Thursday 28 July 2011

Norway

Modern man is in fact a curious mixture of characteristics acquired over the long ages of his mental development ... scepticism and scientific conviction exist in him side by side with old-fashioned prejudices, outdated habits of thought and feeling, obstinate misinterpretations and blind ignorance

C.G. Jung, Man and His Symbols


It has often been said that we humans are capable of the best and the worst, and history provides numerous examples of both. Yet speaking as an outsider who has never been to that country, Norway has provided the world not just one of the most striking examples of the contrasts of human nature, but reconfirmed the existence of ancient mental forms that have refused to die after centuries of evolution.

An ostensibly peaceful country with a highly developed welfare state and a pride in being a peace broker among nations has witnessed a massacre by a madman purporting to defend the values of Norway. The perpetrator, Anders Breivik, sees himself as a kind of "holy warrior" for Truth, a crusader resisting an invading Muslim immigrant tide. He justifies his barbarism because he is "at war".

The idea of the holy war has existed since biblical times. On God's orders, we are told in the Old Testament, the Hebrews wiped out the inhabitants of Canaan before settling the promised land (Joshua 10:40). A development in the Western mythology of war came about 500BC courtesy of the Persians, who were the first to fight and conquer for universal values of Truth and Light (see Joseph Campbell's book, Oriental Mythology). They believed in an apocalyptic clash between good and evil where evil would be destroyed and thereafter peace reign forever.

Since then the Islamic conquests and notion of jihad, the Christian crusades of the middle ages and countless other wars have been fought by groups claiming God and Right on their side. To this day the United States, "one nation under God", still gives such justifications. Now move to Norway: Breivik gives the world a stark reminder that its ancient and outdated ideas can have catastrophic consequences; the shocking difference this time that it was not al-Qaeda or extremist Islamists waging jihad, but a Westerner attacking the West from the inside with its own version of the "holy war".

Clearly Breivik's own individual psychosis had a large part to play in what he did. With exceptions in certain parts of the world, it is mainly now unstable individuals who identify as divine warriors. But it would be wrong to dismiss the horrific acts in Norway as simply the work of a lone madman. We have not collectively digested the consequences of our own past, nor come to terms with the fear and separativeness that give rise to the re-activation of deadly old archetypes. They wait in the shadows, ready to possess their victims and burst forth in blood.