Saturday 11 May 2002

Pic of the day: No, neither Konsmohus nor "Vårt Kjøkken" ("Our Kitchen") are known for their nazism. Their only crime would seem to be providing a flat surface for the anti-nazists to spray on.

Reversed menace

I don't think people are plagued by this overseas, but several countries here in Europe has some of it. It seems that we have aquired some reverse nazists. These anti-nazists, or sometimes anti-racists, are basically doubling the trouble we already have with sporadic witless wannabe nazists. Who of them is more insane is an open question.

At first thought, you'd think that anti-nazism would be a good thing, or at least harmless. After all, the nazis were the bad guys. They tried to make of the Earth a hell forever, and eventually the good guys had to confront them in the most horrible war ever, before they were defeated. Shouldn't we all be anti-nazists?

No, we should be democrats, or at the very least adherents of freedom. But anti-nazists are like nazists, only with the colors reversed. Their activities range from fairly harmless ones like spraying paint on other people's property, to unprovoked violent assault. And in their madness, they tend to regard both police and most political parties as their enemies. Nobody except them understands that the nazis are coming and have infiltrated our society. Oh, and incidentally they hate the Jews. The Jews are nazists too.

***

Apart from the few and scattered loony thugs, there is a larger and more legitimate political movement. These labor tirelessly to convince the populace that several (or even most) of our political parties are racist and should be forbidden.

They may have a point as far as racism is concerned - Norway is a lot more open to immigration from Europe than from other continents. That's mostly a question of culture, though. When I was a kid, there were very few people of non-Nordic origin here in Norway. But some childless couples adopted children from Africa or Asia, where there were always plenty of orphans. The kids grew up here and spoke Norwegian and acted Norwegian, and people found it kinda exotic in a good way. Now, these same kids (now adults) are searched by the police routinely, and people shout insults at them in streets and bars. Well, not all people, but it happens way too regularly. What happened?

What happened was that immigrants of the same colors came to Norway, and unlike the small kids they brought their culture with them. Their culture was not like ours, and we had learned in school that ours was simply the best. So when they did not give up their primitive inferior culture and adapt to our God-given wonderful Norwegian way of life, we were deeply offended. So you don't want meatballs in brown sauce? Go back to the bush and die from starvation as befits your race! Boo! Boo!

So yes, there is some racism here in Norway. It would be kind of nice to get rid of it. But it does NOT HELP when these guys and girls bring out the wall to wall paintbrush and paint everyone in nazi brown who want to preserve the Norwegian, or at least European, culture. There may be some doubt as to whether the Norwegian culture, such as it is, is worth preserving. Actually it is in a flux, like all other advanced cultures. We absorb new traits quite peacefully every year. When I was a kid, pizza was pretty much unknown and we had recently got yogurt. Now kebab is part of Norwegian cuisine, and middle-aged people dance samba. We're part of the global melting pot, or at least salad bowl. It is mainly the speed of the change that is open for debate.

***

I have said this before, but I will briefly repeat it in this context. You don't need to forbid nazist propaganda, or communist propaganda. They are both ridiculously stupid and consist of a heap of big fat lies. Even in their current sad state, most humans can see at a glance that these ideologies don't hold water. A few confused souls will cling to them, but then again they would probably have clung to something else equally weird in the absence of these ideas. Some people simply feel a need to oppose society.

But forbidding thoughts is not the solution. Forbidding thoughts is the problem. And opposition to unwanted ideologies does not give you a right to perform acts of violence or vandalism.

"Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master." (U.N. Commisioner Pravin Lal, Alpha Centauri.) Truer words were rarely spoken by a fictional character...