The following is an attempt to put Anders Breivik's actions and ideological viewpoints into a larger perspective. The reason why I'm mostly using examples from Denmark is simply that they are the ones with which I am most familiar. Other examples abound!
In his manifesto we learn about Breivik's ideological views, which is a fusion of liberalist views in the realm of economics (he mentions the ultraliberalist Austrian School as an inspiration) with national conservatism, anti-marxism, anti-multiculturalism and anti-islamic views, and, last but not least, strong Christian views of a rather authoritarian variety. Above all he considers himself a freedom fighter and attempts to justify his actions by stating that they have been necessitated by the threats to the purity of Western culture generated by the influx of immigrants from non-western cultures in general and Islamic culture in particular.
Had he lived in the United States he would've made a good Republican in that the above-mentioned melting pot of ideological viewpoints to a great extent are the dominant ones within the current Republican Party. To a very large extent Breivik's views are also reminiscent of those of the Danish political party Fremskridtspartiet (The Party of Progress) whose sister party in Norway he was formerly associated with. Pia Kjærsgaard, the leader of the Danish national conservative party Dansk Folkeparti (Danish People's Party), started her political career in Fremskridtspartiet and besides from Breiviks liberalist economic views, it seems that the party she leads shares most of the above-mentioned views with him. Dansk Folkeparti has been in constant growth for many years and parties similar to it are on the rise everywhere in Europe. In Denmark Dansk Folkeparti has been the supporting party of the government and the guarantor of its power for the last ten years. Within this rather short timespan this cooperation has resulted in some of the world's strongest anti-immigration laws, the rise and rise of the surveillance state and very concerning threats to our fundamental political freedoms.
It is not, however, only on the fringes of the Danish right-wing that we find these ideological melting pot tendencies. Soren Pind, who is one of the most prominent politicians on the right in Denmark at the moment, is a good example of this. Pind is a neoconservative when it comes to foreign policy, a national conservative in domestic affairs and a liberalist in the domain of economics, which of course makes him anti-marxist. He is currently the secretary of integration and he recently proposed that people from countries with many cultural similarities with what, in his mind, is Danish culture, should be allowed easier access to the country than people from cultures that are more dissimilar. He also recently stated that the goal of Danish integration policy shouldn't be merely to integrate immigrants into the culture but to assimilate them so that they become as much like the Danes as possible. This clearly indicates that he is a national conservative holding anti-islamic and anti-multiculturalist views, in that the dissimilar culture he is refering to is seemingly (what he considers to be) Islamic culture. Pind is probably the leading candidate to become the next leader of his party (Venstre), which together with De Konservative (The Conservatives), is currently in charge of government. The two governmental parties are lagging behind in all opinion polls though and the next election is at the most 3.5 months ahead. After his party's very probable loss he will likely become its leader, in that it is tradition for the leader to step down after losing an election and I can't really see any likelier candidate for the foremanship among the members of his party.
Breiviks ideological views are therefore not fringe right-wing views neither in Scandinavia nor the world at large and we should therefore be careful not to think of him as a lone madman, for even though we are definitely witnessing the work of a very narcissistic man seriously lacking in empathy for others, his actions can not be understood in isolation from his ideological views.
Take for example the war on Iraq, which claimed far more numerous lives than Breiviks actions. Is it not the case that this war stemmed from ideological views very similar to those of Breivik? Was it not presented to us - after the falsity of the evidence of Saddam's possesion of weapons of mass destruction had been made abundantly clear - as a crusade for freedom and democracy? Indeed it was and right-wing politicians from all over the West vehemently supported the war on ideological grounds similar to those of Breivik. Soren Pind has even ventured as far as saying that the war on Iraq caused the Arab Spring which is just another way of saying that the inferior Arabs didn't understand the true value of freedom and democracy until it was imposed upon their collective consciousness by the benevolent bombings of the superior West!
Rather than seeing Breivik as an isolated case we should view him as a product of far greater forces that are everywhere in the West trying to dismantle welfare, establish far reaching surveillance states and sow the seeds of hatred, separation and therefore violence.
We are no longer afraid of fascism thinking that we are too smart to ever let something like that happen again but unfortunately this has made us unable to see the forest for the trees. Sure, contemporary fascism is not an exact replica of any of the fascisms that ravaged Europe and South America during the twentieth century but it has enough similarities to justify the use of the term 'fascism'. Look at modern day Russia or the developments that have taken place in the United States and Europe, particularly since the turn of the millenium and it should be abundantly clear that we are heading in a very dangerous direction, especially when it is taken into account, that times of turmoil and economic recession are the breeding grounds of fascism.
When history repeats itself the charateristic phenomena of earlier times do not necessarily return exactly as they were in the past. Look therefore not for talk of the necessity of a strong leader. Contemporary fascists market themselves as good, sound democrats in favour of political freedoms, but do not be mislead! Look not for racebased ideology and anti-jewish rhetoric. Contemporary fascists are backers of the Israeli right-wing and its Zionist doctrines. The anti-jewish rhetoric and talk of the inferior race has vanished and instead been replaced with anti-islamic rhetoric and talk of the inferior Islamic culture! Look not for the roman salute or the swastika for they are not the primary characteristics of contemporary fascism. Fascism is now returning wrapped in the national flag and wearing the cross!
In his manifesto we learn about Breivik's ideological views, which is a fusion of liberalist views in the realm of economics (he mentions the ultraliberalist Austrian School as an inspiration) with national conservatism, anti-marxism, anti-multiculturalism and anti-islamic views, and, last but not least, strong Christian views of a rather authoritarian variety. Above all he considers himself a freedom fighter and attempts to justify his actions by stating that they have been necessitated by the threats to the purity of Western culture generated by the influx of immigrants from non-western cultures in general and Islamic culture in particular.
Had he lived in the United States he would've made a good Republican in that the above-mentioned melting pot of ideological viewpoints to a great extent are the dominant ones within the current Republican Party. To a very large extent Breivik's views are also reminiscent of those of the Danish political party Fremskridtspartiet (The Party of Progress) whose sister party in Norway he was formerly associated with. Pia Kjærsgaard, the leader of the Danish national conservative party Dansk Folkeparti (Danish People's Party), started her political career in Fremskridtspartiet and besides from Breiviks liberalist economic views, it seems that the party she leads shares most of the above-mentioned views with him. Dansk Folkeparti has been in constant growth for many years and parties similar to it are on the rise everywhere in Europe. In Denmark Dansk Folkeparti has been the supporting party of the government and the guarantor of its power for the last ten years. Within this rather short timespan this cooperation has resulted in some of the world's strongest anti-immigration laws, the rise and rise of the surveillance state and very concerning threats to our fundamental political freedoms.
It is not, however, only on the fringes of the Danish right-wing that we find these ideological melting pot tendencies. Soren Pind, who is one of the most prominent politicians on the right in Denmark at the moment, is a good example of this. Pind is a neoconservative when it comes to foreign policy, a national conservative in domestic affairs and a liberalist in the domain of economics, which of course makes him anti-marxist. He is currently the secretary of integration and he recently proposed that people from countries with many cultural similarities with what, in his mind, is Danish culture, should be allowed easier access to the country than people from cultures that are more dissimilar. He also recently stated that the goal of Danish integration policy shouldn't be merely to integrate immigrants into the culture but to assimilate them so that they become as much like the Danes as possible. This clearly indicates that he is a national conservative holding anti-islamic and anti-multiculturalist views, in that the dissimilar culture he is refering to is seemingly (what he considers to be) Islamic culture. Pind is probably the leading candidate to become the next leader of his party (Venstre), which together with De Konservative (The Conservatives), is currently in charge of government. The two governmental parties are lagging behind in all opinion polls though and the next election is at the most 3.5 months ahead. After his party's very probable loss he will likely become its leader, in that it is tradition for the leader to step down after losing an election and I can't really see any likelier candidate for the foremanship among the members of his party.
Breiviks ideological views are therefore not fringe right-wing views neither in Scandinavia nor the world at large and we should therefore be careful not to think of him as a lone madman, for even though we are definitely witnessing the work of a very narcissistic man seriously lacking in empathy for others, his actions can not be understood in isolation from his ideological views.
Take for example the war on Iraq, which claimed far more numerous lives than Breiviks actions. Is it not the case that this war stemmed from ideological views very similar to those of Breivik? Was it not presented to us - after the falsity of the evidence of Saddam's possesion of weapons of mass destruction had been made abundantly clear - as a crusade for freedom and democracy? Indeed it was and right-wing politicians from all over the West vehemently supported the war on ideological grounds similar to those of Breivik. Soren Pind has even ventured as far as saying that the war on Iraq caused the Arab Spring which is just another way of saying that the inferior Arabs didn't understand the true value of freedom and democracy until it was imposed upon their collective consciousness by the benevolent bombings of the superior West!
Rather than seeing Breivik as an isolated case we should view him as a product of far greater forces that are everywhere in the West trying to dismantle welfare, establish far reaching surveillance states and sow the seeds of hatred, separation and therefore violence.
We are no longer afraid of fascism thinking that we are too smart to ever let something like that happen again but unfortunately this has made us unable to see the forest for the trees. Sure, contemporary fascism is not an exact replica of any of the fascisms that ravaged Europe and South America during the twentieth century but it has enough similarities to justify the use of the term 'fascism'. Look at modern day Russia or the developments that have taken place in the United States and Europe, particularly since the turn of the millenium and it should be abundantly clear that we are heading in a very dangerous direction, especially when it is taken into account, that times of turmoil and economic recession are the breeding grounds of fascism.
When history repeats itself the charateristic phenomena of earlier times do not necessarily return exactly as they were in the past. Look therefore not for talk of the necessity of a strong leader. Contemporary fascists market themselves as good, sound democrats in favour of political freedoms, but do not be mislead! Look not for racebased ideology and anti-jewish rhetoric. Contemporary fascists are backers of the Israeli right-wing and its Zionist doctrines. The anti-jewish rhetoric and talk of the inferior race has vanished and instead been replaced with anti-islamic rhetoric and talk of the inferior Islamic culture! Look not for the roman salute or the swastika for they are not the primary characteristics of contemporary fascism. Fascism is now returning wrapped in the national flag and wearing the cross!
3 kommentarer:
Godt skrevet, mayn!
Tak!
Go Thomas! sandheden skal frem...! :)
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