First thoughts on the Norway tragedy
July 23rd, 2011 03:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lunadelcorvoAnders Behring Breivik, a clean cut, attractive Norwegian 32-year old has set off a bomb that killed 7, then went to a summer camp, and gunned down (at last count) 85 people, including kids age 14-19. There is clearly no way this is not simply horrible. The first blush of "Why?" seems to point to hard conservative, Christian, anti-Islamic sentiment. Allegedly, he frequented right-wing Christian sites, and commented often. he has also written essays against Islam, "marxim" (why is it no one seems to know what that word even means these days), and multiculturalism. His FaceBook page (now deleted, but mirrored here) seems to support this, but also supposedly showed an image of him in Freemason garb.
Naturally, I expect the New World Order/Freemason/Illuminati loons will have a field day with this, just as the religious talking heads will denounce this as only the expected consequence of an atheistic society.... Here's something that bugs me, though. The FB was created July 17, less than a week ago. Can we really use this as a gauge of his real motives, opinions or attitudes? Even if it were months or years old, how much of what it on Facebook is authentic for anyone? I mean, really, a newly minted blog, with nothing more substantive than music videos, and an almost pre-fab set of political allegiances? Smells fishy. So far, no one in the media that I have read has commented on this, aside from noting the FB was recently created.
All that aside, I am left anticipating that this will serve to energize the right worldwide, here in the US in particular. 'The evils of secularism' will be, I expect, a phrase bandied about often in the upcoming weeks. I will confess, the notion that this attack may have been fueled by Christian zealotry makes me want to rail all the harder against the perils of a faith that is, after all, founded on blood sacrifice and retribution. But for my side as well as the other side (or sides), the fact remains that in all of uproar, the realities will be lost - the realities of the dead, the grieving, the pain and loss, and the reality of a man that seems to have been simply not sane, regardless of his beliefs.
So my deepest sympathies to the survivors, my silent (and honestly, essentially useless) solidarity to a nation rocked by unexpected violence, and my hopes (likely in vain from the start) to the world that all sides will respect the losses, and resist the urge to use this as a political flog.
Naturally, I expect the New World Order/Freemason/Illuminati loons will have a field day with this, just as the religious talking heads will denounce this as only the expected consequence of an atheistic society.... Here's something that bugs me, though. The FB was created July 17, less than a week ago. Can we really use this as a gauge of his real motives, opinions or attitudes? Even if it were months or years old, how much of what it on Facebook is authentic for anyone? I mean, really, a newly minted blog, with nothing more substantive than music videos, and an almost pre-fab set of political allegiances? Smells fishy. So far, no one in the media that I have read has commented on this, aside from noting the FB was recently created.
All that aside, I am left anticipating that this will serve to energize the right worldwide, here in the US in particular. 'The evils of secularism' will be, I expect, a phrase bandied about often in the upcoming weeks. I will confess, the notion that this attack may have been fueled by Christian zealotry makes me want to rail all the harder against the perils of a faith that is, after all, founded on blood sacrifice and retribution. But for my side as well as the other side (or sides), the fact remains that in all of uproar, the realities will be lost - the realities of the dead, the grieving, the pain and loss, and the reality of a man that seems to have been simply not sane, regardless of his beliefs.
So my deepest sympathies to the survivors, my silent (and honestly, essentially useless) solidarity to a nation rocked by unexpected violence, and my hopes (likely in vain from the start) to the world that all sides will respect the losses, and resist the urge to use this as a political flog.
