To visit fear on an already suffering world, writes the 1986 Nobel
Prize-winner, is a naked assault on human dignity and "a prelude to
the domination of the mind and the triumph of power." These days,
Soyinka (The Open Sore of a Continent, 1996, etc.) argues, there's
plenty more afoot to fear than fear itself, which makes our time
just right for warmongers, theocrats, absolutists, and other
blights on humanity. Made up of five lectures given at London's
Royal Institution in March 2004, Soyinka's latest wanders the
boundary between memoir and political essay. Early on, he ranges
among memories of resisting the military government in his native
Nigeria during the Biafran war, of marching with Bertrand Russell
("a pipe-smoking leprechaun of a man with a giant brain") against
nuclear testing, of waiting out natural firestorms in Los Angeles.
He then turns to broader world events; he recalls thinking, for
instance, that if the world changed on September 11, 2001, then it
also changed in 1988, when Pan Am 103 exploded over Lockerbie,
Scotland, and a year later, when a UTA passenger flight exploded
over Niger. Also the result of sabotage, that last-named disaster
was greeted by worldwide silence and "swallowed with total
equanimity by African heads of state." Fear and terror are our
daily lot, Soyinka suggests, with dehumanizing effects. To combat
this assault on our shared humanity, the world community must
repudiate the notion that there are no innocents today while, at
the same time, reaching out to ameliorate the conditions that
produce terrorism in the first place among people who are probably
innocents. Such remedies are sound but vague. In the place of
completely thought-through prescriptions, Soyinka offers
generalities: the al Qaeda attack on the US was a crime against
humanity, the US shouldn't have rushed into war in Iraq, and so on.
Largely predictable, but gracefully stated. (Kirkus Reviews)
In this new book developed from the prestigious Reith Lectures,
Nobel Prize--winning author Wole Soyinka, a courageous advocate for
human rights around the world, considers fear as the dominant theme
in world politics.
Decades ago, the idea of collective fear had a tangible face: the
atom bomb. Today our shared anxiety has become far more complex and
insidious, arising from tyranny, terrorism, and the invisible power
of the "quasi state." As Wole Soyinka suggests, the climate of fear
that has enveloped the world was sparked long before September 11,
2001.
Rather, it can be traced to 1989, when a passenger plane was
brought down by terrorists over the Republic of Niger. From Niger
to lower Manhattan to Madrid, this invisible threat has erased
distinctions between citizens and soldiers; we're all potential
targets now.
In this seminal work, Soyinka explores the implications of this
climate of fear: the conflict between power and freedom, the
motives behind unthinkable acts of violence, and the meaning of
human dignity. Fascinating and disturbing, "Climate of Fear" is a
brilliant and defining work for our age.
General
Imprint: |
Random House USA Inc
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
2005 |
First published: |
2005 |
Authors: |
Wole Soyinka
|
Dimensions: |
205 x 133 x 10mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
145 |
Edition: |
1st U.S. ed |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-8129-7424-9 |
Categories: |
Books >
Social sciences >
Politics & government >
General
|
LSN: |
0-8129-7424-7 |
Barcode: |
9780812974249 |
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