Be careful what you wish for. Be even more careful what you like. Be most careful what you share.
You also have to be careful who you follow. Be super-careful what you post and be very careful what you tweet. Be careful what you click. Be careful what you copy and paste. Be careful what you read. Be, at best, in short, careful what you think. Hopefully, we still think.
Is winter coming? I don't know, but here comes a season of unfriending, unfollowing, un-liking, un-sharing, un-clicking, un-posting, un-understanding, and so on. The hot piece from BBC Thai raises the flag and lowers the bar. A man was actually arrested for sharing that article deemed inappropriate and possibly illegal. Jatupat "Pai Dao Din" Boonpattararaksa was later released on bail, but the chicken has been slaughtered to warn the monkeys, as the saying goes. It means: Be carefully careful when you leave your digital footprints, the breadcrumbs of unhallowed thoughts that can lead back to you. And you don't have to do much, just one press on that sexy "share" button and it's done. Nearly 3,000 people did that and one paid the price for all.
Hundreds of sharers also "un-shared" the post, as the number shows. Interesting, because in real life you can't undo your crime -- you can't un-kill or un-insult someone -- but in the new realm of information you can do just that. You can un-think your thought. Uninform yourself of what you've already been informed. Keep doing it and the authorities gets what they want: mass unthinking, which is a step above mass amnesia. Brave New World? No, it's George Orwell all over again.
And there wasn't even the sin of "liking" or "following" in Orwell's dark days. On Thursday Prachatai reported that several people have been questioned in connection to their act of "liking" posts by exiled historian Somsak Jeamteerasakul. He has over 250,000 followers, so it seems petty that five or six were singled out. It also seems utterly random, totally arbitrary, a law irrationally applied. Why these five and not the rest? Again it's the chicken and the monkey. Let's just hope that in this insane animal farm, we are the ape and never the fowl.
To be honest, it works to an extent: the message is "be careful" and now we are more careful. In other words, the message is "be afraid" and we are afraid, and by God we've been afraid for such a long time that it will take at least another generation to un-afraid the society historically schooled in the numbness of forgetting, in phony reconciliation and blissful ignorance. We've been afraid in the analogue era, and we're be afraid, more afraid, in the dystopia of Facebook where you leave your smell and trails of fresh candlewax lit in the Black Mass.
And this even before the new cyber-security bill is passed. If it is in its current state -- watch out Section 14, 16 and 20 -- the ceiling will be lowered while the grounds for incrimination will be broader. Read: More condition for unthinking, more chickens on the belt moving towards the sausage grinder.
So we got it, we will be careful what we like, follow or share. But the military will have to be just as well. They have moved against the BBC, and the prime minister vows that there will be no exception to those who break the law (they haven't officially charged them though). That they want to take on one of the world's most influential news agencies has already made news everywhere -- news that has been liked, clicked, shared, and that has already further impaired the image of the junta as an over-reacting totalitarian.
The BBC may have breached a cultural code but not a journalistic one. Ideally, we should respect both. Unfortunately, we're not living in an ideal world, and lashing out against a news institution that has existed before and very much likely to last longer than this government is not exactly the wisest move. And everyone in the world can see it now.
But take note, being careful doesn't mean we've stopped caring. Un-sharing doesn't always mean unthinking, and un-following doesn't mean being un-informed. In this long battle to control the new consciousness brought by Facebook and click-ready data, the thought police go out at you like crusaders wielding swords. But they know and we know that it's a mind game. Sending people to the BBC office and knocking on their doors like in mob movies -- a physical office, how old-fashioned -- strikes me as smoke and mirrors because the actual battlefield is on the screens of our devices.
Be careful what you follow, and of course be careful of what you share. Most of all, be careful not to lose that basic rights to think and to use your judgement. That much is fair.
Kong Rithdee is Life editor, Bangkok Post.