By John Knox
Like most people, I suspect, my first reaction to the Norwegian attacks was one of shock. Then came anger. Then came shame and guilt, that one of my species, and in a nice neighbouring country, could do such a thing. Then came a pile of questions around “how” and “why”. And, finally comes the reckoning. What should we do, apart from bury our dead and move on?
Anders Breivik is an evil, demented, callous, cowardly, cunning, calculating, intolerant, deservedly lonely, cold-blooded, neo-nazi killer. As his estranged father said, it would have been better if he had shot himself when the police finally closed in on him on Utøya island. As it is, he deserves to rot in prison, gradually descending into madness as he comes to terms with what he has done. Seventy-six beautiful, innocent, public-spirited lives taken.
Norway’s largest-ever demonstration, of 200,000 people, gathered quietly in Oslo to say goodbye and to ponder. To ponder many things. Why did he do it? Could anyone have stopped him? How are we to carry on now?
Mass shootings have become one of the strange perversions of the modern world. From Azerbaijan to Alabama, they seem to be becoming more and more common. In the USA there are an average of 20 a year.
There have been incidences of these peculiarly human tragedies in recent years in Germany, France, Finland, Canada, Nepal and South Korea. In Britain, we’ve had Hungerford (16 dead), Cumbria (12 dead) and, of course, Dunblane (17 dead). And, despite the tightening of gun laws, the killings go on.
The Norway killings are different, however. They were on a larger scale, they were very cleverly planned and they had a political motive, which makes them more akin to a terrorist assault. And yet it was one man acting alone.
Could anything have been done to stop it? The police have some questions to answer. Why did they not follow up the purchase of large amounts of fertilizer for a recently established farm? Why did Breivik’s neo-nazi tendencies go un-investigated? How did he manage to get hold of a military assault rifle? And a police uniform? Why were the police distracted from the Utøya alerts for so long by the bomb attack in Oslo? There are lessons here for police forces throughout the world.
Although Breivik is 32 years old, his family, neighbours and friends – including his cyber-friends – bear some responsibility for not spotting the dangers or not reporting them. There are lessons here for everyone.
There are lessons, too, for society. The internet is a wonderful thing, but it needs to be monitored and – on occasion – controlled, to prevent the spread of hatred and other nazi propaganda. I’m convinced that violent video games pollute the minds of young people and the unhinged. Breivik was also reported to be high on drugs, another danger we find hard to confront.
There is also the issue of how we handle immigration. Norway, like Scotland, has about 2 per cent of its population from the Islamic world. Not a lot, but we need to ask how well we are integrating these minorities into our society and how well they themselves are adjusting to life in the West. And we need to ask how we are addressing the fears some natives have of the newcomers “swamping” their homeland and “taking” their jobs.
What is shocking about the Breivik attack is that it has occurred in a very fortunate country. Norway is a rich, fairly equal and tolerant nation. Gross domestic product per head is the fourth highest in the world, due largely to North Sea oil. It has an exemplary record in promoting international peace and economic aid. Its independence is founded on the tough, outdoor values of its father-figure, the Arctic explorer, scientist and statesman Fridtjof Nansen. And yet even this perfect country has its flaws, its Quisling past and its Breivik present.
Finally, are there lessons for the political world, too? Perhaps. The Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg has so far appeared in a state of shock. But at least he hasn’t indulged in knee-jerk legislation. His party’s summer camps are not to be abandoned. Norway, he says, will remain an open, free society.
In the aftermath of the Dunblane shootings, Scotland went to a lot of trouble to tighten gun laws, control access to schools and introduce disclosure checks on adults working with children. But has it all made us any safer from attack? I’m not sure it has. Perverted minds are also clever minds and evil men are often able to fly below such obvious radar.
Our reaction to Norway’s tragedy has to be more subtle and more deep-seated. We have to trudge on, sadder and wiser people, making sure the love of life reaches even those on the edge of society. We need to be on guard against extremism, whether from the British National Party or fundamental Islamists. We need to enforce the gun laws we already have more carefully, reporting our suspicions to the police and expecting them to treat such information intelligently. And above all, we need to keep our nerve.
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