Terrorist attack in Oslo

[Sweetdeath]

Thanks for these updates, Asmo. As heart breaking as they are. ;__;

[Amicale]

Asmo, I truly appreciate what you're doing with this.

Their stories are heartbreaking, and deserve to be told. The time and careful detail you're putting into this is, in its way, a tribute to them. It shows you care about their lives and their stories, and that you want others to hear about them, too. I know I definitely appreciate the updates -- these were lives cut too short too soon. I thank you, for what you're doing here with the updates.

Please take all the time you need. I can only imagine that so much time spent looking through these documents takes an emotional toll on you, too.

[Asmodean]

Breivik has requested more time to explain himself and has been granted the chance to do that. The date is set for the 6th of June and, because it will most likely be about the events at utøya, this will likely delay the publishing of the third and final part of my 22.06.11 compilation.

Breivik is expected to talk about, among other things, his political radicalization. There has not been too muh information about the road he took from just some guy who loved looking in a mirror to a mass murderer, so maybe some answers will become more clear after that day.

[Sweetdeath]

I wonder what he is going to say. There cant possibly be a way to defend that monster...

[Asmodean]

Well, for one, calling him "monster", "animal" or anything of a kind serves nothing. His name is Anders Behring Breivik, and he is, in fact, a human, a terrorist, a mass murderer, a political extremist... There are accurate descriptions out there.

Name calling has its purpose when part of making a point, it has none other than bullying when describing someone in general.

As for defending him, legally, it's not about defending his actions (Justifying those was his job when he explained himself to the court the first time) as much as about safeguarding his rights as defendant in the Norwegian legal system. If he wishes to shed light on the details of his case and the court sees those details as relevant, it's only right to grant him time to do so. Yes, this case is huge by local and even global standards, but it wouldn't say much good about Norway as a society if we neglected to give Breivik what any other defendant in our legal system can lay claim to.

Of course, in fairness, each victim should have had the court time they deserve rather than the ten-fifteen minutes they got, but if they did get it, this case would probably go on forever... It's a rather delicate balancing act, as it appears, this case is.

[En_Route]

I wonder what he is going to say. There cant possibly be a way to defend that monster...

Monsters only exist in fairy tales. In fact the idea the idea that a human being who
commits atrocities is of a different order to the rest of us or somehow embodies or is imbued with wickedness
Is based on notions as primitive and unreflective as theism. In law, defences can be available such as insanity or diminished responsibility though these seem to have been ruled out here. He looks to be a psychopath, itself not that uncommon a condition, though clearly it requires other factors to be in play before it leads to such dire results.

[Sweetdeath]

You're right, guys. Maybe that's why it is so horrendus and frightening. A human being had no problem killing children (teenagers.)

[Asmodean]

He figured it was necessary... That's what I find the most disturbing. I did think we as a society were far beyond killing each other for political reasons. I still do, all things considered. An exception (Well, The Mother of All Exceptions, really) is, after all, just that.

[Asmodean]

Researching for my compilation, I came across the story of one seventeen year old kid who got hurt when a bullet hit a stone he was hiding behind, and had over 250 fragments in his face. Over a hundred still remain, and one can hardly see any sign of it... Bloody amazing!



Image from TV2

[Ali]

That is amazing!

I appreciate your comments (and En_Route's) about how we have an emotional tendency to see the perpetrator of heinous crimes such as this as something "other than" human.  We like to believe that humans are not capable of these kinds of acts when, clearly, we are.

[Sweetdeath]

Wow, that kid looks amazing.
Now he'll have a story to tell his girlfriend or boyfriend. XP

[DeterminedJuliet]

I appreciate your comments (and En_Route's) about how we have an emotional tendency to see the perpetrator of heinous crimes such as this as something "other than" human.  We like to believe that humans are not capable of these kinds of acts when, clearly, we are.

Agreed. I remember reading Elliott Leyton's Hunting Humans a few years ago (it's a sociological analysis of serial killers). And that was pretty much his thesis. We like to think of serial killers or mass murderers as "others" that operate outside of society. When, really, they are symptoms of a larger whole. Their acts are monstrous, but they are people.

[Amicale]

I appreciate your comments (and En_Route's) about how we have an emotional tendency to see the perpetrator of heinous crimes such as this as something "other than" human.  We like to believe that humans are not capable of these kinds of acts when, clearly, we are.

Agreed. I remember reading Elliott Leyton's Hunting Humans a few years ago (it's a sociological analysis of serial killers). And that was pretty much his thesis. We like to think of serial killers or mass murderers as "others" that operate outside of society. When, really, they are symptoms of a larger whole. Their acts are monstrous, but they are people.

Humans are definitely very capable of these acts, and their acts are monstrous, yes. I think most of us like to believe that humans aren't capable of these acts because the vast majority of humans would never want to commit actions like these - most of us don't understand what it takes to create someone capable of these actions. As it turns out, these mass murderers, serial killers, attackers etc are all a product of their personal background, their mental/emotional state, their biology, the society they come from, etc.

[Sweetdeath]

I appreciate your comments (and En_Route's) about how we have an emotional tendency to see the perpetrator of heinous crimes such as this as something "other than" human.  We like to believe that humans are not capable of these kinds of acts when, clearly, we are.

Agreed. I remember reading Elliott Leyton's Hunting Humans a few years ago (it's a sociological analysis of serial killers). And that was pretty much his thesis. We like to think of serial killers or mass murderers as "others" that operate outside of society. When, really, they are symptoms of a larger whole. Their acts are monstrous, but they are people.

Humans are definitely very capable of these acts, and their acts are monstrous, yes. I think most of us like to believe that humans aren't capable of these acts because the vast majority of humans would never want to commit actions like these - most of us don't understand what it takes to create someone capable of these actions. As it turns out, these mass murderers, serial killers, attackers etc are all a product of their personal background, their mental/emotional state, their biology, the society they come from, etc.

Usually it's really shitty parenting. :<

[En_Route]

I appreciate your comments (and En_Route's) about how we have an emotional tendency to see the perpetrator of heinous crimes such as this as something "other than" human.  We like to believe that humans are not capable of these kinds of acts when, clearly, we are.

Agreed. I remember reading Elliott Leyton's Hunting Humans a few years ago (it's a sociological analysis of serial killers). And that was pretty much his thesis. We like to think of serial killers or mass murderers as "others" that operate outside of society. When, really, they are symptoms of a larger whole. Their acts are monstrous, but they are people.

Humans are definitely very capable of these acts, and their acts are monstrous, yes. I think most of us like to believe that humans aren't capable of these acts because the vast majority of humans would never want to commit actions like these - most of us don't understand what it takes to create someone capable of these actions. As it turns out, these mass murderers, serial killers, attackers etc are all a product of their personal background, their mental/emotional state, their biology, the society they come from, etc.

Usually it's really shitty parenting. :<

There is a vast amount of really shitty parenting around but very few mass murderers. Everyone is a product of their genetic predispositions and their environment, but the interplay between the two is dynamic and multifaceted. Environmental factors can switch on or off genes which then influence how that person responds to their environment and so on. It's reminiscent of chaos theory; one minor variation can trigger off a sequence of actions and reactions with potentially huge consequences at the end of the line.