Is Breivik Bonkers?

It is a very odd trial where the prosecution argues that the accused is not guilty by reason of insanity, but the defence demands a criminal trial. An inversion of the usual order of things, unique to political cases as far as I know.

      When Anders Breivik carried out his massacre, the Norwegian Prime Minister promised to respond to his violence with 'greater openness'. When he came up for trial, government psychiatrists proclaimed him insane, and attempted to bundle him off to the madhouse. Out of sight, out of mind. He protested vigorously, and a second set of psychiatrists have found him fit to stand trial, pointing out the absurdity of the grounds given for deeming him mad, which seem to be that he thought Norway would be Moslem-dominated within twenty years. Of course, if the first group had found that his desire to kill was madness, that would have undermined the whole system of crime and punishment, so they were left groping desperately for an excuse to shut him up.

      In spite of their failure, the authorities have managed to arrange to broadcast only parts of his trial, not his own statements or the evidence of his defence witnesses. What happened to the PM's openness then? Well, they've built a new courthouse to try him in, so the taxpayer's wallet is open. The hypocrisy of the establishment is pretty open, too.

      "By their fruits ye shall know them." What has been established by this legal process is that the politicians believe in deceit, manipulation, and trickery, not openness. 'What is new?' I seem to hear the reader mutter. It's the sheer brazen effrontery of this example which I find a bit shocking. Perhaps also that it is from Norway, which I had naively believed to be a relatively enlightened place. It would be no great surprise in the US or Britain, whose populations seem to have given up expecting rationality, consistency or decency from their leaders.

      Some may ask: could a sane man carry out such a slaughter? He shows no sign of the confusion typical of the mentally ill. He does not think he has a bird standing on his head, or that space aliens are talking to him through his TV set. He seems calm and articulate. Probably he has narcissistic personality disorder, with its characteristic grandiose ideas and self-image. This is not classified as madness in successful politicians or businessmen, among whom it is common. Other politically-motivated killers have been tried in recent years, and no-one said they were mad. Charles Taylor, the former tyrant of Liberia, and Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia spring to mind. Somehow their attempts at self-justification were seen as less threatening than Breivik's. Some may think he is lucky to be alive at all. Colonel Gaddafi and Osama bin Laden were crudely murdered rather than tried, but then they knew too much, rather than merely talking too much, like Breivik.

      In any case, the government of Norway has implicated itself in the recent bombing of Libya, so it could be argued that one group of politically-motivated killers is prosecuting another. Is the government insane too?

      The recent raft of political trials of former government leaders have undermined the ancient distinction whereby government argued that it was authorised to kill, and others were not. The sponsorship by Western governments of paramilitary groups operating in Iran and Libya has also undermined this idea. Maybe this is why Breivik, perhaps alone, thinks he is not criminally guilty for the killings, even though he performed them while of sound mind.

      The authorities also contend that Breivik acted alone, and his claims to belong to a group are false. This is hauntingly familiar. One Lone Nut carried out the killings, just as he also killed Martin Luther King, John Kennedy, and Bobby Kennedy in rapid succession. Is Breivik's group of Knights Templar merely fanciful? It is hard to know. One thing killers have in common, is that after slaughtering people wholesale, telling a few lies doesn't seem a very big deal. None of the parties to the case are a reliable source of information.