During the Vietnam War radical hippies would not stand for the national anthem at baseball games. I was one of them. More patriotic Red Sox fans would shout obscenities, but I believed our involvement in the Far East served only the rich military-industrial complex and remained seated through 'Oh say can you see."
Not anymore.
I honor the flag and also the national anthem of Thailand, when the song is played at the cinema. Stand or get ready for a lot of angry faces, as a Thai man and his date discovered at a Bangkok moviehouse when they sat through the royal anthem.
"Could you please come speak to us?" The police requested of the couple. The Thai man blew off the appointed interview, because he was too busy at the time. Obviously he doesn't realize the seriousness of the situation.
Years ago a drunk Swiss man defaced a poster of the king.
He got 10 years.
The King pardoned him after a month.
In Thailand you don't say anything against the royals. A bad boy from a police family was at a Bangkok pub. He wanted to speak with a beautiful girl and rang her number. Another girl answered and the reprobate youth sore at her, asking, "Just who do you think you are?"
"Most people call me 'your majesty'."
The bad boy fled the country for a year.
Respect that's all it is respect.
Article 112 of the Thai Criminal Code stipulates the penalty for a lèse majesté offence as 3-15 years' imprisonment.
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