So another tourist ends up dead in Thailand, and this time the suspect is an Australian. The Foreign Office has issued its customary safety alert, a ritualistic incantation that does little to soothe the nerves of the sun-seeking British holidaymaker. But let us not mistake the symptom for the disease. This is not merely a case of one bad apple in paradise. This is a parable of our times.
Consider the facts: a young woman murdered, her body stuffed in a suitcase. The accused is a man from a supposedly civilised nation. And where does this happen? In Thailand, a country that has become a byword for hedonistic escapism. We go there to shed our inhibitions, our clothes, and often our common sense. We treat these places as theatres of the self, where the usual rules of society are suspended. And then we are shocked when tragedy strikes.
But the deeper truth is that this incident reflects a broader rot. We live in an age of intellectual decadence, where the pursuit of pleasure has been elevated to a moral principle. The Victorians knew better. They understood that civilisation was a fragile construct, maintained by discipline and restraint. We have abandoned their wisdom for the cult of the self. And the consequences are playing out in places like Thailand, where the collision of Western entitlement and local realities turns fatal.
The Foreign Office alert is a farce. It tells tourists to be vigilant, to avoid risky behaviour. But the real risk is the culture that produces these tourists. A culture that has lost its sense of shame, its respect for boundaries. We are exporting our decadence and then complaining when it blows up in our faces.
This case is a warning. Not about Thailand, but about ourselves. We must reacquaint ourselves with the virtues of prudence and self-control. Or we will continue to see our fellow citizens turning up in body bags, a grim testament to the decline of the West.
