick Steves encourages his guides to talk politics with tour members. And I’m going to. With frequent disclaimers that they’re just my opinions, and that I respect differing viewpoints, yada yada yada, and I’m sure I’ll get cases (like the one in Rome) where people look at me and their eyes indict “Oh. You’re one of them.” Who want to take our guns. Who want to demean the sanctity of marriage. Who want to give our jobs to the ___s.
Daily life, somewhere between Yangon and Mandalay
But what about when teaching refugees? Should I talk politics with people whose politics might have gotten them killed, and gotten their families killed? Probably not.
But when I have so many students from Myanmar, and that country is having its first apparently/relatively fair election in 25 years, I just have to ask something. And that one particular student is such a positive, friendly, open guy, and he speaks English so well, I just had to ask him a question that’s been lingering since I visited Myanmar in 2013.
I stopped by Aung Sun Suu Kyi’s birthday party, which was fantastic. But why were the shirts in English? (About 100 languages are spoken in Myanmar. Oh.)
“How do you feel about Aung San Suu Kyi?” He looked at me, slightly bewildered. “I heard, in Myanmar, people say that she is kind of more for foreigners than Burmese people.” (Kind of like how the Dalai Lama is the outside world’s representative of Tibet, but inside the country the Panchen Lama is often more significant.)
My student summed up politics in so many countries. “We like her. Because she’s the only one to like.”
So as the Republicans continue to search for the most insane viewpoints, the most profound misarticulation of reality, and the worst possible responses to it, and Hillary tries to squirm out from under the perception that she’s an intelligent, dedicated diplomat who is basically just another politician, I am left loving Bernie Sanders. Of course, the more I hear from and about him, the more I love him, but still, he’s the only one to like. Wouldn’t it be great to have more than one good option?
I wonder if I can get a table full of Americans to talk about that one.
The late Art Buchwald wrote a column on why there were so few people to choose from in an American presidential race. It was hilarious yet frighteningly true. I’ve often tried to track down the item, but with no luck.
P.S. I like Bernie too.
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Ooh, I would be interested to read that. I’ll see if I can track it down…
Wouldn’t a Sanders v Trump election be interesting? We could really see if America has any respect for intelligence left.
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In the quest to find the column, some of the keys words that I recall from the column were nine (only nine candidates), napkin (Buchwald said he did the calculation on a napkin) and something relating mental illness or psychiatry (in that anyone who’d suffered any type of mental issue couldn’t run). Oh women couldn’t either back then. I’ve never been able to track down the column, but hope you can. I think it was written after Ed Muskie was axed for crying, so maybe that’s another key word.
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I couldn’t find the one you’re talking about, but I did find a few pages of newsprint from the early 1980s with articles that could pretty easily be republished today. Specifically, articles about how big money was taking over politics. Turns out we haven’t gotten that one under control quite yet.
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Really great post. I completely agree. I love talking politics with people. I end up learning a lot and don’t hate people when its all over. And I especially love learning about politics in the areas where I travel because it is so new and different to me. When I get tired of our own politics I somehow never grow tired of hearing about how different it is elsewhere.
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I love it. We’ll have to arrange a travelers’ transnational political discussion, one of these days, one of these countries.
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Perfect!
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Nice that Rick Steves encourages political discussions but I’m curious as to whether you managed to actually have any meaningful ones? Any bites or did people just look horrified at the suggestion?
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We’ve actually had a few nice talks. I remember one woman, who was of the Republican persuasion, asking another tour member who was some kind of unspecified NSA/Intelligence contractor if Hillary did anything wrong with the whole email thing, and she seemed open to the answer “Nope. And it certainly was nothing unusual.”
I sometimes give a talk about why Germany has been and continues to be so powerful in which I mention their respect for government, and the expectation that it will work, and work well. In the course of it I mention my German friends who are baffled by the US’s anti-government rhetoric…from politicians. “How can you elect people to government who hate government?” They ask. In so doing, I perhaps reveal a certain opinion of mine regarding that caste of hypocritical idiot, and I remember finishing it and looking out over the seats and meeting an ice-cold stare from a fella from Kentucky who was a perfect blend of Johnny Cash and John Wayne. He didn’t talk to me for a couple days after that. (But we were buds again by Florence.)
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That’s so good to hear. I worry that thoughtful political discussions have gone the way of passenger pigeons. There’s so much animosity and knee-jerk-ism these days. Maybe travel puts people in a more receptive mood. If your Kentucky bud was involved in electing his state’s new governor, you’re lucky he didn’t take a swing at you.
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Discussing politics in the U.S. has become increasingly poisoned ever since the primary basis of debate has moved from the (perceived) best way to solve problems that are broadly acknowledged to arguing about the facts themselves (e,g, whether climate change is real or is a “hoax”, etc.).
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Isn’t that bizarre? To just “disagree” with 99% of scientists? I loved Obama’s speech where he referenced Inhofe bringing in the snowball to prove that climate change is a “hoax.” I could feel and share his incredulous frustration. “I’m not making that up! It really happened!”
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It’s amazing what living in a closed information loop can do to a person.
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