"And so they join the Revolution . . . "

A Newsweek reporter writes:

the violence [in Thailand] stems from multiple cleavages in Thai society: old elites against new elites; Thais hailing from the north and northeast against Thais from Bangkok and the south; and people close to the traditional levers of political power, such as the monarchy, against those who no longer trust these institutions.

Source

For some reason this put me in mind of that great speech in Marat/Sade about why people join revolutions. Maybe it shouldn't have: The speech was far more cynical than I remembered. (I know, I know: Sade? Cynical?)

That's how it is, Marat
That's how she sees your revolution
They have toothache
and their teeth should be pulled
Their soup's burnt
They shout for better soup
A woman finds her husband too short
she wants a taller one
A man finds his wife too skinny
he wants a plumper one
A man's shoes pinch
but his neighbour's shoes fit comfortably
A poet runs out of poetry
and desperately gropes for new images
For hours an angler casts his line
why aren't the fish biting
And so they join the Revolution
thinking the Revolution will give them everything
A fish
A poem
A new pair of shoes
A new wife
A new husband
and the best soup in the world
So they storm all the citadels
and there they are
and everything is just the same
No fish biting
Verses botched
Shoes pinching
A worn and stinking partner in bed
and the soup burnt
and all that heroism
which drove us down to the sewers
Well we can talk about it to our grandchildren.
If we have grandchildren"

Peter Weiss, Marat/Sade,
scene 25, Corday's second visit
quoted HERE.