I said yesterday that I wouldn't blog about it because I found it depressing, but I think I will anyway. Take it as a necessary catharsis. I have been reading the news about what happened in Norway. The Norwegian gunman (I will not dignify him by calling him by his name) had links with UK extremist groups, which is very depressing, especially since I am an immigrant here (albeit one that cannot be accused of Islamist sympathies). I don't believe in a plot and the evidence so far has been leading to the contrary, but I cannot help fearing contagion. John Kennedy, his brother Bob, Martin Luther King, they all died around the same time, in the same period, killed by fanatics with similar ideas, but whatever the conspirationists think the killers were not link together. They simply had the same disease. This is what I fear most: some dark, inner fire that will take over evil minds. I have been reading The Plague by Albert Camus. The evil in that story is a disease that is blind and relentless, killing without motives or anger, but the fear and suffering that it creates is the same.
I cannot stop being surprised at how similar fanatics are, whatever the labels they take. The gunman feared the Islamisation of Europe, yet he despised the same things as Islamists: democracy, freedom of consciousness, I would also say love. Love for fellow human beings, for compatriots at least, a love that was very concrete and not channelled into an abstraction (a God that has everything of Big Brother, a nation that is devoid of freedom). He killed the same people an Islamist terrorist would have chosen as targets. It is nearly as laughable as it is sickening.
I heard on the news that Norwegians were fighting the darkness these days. I thought that expression was fitting. This is what must be done. Show grief for the ones who died, admiration and commiseration for the people of Norway and trying to overcome our own darkness, not to fall into bitterness or despair. Which means, in my case, trying to blog on a lighter topic.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Parce que je lis la météo!
This was such a sad tragedy for many reasons, but saddest to me it that it involved so many children. And I agree that this guy's whole premise is screwed up and in the end will do nothing more that further the spread more vitriol and violence. :o(
Hatred, fear and a racism always manifests in the same way no matter our ideologies or our ethnic backgrounds, and innocent people always suffer as a result. A very insightful, and compassionate post Guillaume. There is always hope where there is love. Its hard to remember that at a time like this. no matter our ideologies or our ethnic backgrounds, and innocent people always suffer as a result. A very insightful, and compassionate post Guillaume. There is always hope where there is love. Its hard to remember that at a time like this.
Post a Comment