Aswad
Posts: 9374
Joined: 4/4/2007
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15:28 GMT
So far, 91 dead, no figures on injured.
The reactions are as expected. We will lose civil liberties. We will see more surveillance. We will see more censorship. We will continue to see stinger operations by the media to ridicule those who have opinions outside the political mainstream, while the status quo is left inviolable. We will see the political line that lead to this event continue. We will see knee-jerk reactions, theatre, political profiteering (one of the kids from the island has already started spinning this to profit off it) and so forth. It is the greatest windfall the present, unpopular regime could ever hope for, at a critical time when they would have been ousted permanently. And we will see more right-wing activities. And the pressure will be on for those who have it in them to do this sort of thing again.
This act of domestic terrorism was a resounding success for the terrorist.
And probably also for the right-wing political party he used to be affiliated with.
Some here have expressed disbelief or a failure to understand how this could happen.
Nobody understands why it happened. Or so the media would have us and the world believe.
But anyone who doesn't understand why this happened, either doesn't understand the political situation, or doesn't understand people. And that is dangerous. The USA is arriving at the very same juncture at a rapid pace. Note that the terrorist was a vocal proponent of establishing a Norwegian branch of the Tea Party movement, for instance. If the people around the world want to avoid having a similar tragedy happen in their own countries, the best course of action is not to respond emotionally, but to take the time to stop and listen. And read. And ponder. Until you understand, despite how understanding makes it worse to bear, how and why this happened.
I'm not defending his actions. Indeed, I will suffer for them.
But all those lives will be lost for nothing if we do not learn something.
The few media that did not censor the reader comments on their coverage, evidence the existence of many who not only get what this guy was about, but in many cases express sympathies with his actions. Of course, most condemn the choice of targets: what the terrorist calls Stoltenberg-jugend. Stoltenberg is the Prime Minister and head of the Labor Party, whose youth organization was the target of the shootings. In an earlier post in this thread, someone used this very term in reply to my description of the targets and why they were gathered on the island. That is independent verification that the perception of the attacker of these children as targets is understandable, if we suspend disbelief to pretend to accept the premise of a war on the Labor Party and the politics they have enacted, the culture and climate constructed in the media, and general streamlining of the nation into a singular doctrine.
Many, like me, express that this was inevitable, and that their only surprise is that people didn't see it coming.
Politicians, however, demonstrate their complete ignorance of the grass root state of the country. Much like in the USA, some people are angry. People with real grievances and no answers. They present government has, over many years, established a system where no dissenting voices can be heard, and dissidents are isolated and forced to silently ruminate on the "rotting from inside". Termyn8or used similar words about the USA, and a lot of Tea Party rhetoric follows the exact same lines. The system that has been established creates disillusionment and plays the divide and conquer card heavily. Many turn to the far right wing, who use the jihadist movement as an important recruiting tool, just as jihadists use the western crusade on the Middle East as an important recruiting tool. The irony of this reciprocal parasitism shouldn't be lost on anyone. A revolution would be a fact, except they've managed to close that door, as well, through culture and political climate and media control. What is left to these people, is to (a) leave one's own country, despite patriotism, (b) grin and bear the unbearable, or (c) wage kamikaze warfare against the current and future members of the present government. And the pressure is being turned up all the time.
With plenty of frustration, no way out, no future, no outlet and no answers, it is easy to rationalize one's way through a downward spiral of coherent thoughts that lead to horrible conclusions.
It seems inconceivable to kill children in cold blood, but every day, this happens. The decisions are made in our own nations, and by democratic extension, in our own homes.
There's nothing right about what this man did. But if we cannot see why he did it, we will live to see it happen again.
And I, for one, do not want to see bodies floating near some paradise resort in the USA or the UK.
Health,
al-Aswad.
_____________________________
"If God saw what any of us did that night, he didn't seem to mind.
From then on I knew: God doesn't make the world this way.
We do." -- Rorschack, Watchmen.
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RE: There goes the neighbourhood - 
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