WHY DO PEOPLE INVITE DICKHEADS TO PARTIES?

I headed to a friends party in Bangkok tonight. Things went pretty well, though the music wasn’t great, and people were perhaps a bit too shmick looking. It was mostly filled with young Australians who ‘work for an NGO’, as they’re all happy to tell you. I guess not all art students end up unemployed, some volunteer.

One guy really, really got on my nerves. Besides taking the whole thing too seriously, he only wanted to talk about himself, what he was doing, and why that was important. On two occasions I managed to make successful exits from the conversation (to replace a quickly finished drink, and an unneeded bathroom visit) only for him to track me down and start up again later.

He finally went too far when he told me that he believed that it was inappropriate for those being paid by the Australian Government to be criticising their policies. I proffered that being able to think, debate and articulate an understanding of the world and its outcomes was actually desireable and showed Australia in a better light than mindless zombies do. That idea flew over his head and wedged itself in the wall behind him.