Fiction has a greater effect than people realise
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In a move to prevent "The Hunger Games" three-finger salute becoming too popular, Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha recently stated the obvious - saying that the story that inspires this resistance is "not real".
Nobody would consider the “Hunger Games” series, and its latest film “Mockingjay Part I”, is real, but that doesn’t discount the fact that all forms of storytelling have an impact on humans.
From Miguel de Cervantes’ “Don Quixote of La Mancha”, who gave us the notion of quixotic idealism, to Victor Hugo’s touching portrayal of human inner good and redemption in “Les Miserables”, it is literature and storytelling that teach us to rise above the occasion.
The “Hunger Games” protagonist Katniss Everdeen (played by Jennifer Lawrence) has inspired many young Thais to stand up against the coup and the military regime.
Clearly, when humans are faced with an uninspiring reality, they turn to fiction for courage and strength.
This is the reason behind the three-finger salute of defiance used by many young Thais, including the five Khon Kaen University students who flashed the salute right under Prayut’s nose as he was delivering a speech.
Young protesters have been referring to Thailand as “District Thailand”, which would make Prayut President Coriolanus Snow, who shows no mercy to his opponents in the film and orders carpet-bombing to kill and flatten districts and regions that refuse to kow-tow to his autocratic regime. Maybe Prayut resents this comparison.
A source at an international human rights organisation recently quoted a senior junta member as boasting that nobody has been killed since the coup six months ago.
Also, the anti-coup fervour seems to have fizzled down a bit after the arrest of the Red Sunday group leader Sombat Boonngam-anong, the rather lacklustre performance of the Thai activists and intellectuals abroad, not to mention the rather disappointing stance of most red-shirt leaders and Pheu Thai MPs.
It is at times like this where stories like the “Hunger Games” come in handy and serve as a vehicle for anti-coup resistance.
If people cannot be inspired by reality, they have no choice but to resort to fiction. Young people here are doing what Everdeen does in the films, because they have yet to find a Thai version of peace laureates like Aung San Suu Kyi, Nelson Mandela or Kim Dae-jung, especially since the Shinawatra siblings have yet to prove themselves as icons of democracy.
However, total dependence on a hero or a heroic few tends to weaken society. Myanmar’s democratisation is far too dependent on Suu Kyi, for example, and people seem to have stopped their blind worship of her lately, as they question if she has done enough.
As fictitious heroes are not made of flesh and blood, they become immortal because they can never let their admirers down. Also, many find it more comforting to rely on fictional heroes, as they challenge us to reach above the mundane and frequent disappointments of reality.
Fact and fiction have been known to influence one another, which is possibly why the junta is disturbed by this fiction-driven reality of resistance.
