Anders Breivik

A dark one this time. Current affairs still has my attention and I care.

The sun was shining between showers as we took the little ferry between islands in the Stockholm archipelago. We were stood talking to the Norwegian riding the Spider on the car deck when the woman in the camper van started to cry. Her husband was also clearly upset. Their license plate marked them as Norwegians on holiday. Kirsi had known something was wrong earlier when we saw the Swedish flag flying at half mast over the royal palace. A fellow passenger approached the crying woman's open window and they exchanged words. This passengers eyes filled with tears also. Concerned expressions now stole onto everyones faces. Such is human empathy. The Spider rider went over and after a short but emotional exchange, returned. A mad man had blown up the offices of the Oslo government, and gone on to massacre another 69 youngsters on an island. They were youth members of the Norwegian Labour Party at a summer camp. 77 were dead in total. That was 22nd July 2011.

Friday August 24th 2012. The Norwegian high court has found Anders Breivik to be sane. His guilt was never in doubt since he confessed on numerous occasions. They sentenced him to 21 years with a minimum of 10. That a man who murders 77 people because he doesn't like their politics, can be adjudged sane took some getting my head around. It also took some getting my head around that a 10 year minimum sentence was appropriate. 21 years for each individual premeditated murder seems a better fit to the crime. It actually crossed my mind that by a different standard the legal system involved is insane, and that brought me to the subject I mulled over during a long walk around the lakes. If Breivik can be considered sane, so are the Islamist terrorists? After one and a half hours I concluded that sanity is subjective depending upon your culture and experience. Am I sane? No! Are the religiously devout? Maybe not. It entirely depends upon your point of view. I look at the way cats look at us and wonder if the cats know the truth. Humans are all fundamentally insane.

So what is important here? Protect the greater population from those who would gun us down surely. Anders Breivik apologised in response to the court ruling, for not being able to kill more. This morning I heard a Christian argument for forgiveness of mass murderers. Fine, just as long as the authorities exercise common sense to protect the rest of us from these monsters. My liberal values have been severely tested and I come down on the side of pragmatism. With dangerous dogs we don't take the chance of them repeating their bloody behaviour. The same thing? I'll let you decide.