Why Myanmar?

Photograph of Bagan (ပုဂံ), Myanmar

Why Myanmar?
Saturday – November 8, 2025

Myanmar (formerly Burma), that strange, mystic, and gentile Buddhist country is on my mind again, but why? Well, for one I happen to believe that Myanmar is one of the few places on Earth where people actually live in some accordance at lest with the ancient ways and where men assume, often on a daily basis and not merely around sacred times, the ancient and ascendant mode of being and that's perhaps primarily because they have to. See, for modern man Myanmar may look like a backwards and primitive country where superposition and strange spirits rule and where modernity really quite hasn't broken thorough. Indeed, to most modern men Myanmar is a place where time has stopped, but to me Myanmar is reality or rather as close to reality as you can come because while Myanmar is far more true to the ancient ways of life than almost any other place on Earth, time hasn't stopped in Myanmar and if you just care to look a little bit more closely you'd realize that indeed, modernity has broken though in Myanmar, especially in the cities where there's a cosmopolitan and educated elite, and just like any other elite they are revolutionary and seek to utterly destroy the ancient balance of life that still survives on to this day in some distant corner of the country. What hasn't happen yet, completely at least, in Myanmar is that while Myanmar was under British colonization as a part of the British Raj, there are still parts of the country that are true to the ancient ways of life, as I just mentioned, and that's because the British where quite frankly too lazy to colonize the entirety of the Indian subcontinent and Myanmar, but do note that there's a fairly intense propaganda campaign ongoing against Myanmar as I'm writing this, and the aim of this campaign is really to destabilize the country, which they've been successful at, and to destroy all remnants of that old and ancient way of life. Since of at least early 2021 there's been a low intensity civil war in the country and most of the rebels seem to consist of young and very Marxian men that simply seek to destroy and burn down to the ground the existing order. Of course, some say that the Burmese army has perpetrated a genocide against the ethnic and religious minority known as the Rohingya, especially in the Rakhine state, but I simply have not seen any evidence for this and I do suspect that the often poor and low quality video and photographs that exists from this supposed genocide have either been altered or may be showing the actions of infiltrators and crisis actors. I just do want to clarify that I have no insight into the supposed and alleged actions of the Burmese army but from a Buddhist point of view I highly doubt the accusations. I am however not denying that there has been episodes violence in Myanmar and perhaps particularly in Rakhine state but I do just need to clarify that I believe that this is due the actions of outside groups and partisans fighting for the serpent and for the imposition of the material order on the people of Myanmar; this is not in my view a genuine and organic conflict and it would therefor seem quite appropriate to label these Marxist forces that may or may not be funded by China as a ragtag group that seek to disrupt and create chaos for the sake of chaos, the willing and nihilistic embrace of chaos. Again, I'm not claiming to know that there's a conspiracy against Myanmar, but this is my suspicion and I do have pretty good reasons to believe this: for one Myanmar was never very liked on the world stage and I've read countless of United Nations resolution against Myanmar; and I've also encountered a lot of resentment against Myanmar, but since that resentment has mainly been on the internet I don't want to make to big of a deal about that. But clearly it can be construed that there's at least some kind of pressure campaign against Myanmar. But do allow me to quickly cover the subject of the Rohingya: this is a primarily Muslim majority group who has lived in Myanmar, mainly in Rakhine state, for centuries and yes I know that the military in Myanmar claim that these people are "illegal Bengali's" but I have no reason to believe that these people, the Rohingya, should constitute a group of people that have illegally migrated to Myanmar, but what I do suspect is this: it could be that there have been Bengali's from Bangladesh that have been told by some outside group that they should seek refugee in Myanmar and these people could've been confused on purpose with the Rohingya. Look, I'm am not a defender of the Myanmar state and I'm sure that the Burmese army, just like any other army, could and has been mobilized against civilian targets, but don't let the situation in Myanmar make you believe that any other armies are somehow better and more "humane".

    Myanmar will likely just like all other countries/places fall into more and more corrupted and decadent ways and I don't expect that Myanmar should somehow remain more true to their ancient ways, but I do see the light when I read about and study Myanmar; I see the light because I know that there is another way, a way beyond the material order. Verily, Myanmar is not a perfect place and as I've already stated Myanmar is going to decline just as all countries are going to decline but places such as Myanmar should stand as an example of what can be done to resist the rising tide of time and "progress" as the proponents of the humanist axiom refers to it. I choose Myanmar as one of my favorite countries for these reasons. Also, if it it the case that the Burmese army has engaged in a genocide against the Rohingya or anyone else, then I condemn those actions in the harshest terms and I call for the Burmese army to disperse and to put down their arms; indeed I call for all armies to disperse and put down their arms, in the name of Radical Peace.

    Lastly, do allow me to point out the beauty of Myanmar, a country and a nation that has truly been shaped by Buddhism and the ancient ways.

Reginald Drax – November 8, 2025.