The Angry Exile: Further thoughts on Anders Behring Breivik

“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand? [...] We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”

Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

The Hangman

Into our town the Hangman came,
Smelling of gold and blood and flame.
And he paced our bricks with a diffident air,
And built his frame in the courthouse square.
The scaffold stood by the courthouse side,
Only as wide as the door was wide;
A frame as tall, or little more,
Than the capping sill of the courthouse door.
And we wondered, whenever we had the time,
Who the criminal, what the crime
That the Hangman judged with the yellow twist
of knotted hemp in his busy fist.
And innocent though we were, with dread,
We passed those eyes of buckshot lead --
Till one cried: "Hangman, who is he
For whom you raised the gallows-tree?"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
And he gave us a riddle instead of reply:
"He who serves me best," said he,
"Shall earn the rope of the gallows-tree."
And he stepped down, and laid his hand
On a man who came from another land.
And we breathed again, for another's grief
At the Hangman's hand was our relief
And the gallows-frame on the courthouse lawn
By tomorrow's sun would be struck and gone.
So we gave him way, and no one spoke,
Out of respect for his Hangman's cloak.
The next day's sun looked mildly down
On roof and street in our quiet town,
And stark and black in the morning air
Was the gallows-tree in the courthouse square.
And the Hangman stood at his usual stand
With the yellow hemp in his busy hand;
With his buckshot eye and his jaw like a pike
And his air so knowing and business-like.
And we cried, "Hangman, have you not done
Yesterday, with the foreign one?"
Then we fell silent, and stood amazed,
"Oh, not for him was the gallows raised."
He laughed a laugh as he looked at us:
"Did you think I'd gone to all this fuss
To hang one man? That's a thing I do
To stretch a rope when the rope is new."
Then one cried "Murder!" and one cried "Shame!"
And into our midst the Hangman came
To that man's place. "Do you hold," said he,
"with him that was meant for the gallows-tree?"
And he laid his hand on that one's arm.
And we shrank back in quick alarm!
And we gave him way, and no one spoke
Out of fear of his Hangman's cloak.
That night we saw with dread surprise
The Hangman's scaffold had grown in size.
Fed by the blood beneath the chute,
The gallows-tree had taken root;
Now as wide, or a little more,
Than the steps that led to the courthouse door,
As tall as the writing, or nearly as tall,
Halfway up on the courthouse wall.
The third he took -- we had all heard tell --
Was a usurer, and an infidel.
"What," said the Hangman "have you to do
With the gallows-bound, and he a Jew?"
And we cried out, "Is this one he
Who has served you well and faithfully?"
The Hangman smiled: "It's a clever scheme
to try the strength of the gallows-beam."
The fourth man's dark, accusing song
Had scratched our comfort hard and long;
"And what concern," he gave us back.
"Have you for the doomed -- the doomed and Black?"
The fifth. The sixth. And we cried again,
"Hangman, Hangman, is this the man?"
"It's a trick," he said. "that we hangmen know
For easing the trap when the trap springs slow."
And so we ceased, and asked no more,
As the Hangman tallied his bloody score.
And sun by sun, and night by night,
The gallows grew to monstrous height.
The wings of the scaffold opened wide
Till they covered the square from side to side;
And the monster cross-beam, looking down,
Cast its shadow across the town.
Then through the town the Hangman came,
Through the empty streets, and called my name --
And I looked at the gallows soaring tall,
And thought, "There is no one left at all
For hanging, and so he calls to me
To help pull down the gallows-tree."
So I went out with right good hope
To the Hangman's tree and the Hangman's rope.
He smiled at me as I came down
To the courthouse square through the silent town.
And supple and stretched in his busy hand
Was the yellow twist of the hempen strand.
And he whistled his tune as he tried the trap,
And it sprang down with a ready snap --
And then with a smile of awful command
He laid his hand upon my hand.
"You tricked me. Hangman!," I shouted then,
"That your scaffold was built for other men...
And I no henchman of yours," I cried,
"You lied to me, Hangman. Foully lied!"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
"Lied to you? Tricked you?" he said. "Not I.
For I answered straight and I told you true --
The scaffold was raised for none but you.
For who has served me more faithfully
Then you with your coward's hope?" said he,
"And where are the others who might have stood
Side by your side in the common good?"
"Dead," I whispered. And amiably
"Murdered," the Hangman corrected me:
"First the foreigner, then the Jew...
I did no more than you let me do."
Beneath the beam that blocked the sky
None had stood so alone as I.
The Hangman noosed me, and no voice there
Cried "Stop!" for me in the empty square.

Maurice Ogden

Tuesday, 26 July 2011

Further thoughts on Anders Behring Breivik

NORWEGIAN mass killer Anders Behring Breivik claims he is part of a network of up to 80 ''solo martyr cells'' of people wanting to overthrow Western governments that tolerate Islam.

Firstly I'm willing to bet that this boast of dozens more just like him is a complete fantasy, so-called links to the English Defence League notwithstanding. They may share some common opinions, though I very much doubt that shooting unarmed innocents because they don't share your politics is one of them. So this network of solo martyr cells is probably at best some people he's met who he's convinced himself will do something similar once he'd got the ball rolling, and in all likelihood those people are all sitting aghast at the thought that they'd once been in a room with someone who'd become a mass murderer. In short these cells almost certainly don't exist outside of Breivik's own head, though you can expect that many police forces will be looking very hard to be sure and many politicians will be looking at this as an opportunity for a bit of a crackdown on the EDL and others who share any of Breivik's opinions. The worry there is that in 1,500 pages of writing, some of which has apparently been lifted from other sources (including the Unabomber, FFS - another complete fucknuts), there might be things he's said that I agree with (or not - I honestly don't know since I haven't read a single word), and I'm damn sure I'm not I'm not a cell. I've agreed with parts of Labour and Conservative manifestos and not voted for either because I disagreed with enough of both - a few thoughts in common does not a supporter make and more than agreeing with the sixth commandment makes one a Christian.

The other thought about Breivik (or is it Berhring Breivik? Anyone know?) is that with all this background about him coming out - mention of a privileged upbringing and being a mollycoddled mother's boy being just two that headline links that I didn't click - there's one missing and which I suspect will stay missing. We're not hearing anything from the ex-girlfriends, and I'm not holding my breath since a bloke who craves what might be called 'the tactical look' and likes to pose with a rifle with all sorts of torches and accessories and a bayonet attached probably didn't have one.

Comments (9)

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Paul · 713 weeks ago

I think that's the worry in that a lot of people will see this and then turn very paranoid over anyone that's different, not withstanding that there are millions of 'different' people out there, many with "very right-wing" opinions, who like all sorts of odd/weird stuff that the majority might consider to be a bit 'nuts' who'd never remotely do anything like that.

Doesn't mean any of us (apart from an extreme, extreme, extreme minority) would consider opening fire on unarmed civilians in a rage to be right though. And anyone who does seriously consider that OK is best avoided.

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thylacosmilus 62p · 713 weeks ago

If he'd claimed he was getting messages from God or from little green men, would the Vatican or NORAD be consulted?

But I did find the idea that he needed to be held incommunicado (in case he passed on 'coded messages' to his mythical cells) rather amusing, given that the authorities had released his 1500 page manifesto. What, they're absolutely certain there's no coded messages in that, are they?

If so, how?

1 reply · active 713 weeks ago

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Angry_Exile 90p · 713 weeks ago

Good point. There's probably no way of knowing.

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Captain Ranty · 713 weeks ago

Like Paul I am convinced that there are many more like him, but they will not go to the same lengths to make their point. Thankfully. The EDL links are tenuous, at best. It was almost a pleasure to see Paxman get his arse kicked by their leader last night. The Final Redoubt has the clip.

He is a smoker too. I expect the Righteous to seize on that at any time to push their cause.

A nasty business. I pray it is not repeated soon, but logic dictates that it will.

CR.

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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Angry_Exile 90p · 713 weeks ago

Depends on what 'like him' means. He seems to think it means people prepared to commit acts of violence against unarmed people that are perceived as being to blame for whatever grievances are gripping their shit. I think there are probably very few, and on the same scale as Breivik himself as close to zero as makes no difference. If we're talking about people whose shit is being gripped by some of the same things as Breivik's then yes there are more like him, but if they're not going on killing sprees they're not going to be as like him as he probably hopes.

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Tom · 713 weeks ago

I've spent quite a lot of time in Norway and.putting what I've seen and heard about Breivik through my own tuned reality filter - in a Norwegian context he doesn't come out that odd - I've seen superficially worse / weirder that haven't taken the sparking wires in their heads to such murderous lengths.

Remember, the Scaninavians are Vikings. Being "intelligent" doesn't inoculate you from doing stupid things or thinking stupid thoughts - and that obviously applies to both sides. It's one of life's minor miracles in my view that there haven't been more unpleasant incidents in Scandinavia regarding immigration - I frankly expected Sweden to kick off before Norway.

As far as immigration goes the ruling parties have been trying to fit a quart into a pint pot and it is causing significant trouble out in the communities that are saddled with dealing with it - then, when they complain... they are told haughtily that they're racists . Do that enough times and you're going to create a constituency of pretty ticked off people who are going to take the law into their own hands - which has been happening at a low level, tamped down by an ostrich like media.

All this is set to run a while yet in an assortment of different forms. I just hope that it's not too late for issues to be resolved without more significant blood being spilt.

What a mess...

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atangledweb1 22p · 713 weeks ago

Agree with your analysis of these 'many solo groups' and I suspect he's eagerly awaiting stories of the other ones kicking off across Europe this week to follow his lead. He's going to be very disappointed.

You say you haven't looked at what he's written (and copied) and I quite understand that. But I *have* started reading his manifesto and your comment about occasional bits in it being logical or sensible is right. In much the same way as a stopped clock is right twice a day, its inevitable *some stuff* is going to make sense. Plenty of raving bollocks in there to pad out the majority of what I've read so far though.

1 reply · active 713 weeks ago

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Angry_Exile 90p · 713 weeks ago

Yeah, the stopped clock was exactly what I was thinking of. The way I see it is nobody talks bollocks all the time and even hateful, mad or simply incredibly stupid people occasionally get it right even if it's just by accident. Doesn't mean we suddenly have to think of them as nice, sane or sensible, or that the rest of what they have to say has any worth.

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Tom · 713 weeks ago

Of all the places one wouldn't expect to see a balanced take on the Norway business, The Guardian....

Simon Jenkins kind of nails it . The telling part - that I wasn't aware of was that reform of the Norwegian political system has been stalled since the report he alludes to was delivered (2004). It's the kind of analysis (the report) that restores my faith in people. It remains to be seen if the political parties can have their fingers prised off the subsidies and constipation of PR eased....hopefully moving the implementation of government moved away from ideology to practicality.

Good luck with that Norway.

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