A mike and an audience can make an intoxicating cocktail, just ask Doran Dixon and Paul Adams. Yes, being given a mike before a live audience can be akin to being injected with cocaine, as one can lose control of ones utterances in such circumstances and behave like a mongrel dog.

I long ago labelled this condition “The More Forward Syndrome”, pointing out that artistes, politicians and those of us who through professional responsibility are forced to speak before a live audience are the most likely to be so afflicted. I should point out that the condition derives its name from the tendency of many of our artistes to solicit approbation which, in Jamaican, is termed a “forward” from their audience, by resorting to utterances which might be highly incendiary but which they figure will resonate with those in their immediate surroundings.

It is therefore not unusual for an artiste in the midst of a flagging performance to embark on an attack on homosexuals or others they deem sexual deviants in order to generate excitement amongst the crowd. The challenge for these performers is that some of the material which play well to a largely homogenous audience do not usually resonate with the populace at large. This, incidentally, has been the source of much grief for Jamaican artistes who would make anti-gay remarks in their local performances and then experience sanctions from the wider audiences, especially those overseas.

I have a litany of pronouncements from Jamaican politicians, among them Portia Simpson Miller’s “Don’t draw mi tongue”; Edward Seaga’s “One Don”; Omar Davies’ “Run wid it”; and Bruce Golding’s “Bangarang”. These speeches were made on the hustings and were directly pitched to a largely partisan live audience.

Are there antidotes for this condition? I think there are, but I am not sure there is any real panacea. Preparation is perhaps one of the best safeguards against the syndrome. It is important therefore to realise that secrecy and privacy are now historical relics, and with the provision of smartphones and other recording devices it’s well nigh impossible to address any audience exclusively. What is clear is that, if one has a penchant for hogging the microphone one is likely to fall victim to the syndrome.

It should be noted however that the election of the seemingly rambunctious Mr Dixon might well be a good thing for the relationship between the Ministry of Education and the JTA. Before you start heaping opprobrium let me explain that a “hawk” is always in a better position to sell difficult positions to his constituency than a dove. Ronald Reagan was able to secure deals with Mikhail Gorbachev on arms control which his predecessor Jimmy Carter could never have contemplated with the Soviets. The reason was simple, Reagan was seen as a hawk and so would not be thought as selling out to his adversaries, while Carter was considered a dove and therefore would be suspected of making unnecessary concessions to his opponent.

Things are seldom what they seem. As William Shakespeare observed in Henry V, “there is a soul of goodness in things evil would men observingly distill it out”. Who knows? Deacon Thwaites might well see Mr Dixon’s election as a blessing to the cause of education in Jamaica. Stranger things have happened.

cpamckenzie@gmail.com