Free Climate of Fear by Wole Soyinka Page A

the rhetorical theme through the terrain of light relief, if only to nudge the more self-assured nations, movements, and religions in the direction of a sense of proportion. We might reflect their certitudes through escapades that are often no more than self-indulgent gambits, which they would prefer to despise as simplistic mimicries of their own more advanced and elaborate, as well as better-structured and -packaged manifestos. What often develops to the level of rhetorical hysteria may begin as small pinpricks designed to annoy a complacent society and perhaps reinforce a group feeling of dissidence, but may grow into veritable monstrosities of absolute notions that run amok, consuming all within sight until they eventually consume themselves or are consumed by more rabid challengers. I shall share my favorite example, but not just yet. First, we should establish the sociopolitical background and context, just to situate ourselves in the general ambience of its times.
    Many here will still recall that leftist phase of the sixties, labeled Trotskyite or Maoist, one that is now being superseded by other radical motions toward the transformation of man and society. It is a phase that is now receding into obscurity, thanks mostly to the collapse of communist ideology. I happen to believe that the humanistic foundation of the socialist ideal has not been thereby invalidated, but this belongs to another discourse entirely. In any case, the passion for a basis in ideological righteousness is still daily manifested in isolated anarchic acts against society, as well as in ideologically based wars around the globe. The period that I wish to recall was characterized by the exploits of the Red Brigade, based largely in Italy, Action Directe in France, the Baader-Meinhof in Germany, etc., with clones in Latin America and Japan, in addition to one or two isolated spots in Asia. Perhaps the most sensational single event of that period was the kidnapping and murder of the former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro. Kidnapping of businessmen or their relations for ransom was commonplace, nor can one easily forget the ruthless, cult-style executions in hidden mountain caves of Japan for alleged crimes of deviation from the pure strain of the revolutionary ideal. Not too surprisingly, other variants resulted in convoluted alliances between ideological and criminal impulses—drug trafficking allied to radical idealism in countries like Colombia.
    The famous youth-inspired 1968 uprising in Paris that attempted to resurrect a commune modeled after the Paris Commune of the French revolutionary ferment was another notable manifestation of the passion for change, a severe testing of the status quo, and very French in temper, despite its continental alliances. Other names like Daniel “Danny the Red”, Cohn-Bendit, Regis Debray, and Angela Davis entered the lore of world revolutionary gladiators, satellites in orbit around the ultimate symbol of the times—Che Guevara. Depending on which arc of the class spectrum one occupied, and the methodology of action advocated and deployed, the overall movement evoked among the world population extreme degrees of admiration, revulsion—and fear. How wide would the movement spread, especially among youth? How deeply would it undermine the fabric of society?
    This, then, was the setting for a far less sensational but widely spread offshoot of the same cast of mind—the junior partner, if you like—that had sprung up within the radical atmosphere of the sixties. It is the extract from the diffuse, nonlethal offshoot, a proliferating mantra, that I wish to identify as typifying the nature of rhetoric that, in varying degrees of flippancy and adolescent conviction, can graduate over time into an agenda for unreflective extremism. It builds up to a hysterical level that turns an otherwise rational section of humanity into active conduits for, at the very least, a mandatory suspension of