michaël t. 打麻将 (dǎ májiàng) 3, 2015
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since the outcome of the last american presidential election, i'm trapped in a vicious circle of bad thoughts about the fate–or the decline–of democracy.
what was the thread of my life during a couple of decades –the faith in the common democratic dream– has been consistently fraying since the emergence of neoliberalism and the deepening-widening gap between the rulers and "we the people".
having a guy like trump being elected in the united states is the most impressive ripple of a shockwave that already brought to power people like berlusconi, in italy, sarkozy, in france, or taksin, in thailand; all of them having in common to be egotistic adventurers in search for the political power to add to their financial might.
in a way, westernized countries have reached the same level of organization as the celestial empire: on the one hand, those who live next to heaven, on the other hand, the common people.
the current libertarian marxist actualization of the chinese empire does not change anything to this organization: the heavenly communist party dominates the political game, and the people keeps applying some basic survival tactic: be a small punter, earn a little money, eat a little, play some mahjong, go back home and watch some porn movies.
during the two years i've spent in sichuan, i could observe that whatever the day, whatever the time, men and women of all denominations were ready for playing mahjong –打麻将 (dǎ májiàng); there's undoubtedly some wisdom in living that way in such a country... and those players aren't the ones that put at risk the whole human species with their game.
