Aswad
Posts: 9374
Joined: 4/4/2007
Status: offline
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AlwaysLisa,
The actual shooting could have been done by one man.
He wore a police officer uniform, so the kids trusted him implicitly. Most have never heard a real gunshot, and didn't realize there was anything going on until people started running. He appears to have trained with the weapons and has been a hunter. An automatic rifle was apparently used. He was methodical and gunned for the larger groups first. With half a mile to swim to shore, the people fleeing the island would be trivial to hit for anyone trained in the use of a carabine or assault rifle. Given that he planned this for 12 years, he would have probably had ample opportunity to get intimately familiar with the island up front. It is also conceivable that he used Google Maps for planning, as many others have done. And he got rid of the boats, so there were 560 fish in a barrel, so to speak.
As you say, this was the work of a sane man.
And, yes, it is a terrifying thought to most. A thought I've been well aware of for many years. People who haven't had it themselves have closed their ears when I've voiced the possibility of such things. It's been too scary for them to contemplate. Instead, they have erected elaborate personal delusions to prevent facing the truth. And I am sad to say I do not think they will choose to face it now, once various politicians start to present "solutions" to the problem. Like the long history the targetted political party has with surveillance of dissidents, and more recently the population at large. Or the "hard on crime" people, with their universal DNA registry proposal. Even if they were to somehow resist the urge to "do something", the political climate will inevitably favor the proposals that were less popular.
Fear makes people do things. Like blowing away 85 kids at a youth camp. Or lowering the threshold for access to the super-surveillance programme that tracks nearly 100% of the population at least 80% of the time with enough precision to tell their every move. Or simply disregarding the constitution (due process has been violated; this man cannot legally be tried, convicted and sentenced, thanks to media and police and judges and politicians all ignoring their duties under pressure). We've come close to a total police state in the past. Some would argue we were a police state before this. The terrorist certainly seems to have believed so. But those things do not spark fear in Norwegians, who have a naïve and unquestioning idea of government and authority in general.
Violence sparks fear like nothing else up here. It's the thought that cannot and must not exist. And so 560 little lambs ran around in the slaughterhouse while the butcher quietly went about making lamb chops. Nobody tried to gang up on him. None of the neighbours with boats tried to bring a rifle or shotgun. He could kill with impunity. And he fucking knew it.
But, yeah, he will have had accomplices who at the very least suspected what he was going to do.
That thought, however, cannot and must not exist. Not officially. Not openly. It's dangerous.
And since he must be 'evil', he can't inspire others, because people are 'good'. Usually.
As you say, it will bring changes, and they're unlikely to be healthy.
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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