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sorry, I did not see your comment until now. I definitely have some Benjamin influence. I know less about Burroughs in this area though. For Benjamin as well, his stooping Angel of History here also pertains. Also, important contemporary ideas about Capitalism and de-skilling I think apply. I do think there is a kind of capitalist, tourist-oriented avenue of protection (and participation) in traditional Muay Thai. Right now the legacy of the sport is being exploited in certain ways, extracted, and unfortunately eroded, but the depth of the sport and its knowledge is quite deep, and the country's Muay Thai has survived many cultural incursions and pressures. I suspect that the pendulum will swing and Thailand will realize that that true draw of the world, the most substantive draw of the world, is how Muay Thai is like no other fighting art, and that changing it to match what others do is detrimental to that draw.

Your comments here remind me of two authors in particular. The first, Walter Benjamin, who wrote Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction in around 1920, and William S Burroughs. Both were concerned with the ability of modern modes of production of profit increasing quantity, with a corresponding collapse in quality. The intersection of traditional art and contemporary media consumption is not new. We still have art galleries, museums and opera. We still even have cheese rolling, dwile flonking and the Atherstone Ball Game in the UK. Let's hope there are enough lovers of true Muay Thai to support it at festival level, certainly these traditional forms can be promoted, there are numerous examples of art forms which have promoted their pure selves. One example is playhouses live broadcasting to cinemas. The old art form utilises the newer to its benefit. I certainly intend to travel to Chenjigou to train the martial art that the Chen family have taught there since the 1640's. I intend to travel to Thailand for similar reasons.