The Sympathetic Audience

Abstract

In each of the case studies concerning this book, the sympathetic audience is extremely important, not least because it is from this group that a terrorist organisation will recruit most of its active volunteers. But it is also the audience that will determine the degree of success. In Mao’s classic dictum this is the ‘sea in which the fish swim’. Thus the terrorists’ strategic objective in respect to this particular target audience is to make the ‘sea’ as deep as possible. It will be argued below that there are two major components in this strategy. Firstly, the ideological appeal which presents an explanation and analysis of what the terrorists perceive as ‘wrong’ with the current situation. It includes a rejection of all constitutional and nonviolent methods of redressing the situation, and conversely stresses that violence is the only mode through which the terrorists’ objectives can be attained. Needless to say, the ‘justness’ and necessity of these objectives are also stressed. The second component of this type of propaganda is a deliberate attempt to widen the base of the sympathetic audience. The way this is usually attempted is to single out a ‘specific’ issue or aspect of the struggle that is likely to have a broader appeal than the fundamental ideological premises. Support or front groups can then be formed around such issues. One such example, common to both groups in this study, is the use of prisoners and prison conditions.