Breivik killed 92 people. And that is a horrible, terribly sad atrocity. But what is coming could even be worse and that is that Breivik is about to get a global platform to promote hatred: his trial.
What we know about terrorism is that terrorists don’t need to win elections. They don’t need to form a coalition governments or win by a majority. Terrorists win when they recruit an incredibly small amount of like minded people to commit similar atrocities. Think of how few people it took to undertake the mass murders of 9/11, of March 11 in Madrid, of July 7 in London. So while the vast majority of the population of Europe will be horrified by Breivik, Breivik is not targeting them. He is targeting the tiny minority who thinks like him, who thinks that the socialists governments of Europe are destroying the ethnic purity of Europe and whatever other neonazi theories that he has. And if we give him a global media platform he will get those few new terrorist recruits. Breivik’s trial itself is a bigger danger than Breivik. It is the trial Bin Laden did not get.
Breivik deserves a fair trial. But not the publicity he seeks. I hope the whole procedures take place without TV cameras in the court house.
Follow Martin Varsavsky on Twitter: twitter.com/martinvars
No Comments
Arturo on July 24, 2011 ·
Has it occurred to you that perhaps the fact that Breivik will have a trial instead of a summary execution is what distinguishes civilization from barbarism? Are you seriously advocating an extrajudicial homicide?
Morover, neo-nazis already have all the propaganda outlets they need to reach like-minded recruits. If anything, seeing one of them trialed will help people realize that these people cling to their race (and its supposed supremacy) because they have nothing else to be proud of in their life.
I may be wrong on this, but I am convinced that at the present time restrictive laws and censorship are doing more harm than good: they allow white supremacists to hide their failures behind a “persecuted knight” facade and portrait themselves as romantic rebels.
Martin Varsavsky on July 24, 2011 ·
Arturo, have you read my article? He deserves a fair trial but not the publicity he seeks, that’s all.
anna on July 24, 2011 ·
I have been reading his manifest as I have noticed that the media are describing this guy in totally different ways. I want to try to understand what happened. How he thought, what triggered him. And I haven’t read everything but my first impression is that it wasn’t so much about racial purity as it was was about culture. He admires monocultural societies like Japan and Korea. He is afraid Europe will absorb more and more Muslims and will end up as Lebanon. Talks about Eurabia. Islam in Europe is his problem.
He also writes he hates neonazis. And Hitler, whom he sees as the reason why Germany and Europe embraced multicult. He is also very pro-Israel (and this was a boycott Israel-crowd) and conservative. Against abortion and for more traditional families. His own family seems a bit of a mess. Hasn’t seen his father (a diplomat) for some 15 years.
The manifest (1500 pages long, in English) can be downloaded from the Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet.
http://ekstrabladet.dk/112/article1590988.ece
Click on DOKUMENTATION: Hent dokumentet her (PDF-fil)
Saludos desde Suecia!
Martin Varsavsky on July 24, 2011 ·
Anna I appreciate your enthusiasm, your desire to know. For the vast majority of people there is nothing dangerous about learning about Breivik. I am just concerned about the few followers he may get by pure math if his ideas are exposed to hundreds of millions of people. Whatever those ideas are they led to a mass murder of innocents.
anna on July 24, 2011 ·
Going through Swedish forums there seems to be a lot of admiration for this guy, pride that he planned everything so well. We had a suicide bomber a few months back that only succeeded in killing himself so there are a lot of “Scandinavians succeed where Muslims fail” entries. So I think I agree with you now. Sweden has actually had two serial killers hunting only foreigners and from the opinions expressed in forums we seem to have an oversupply of extremists. Very scary.
3 a 0 para Uruguay!!! Saludos!
Felipe on July 25, 2011 ·
It is understandable that certain right leaning people are afraid to hear their own words in the mouth of this criminal.
What he has written in his manifest are things that we hear everyday in the press, in TV or even in some parliaments pronounced by respectable right wing politicians.
We should not be afraid of ideas but rather be afraid of paternalism and censorship.
I really want to hear what he has to say and I also hope that public Xenophobes and Islamophobes of the world hear him and try to explain why their hate ideas do not necesarily lead to massacres like this one.
As a matter of fact I would like to see places like for example FOX News or any of Murdoch´s outlets commenting on this criminal´s literal words. It would be funny.
robin on July 25, 2011 ·
Martin writes:
All I am saying is that here’s a man who committed the biggest atrocity that we can imagine and is releasing manifestos and ideological paraphernalia and that we should be careful to give him a platform.
If you listen and read carefully, you will see that the Norwegian justice system is well aware of this.
However, unlike some groups of people on this planet, Norwegians place a high value on democratic ideals including responsible freedom of speech.
People who support corporal punishment, or notions of revenge or meeting violence with violence (including “best form of defense is attack” etc.), have a hard time getting their small minds around what I (personally) consider to be a more enlightened approach to life.
Would you believe that some people would seek to deny the right of free speech to, for example, holocaust deniers (who in my view need to have their cases destroyed through rational criticism, not myopic censorship). Note that in highlighting this I am not defending people who incite or perpetrate violence (such as a number of US Reupublicans and other Americans, etc.).
robin on July 25, 2011 ·
Ana writes
Going through Swedish forums there seems to be a lot of admiration for this guy, pride that he planned everything so well.
I thought you wrote “gay pride” there for a moment (what was I thinking? I’m happily married with three children …).
Anyway, we obviously read different forums. How do you find the time to peruse right-wing Swedish discussion forums (assuming this is not part of your doctoral thesis)?
Rob H. on July 25, 2011 ·
The point of terrorism – really – is that the ideas of the terrorist don’t have sufficient political traction to motivate change through political means – that’s why, cowards that they are, they resort to violence to force us to pay attention when, otherwise, we would just ignore them.
I think that through allowing this guy a platform, to respect the idea of freedom of speech, will truly show that his ideas don’t have merit, that, at the end of the day, his manifesto is as twisted as he is.
The road to truth will not be paved with ignorance and silence.. don’t make this guy a martyr, put him on full public display and allow the world to see him for the buffoon that he is.
Unless you are afraid that he has a point that will be accepted more broadly – but even then, better to influence politicians through discourse than through bullets.
anna on July 26, 2011 ·
robin:
It’s July so everybody is on holiday so I have very little to do at work. I read Flashback, Sweden’s largest discussion forum, and things in other forums linked to from there. Everybody in Sweden reads Flashback. The main Oslo thread has had over 2.3 million visits. I think the server is in the US to avoid Swedish censorship.
And I am not writing a thesis. I have engineering and economics degrees so my interest is not professional, it’s personal. My Swedish husband is Jewish and I am South American so it’s always interesting to read what Swedes and other Scandinavians think about us. It makes very interesting reading. Leaves you very concerned. Confirms my experiences. I’ve had no real problems here (mostly envy when I do well) but I’m still quite tired of people attributing everything I do/don’t do to my ethnicity not least because it is mostly preconceptions they’ve picked up from tabloids. Can’t imagine what it must be like for job-seeking Muslims. According to Dagens Nyheter only 44% of refugees coming to Sweden have jobs after 9 years in the country. It brings about accusations of living off benefits and of being a problem, but even for white foreigners like myself it can be extremely difficult to get a job. I got my current job only because I speak 5 EU languages and understand 8 in writing. Not everyone does.
I hope this massacre brings about some constructive debate. Also about the fact that you just don’t give up on your children when they are 15. I can’t help thinking that if his father had been around things might have been different. Blame my Italian roots for that.
robin on July 27, 2011 ·
@Anna:
When economies are busy, people are relatively happy: making money, looking for opportunities, spending money, etc. People forget about their differences. Fewer people require support. Jobs are plentiful.
When economies are stagnating, it all changes. Unemployment increases, and suddenly those at the bottom of society have a harder time finding work. Then the differences between people start to come to the fore. Of course there is a harder core that persists in their delusions throughout, and a society’s willingness to deal with them (on whatever basis) ebbs and flows depending on their profile.
This massacre will bring about some debate, but how much? I can wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments regarding support for children especially through their teenage years and as required beyond that. As a father it is clear to me that my role is formative in my childrens’ lives as they grow and learn. Love the Italian family interaction/dynamic as opposed to the Anglo-Saxon attitudes towards children. Having married a Scandinavian and lived in Scandinavia myself I would say that at least Scandinavians are closer to the Italian way than the Brits, but there’s a way to go.
Best, Robin.
English Test on August 2, 2011 ·
It is understandable that certain right leaning people are afraid to hear their own words in the mouth of this criminal.
What he has written in his manifest are things that we hear everyday in the press, in TV or even in some parliaments pronounced by respectable right wing politicians.
We should not be afraid of ideas but rather be afraid of paternalism and censorship.
I really want to hear what he has to say and I also hope that public Xenophobes and Islamophobes of the world hear him and try to explain why their hate ideas do not necesarily lead to massacres like this one.
As a matter of fact I would like to see places like for example FOX News or any of Murdoch´s outlets commenting on this criminal´s literal words. It would be funny
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
robin on July 24, 2011 ·
At the risk of sounding like your negative echo Martin, can I just point out that you’re jumping to conclusions, and I’m not sure why. What you’re speculating about may very well turn out to be correct, but in the meantime, you’re adding to the general noise surrounding this case (unless you have some inside, credible information that we don’t have, in which case, please enlighten us).
Within a short time of this tragedy the Guardian of all publications published some quite wild speculation as to which Islamic group(s) were probably behind the initial bomb attack, so you’re in good company.
Martin Varsavsky on July 24, 2011 ·
All I am saying is that here’s a man who committed the biggest atrocity that we can imagine and is releasing manifestos and ideological paraphernalia and that we should be careful to give him a platform. That terrorism is an industry fueled by very angry people that only needs a tiny minority to hurt a majority. That even if 1% of people sympathize with him that 1% can be an added danger to society.