As for the tragedy that struck Norway, there is one aspect in particular we should focus on. Maybe because of an excess of cultural snobbery, simple things have been undervalued. Anders Behring Breivik, the 32-year-old accused of the terrible killing spree, is a man suffering from mental disorders with right-wing views, not the contrary. He suffers from a “mental disease that leads him to Grandiose delusions. He thinks he is the saviour of the world”. Therefore, the most important thing to notice is not the relation between ideology and action, but the contrary. In his mind, Breivik finds a perfect justification for what he does: “the world is awful, I will save it”. Whatever is at the basis of such a terrible idea (Catholicism, Marxism, Nazism, etc.) does not matter. As emerges from a recent interview with the well-known psychiatrist Vittorino Andreoli, this is the reason why, in a place considered as the paradise of Northern Europe, 76 people have been killed. Such a theory is also confirmed by Breivik’s behaviour. Unlike his predecessors (e.g. the two teenagers who murdered a dozen fellow students and a teacher in the massacre at Columbine high school, in the US), he did not kill himself, but got arrested. It is as if the arrest and the media attention represented the seal of his mission to save the nation.
This is not a European September eleventh, nor the evidence of multiculturalism failure. International terrorism and migration waves are merely excuses. This is an example of pure madness that can be compared to many similar cases happened in the US. Our reflection, therefore, should follow another path. Have you noticed, for instance, the cynicism of Breivik’s father? The man, a former Norwegian diplomat who had not seen his son for years, simply said: “He had to commit suicide. Now I will live with this shame for the rest of my life. People will always associate me with him”. That’s why we are sure that Norway will always be a small people with a great and peaceful democracy.
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