Will Norwegians give us another Lesson in Democracy?

Anders Breivik killed 77 people, mostly teenagers. All but eight of the victims were members of the Workers Youth League, an affiliate of the Norwegian Labor Party, at a summer camp. He was dressed in a police officers uniform and shot children as they came to him for protection and as they froze in fear before him. Why this slaughter, which at his trial he declared to be "necessary?" Because the Labor Party supported multiculturalism, which Breivik calls cultural Marxism and which he believes fostered Muslim dominance of Norway. He accuses the multiculturalists of being ideologues, when he was actually an ideologue in its final stages, i.e. that point at which human beings become merely objects.

Ideology this extreme has become a plague on this planet. In politics we get Timothy McVeigh and Anders Breivik. In religion it plants bombs in market places they know will kill people no matter what their beliefs because they have become objects. In the American military, soldiers murder civilians, including children, because they have been reduced to objects. The military is known for training that reduces human beings, called the enemy, to objects. They are "ragheads" etc. This makes killing easier for young people brought up to be civilized. Unfortunately this reducing those we oppose to objects is an all too frequent human response to conflict. It permeates society. It has become so bad in this country that people say they have found "closure" when the killer of their child is executed. They find peace in yet another death. We have sublimated revenge, for that is all the execution of killers amounts to, to the peace of closure.

Amid all the antagonism, killing and maiming that has gone on in the name of national interest, in a continuing cultural compression, the Norwegian people and their government have shone as a beacon for humanity. They rejected a cultural antagonism that killed their children, and responded not with vengeance, but by focusing on humanity and its needs.

As an instructive contrast, faced with the 9-11 terrorist attack the  American government immediately declared war, which the imperialists Cheney and Rumsfeld had long planned for. The American people, long accustomed to a military response to any kind of attack, ebulliently waved flags and sent their young people off to war. As a result hundreds of thousands have been killed and more than that maimed and the coffers of the United States drained and the lands of the Middle East trashed. So much for the eye-for-an-eye response that is this ten-year long "piece of cake."

As of this writing we do not know what the Breivik verdict will be. Hopefully, it will teach us another lesson in humanity. The people objected to an initial psychologist's finding that Breivik suffered from schizophrenia. A second psychologist found that Breivik was not schizoid at the time of his murders and is not so at the time of his trial. However, in the midst of Breivik'a barbarous testimony, including his desire to behead the Prime Minister,  40,000 Norwegians gathered in drenching rain to celibate multiculturalism and defy the Breivik and his followers in their attempt to insinuate vengeance into their society. As a beautiful testament to their appreciation for humanity and their determination to defeat Breivik and his ilk they sang Pete Seeger's Rainbow Race (See some of lyrics below.) It was a heartrending testimony to the best in human nature. A video of the event can be found on the Common Dreams web site. Norway has no death penalty and the maximum sentence is 24 years in prison. Will they give us yet another lesson in the sentencing of Anders Breivik?

To my mind, the Norwegian people and their government should be awarded the next Nobel Peace Prize. May we all learn from them.

Bob Newhard

Refrain from Pete Seeger's song Rainbow Race:

One blue sky above us
One ocean lapping all our shore
One earth so green and round
Who could ask for more
And because I love you
I'll give it one more try
To show my rainbow race
It's too soon to die.

Some folks want to be like an ostrich,
Bury their heads in the sand.
Some hope that plastic dreams
Can unclench all those greedy hands.
Some hope to take the easy way:
Poisons, bombs. They think we need 'em.
Don't you know you can't kill all the unbelievers?
There's no shortcut to freedom.

Go tell, go tell all the little children.
Tell all the mothers and fathers too.
Now's our last chance to learn to share
What's been given to me and you