A
former colleague of mine had rasta braids and freestyle clothing. He was often
stopped at airports, being suspected to carry hashish. «I am the last in the
world who is going to smuggle hashish», he said. «It would be madness to do it
with such a look».  An intelligent drug smuggler cuts hairs short and put
on smart clothing – or a uniform. An intelligent serial killer also exploits this
very belief that the symbols describe the reality.
We can easily take
distance from Anders Behring Breivik without labeling him unintelligent, super-religious
and ugly. It is in fact possible to be a handsome,
intelligent and non-observant Christian mass
murderer, unknown to police and psychiatry. No one is too wise and empathetic
to be handsome, intelligent and a non-observant Christian, although it is possible to have all five
characteristics together.
Often
we confuse sharp brain functions with wisdom, perhaps because the school cares too
little to make us wise. It's like expecting a fast and spacious hard disk
contains programs that allow us to do something constructive. The disk might
just as likely be full of war games. According to classmate Marit Andersen,
Anders Breivik Behring was good at school. As a child he attended Smestad
school, where the royal children had gone before him. His father was a graduate
and his mother was a nurse. His biggest role model was Peder
“Fjordman” Jensen, with a master's degree from the University of
Oslo. Breivik had a perfect starting point for planning terror in peace.
“He has lived an extremely law-abiding life,” said the PST.
The
American brain researcher James Fallon have read Breivik's manifesto. NRK P2,
he says that the killer appears to be most sane and rational. For rational. I do
not speculate on the psychiatrists’ decisions or what kind of trauma Breivik
may have experienced. I would like to point out that a psychopath is not
irrational, but as deliberate as a mentally healthy person can be without
feeling any sympathy. Such a personality is different than what we normally
associate with a mental disorder, with confusion and increased sensitivity.
In a living situation, I met a couple that represented both. The husband
appeared polite, pleasant and very helpful. On the other hand, the wife appeared
as neurotic and annoying. I came into conflict with her, and her husband was
“peacemaker.” He was neutral and neat when he hosted a meeting to
reconcile us. A little later he disappeared without a trace and we learned that
he was arrested. Only afterward, his wife dared to say he had tried to kill her,
and abused her throughout their relationship. He
had forced her to interfere with people, so
he could emerge as the god father. Eventually she became so ill that he could
deprive her by telling people that she unfortunately suffered from neurosis.
She was far from dangerous or cruel, but I had been sure that she was the
problem. She was foreign and unemployed, while her husband was Norwegian, and
wealthy. He had been diagnosed as a psychopath.
There
are more psychopaths among managers than among the general public, according to
Norway's leading technical journal, Teknisk Ukeblad. They are attracted by
power, money and prestige, and are not afraid to step on others. They succeed
because many people define success in the same way as they do. After 22 July,
this has begun to change. People who had lower status have now attended the rosetog
and embraced them. Also, the Antiracist Center reports increased interest in
visiting immigrant families to acquire knowledge through the campaign, Tea
Time.
Hollywood taught us
that villains are jagged and unrestrained persons who scare people by revealing
their mere face, while the heroes are well-tended,
restrained, and bristling with status symbols. 22 July, 2011 should have
retrained to us. Symbols and bag items – such as
religion, clothing and skin color – say nothing about how bad or good a person
can act.
Source: The Nordic Page 2012/2 Issue
About the author
*Kari
Bu is culture editor, journalist and web-editor of the Norway's first street
Magazine, =Oslo. She also publishes entries in Norwegian on her own blog,
http://karibua.wordpress.com.
This text was
translated from Norwegian and the author cannot be held responsible for any
possible misunderstanding due to translation errors.
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