22 July’s heinous, neo-fascist killings in Norway fill us with sorrow for many reasons. Not to detract from the deaths or suffering that occurs on a daily basis elsewhere, but the events that unfolded struck us differently because of their context – Norway seems so peaceful – and the evident, calculated manner in which the perpetrator targeted his young victims. Pushing away from emotive issues, a few things come to mind which we may be able to conclude from the tragedy.
The first thing to pop into my mind was Samuel Huntington’s notorious “Clash of Civilizations” article. The idea of the clash was – and to a limited extent still is – popular because it foretold of the imminent clash between the north and the south. Huntington’s argument, though, misses the mark in its explanation of why these clashes occur because he does not look for their base causes. In this ever so tragic case of xenophobia and murder in Norway, we can glean these causes: emotional-intellectual isolation, the need for an inferior ‘other’, and the existence of a sense of ethno-cultural purity, or homogeneity. Violence disrupts the dystopia that exists in the North because of this sense of purity, notably. In the case of most northern states – Norway, France, Germany, Sweden, UK, etc. – most usually seize upon ethno-religious motives, although I would expect that the perceived threats would be just as virulent if the offenders were also Christian.
At first glance, I wanted to say that the sort of behavior we witnessed on 22 July does not happen in the south, especially the Arab world, but that would have been wrong. In the south, where states have been ransacked by colonialism and forged under false boundaries that encourage constant ethnic strife, the same causes motivate xenophobia and violence, the only difference being the lower quality of life and their inability to get anywhere close to a dystopia. We also see a split between who and who not it’s acceptable to target, usually based upon skin color and a regimes’ ties to neo-colonial powers.
In sum, there isn’t anything to revelating that we actually can glean between north-south divides when it comes to hatred, ignorance, and the human psyche’s weaknesses, other than that the conditions are omnipresent, regardless of economic or educational status. Norway and the rest of the world now will turn to what response to take with the front-page threat of domestic terrorism. And although myopic, increased security measures will be tangible and, hence, popular, I’d put my money on intangible, holistic measures – dialogue, socialization, and addressing the hate-filled rhetoric of the ‘other’ – being the best answer.
