The tragic massacre in Norway by 32 year-old Anders Behring Breivik that led to 77 lives being horrifically snuffed out; with a bombing in the capital Oslo killing 7 and then a further 70 in a shooting rampage on the Island of Utoeya, sheds light onto the battle between “Cultural Conservatives”, in which Breivik identifies himself as, and Globalised Capitalism.
It quickly came to light that Breivik vehemently hated immigrants, particularly the Muslim kind, and was disgusted with the Norwegian Labour Party for, as Breivik claims, helping “facilitate” the take over of Norway by Muslims. His need for cultural aryan purity in his home country and his fear of “Eurabia”, led to his heinous actions.
It would be absolutely ridiculous and naive in the extreme to dismiss his atrocious actions as a corollary of his pathology. The international community should analyse and assess his motivations and ideological underpinnings, because ultimately, Europe needs to address the concerns he has and not let them fester within broader society until another Breivik style rampage occurs.
Commentators have argued it is the fault of the media, right-wing pundits and politicians for sensationalising and using refugees and immigrants as a political foot ball and a scape goat for the ills of society. Instead of looking at the rapid speed in which Europe is changing, particularly due to the consolidation of European countries into a singular “bloc”, or, the devastating effects of the 2008 Great Recession is having on Europe, it has been simpler to blame high unemployment, crime and even budget deficits, on Muslim immigration.
However, there are a couple of other elementary factors which delve deeper and have wider implications, as well as, giving observers an understanding of what helped create Norway’s worse peace time massacre since World War II.
From an outsiders perspective, it seems that Breivik is angry with the symptoms of our Globalised world. A world where a new form of colonialism operates in the guise of “International Assistance” and “Humanitarian Aid” and where mass migration of people occurs by the tens of thousands.
Lets take the Middle East for example. There is air of superiority amongst developed nations who think that their countries are so great that people will do anything to get to them. Immigrants wait years to finally be excepted into a country, that may provide a better life outcome. Whilst refugees pay astronomical amounts to people smugglers, travel over treacherous seas, and be manipulated and used by criminal organisations that administer these operations. But the question remains, why are people willing to go through all this: spend so much time and energy in trying to dislocate themselves from their home countries, leaving family and friends and risking their own and their family’s lives?
The answer is two-fold and is fundamentally characterised by “push” and “pull” factors of a globalised capitalist order. The first being neo-colonialism and its effects on the societies they control; ultimately making it unbearable for some to live in. The Middle East has some of the most valuable resources in the world, but are among the poorest people. Extended families all live in a single house, jobs are scarce and commodity prices on staple and such basic things as bread, sugar, milk and vegetables are disproportionately high, even for people earning a weekly wage.
Life for ordinary people is also constricted by the very governments the West have installed and keep supporting. Public meetings are prohibited, curfews enforced, random search and seizures take place, corruption and the swindling of a country’s wealth by kleptocrats and plutocratic regularly revealed, elections are rigged and discrimination against women and minority groups openly occur.
So many choose to leave and who can blame them. From this perspective, we may now get a better understanding of why people leave their place of birth, their families, leave all what they know behind, all to start again from scratch, with ridicule and suspicion, in a place that will be, arguably, just as harsh to them, but in a much different way.
Europe is a favoured destination. This is understandable due to its geographic location and its colonial connections. People from Morocco, for example, given a choice, will most probably like to immigrate to France because Moroccan’s are familiar with French culture, language and other mores due to its French colonial heritage, making the transition to a foreign country, less traumatic.
A preferred tactic for colonialism, and by far the most forceful “push” factor, is war (from “Armed Conflict” to “Hostilities”, now re-dubbed “Kinetic Military Operation” for today’s leaders who don’t like the images that the term “War” brings up and to get around legal barriers, constitutional hurdles and political requirements). If the West bomb a country because it has changed its geo-political strategy for the region, no matter what they call it, they really can’t then complain, when there is a mass exodus affecting every developing country, including far off places like Australia.
There are also the “pull” factors in this equation: that of a neo-liberalist necessity. The European economy, like all economies in today’s world, needs a population that can sustain the idea of ever-increasing profits. For example, not all corporations can “off shore” their manufacturing, production or operational arms to places where they can pay a pittance for labour (yet). So domestic markets need to be open to allow for the flow of skilled and unskilled labour to maintain the status quo.
Talk to immigrants who are attracted by the idea of education and employment, and many will most certainly say they were deceived by the promise of “milk and honey”. That the promise of a “better life” does not come on a platter, it is who you know and not what you know that will get you a job or promotion, and that “freedom” is wrapped up in selective and often complicated bureaucracy. The massive marketing campaign, mostly through: pop-culture, military might, economic wealth and the media, which has created the myth of a heaven on earth, whereby, democracy exists (or at least that it hasn’t been thoroughly hallowed out yet), a merit based system is the norm, the rule of law applies to everyone and rights are upheld and protected, is to some, almost completely a sham.
Some immigrants also find out that their adopted countries are eerily similar to the ones they fled from. Corruption, scandal, discrimination, and abuse of power materialising on such a grand scale and on such regularity, it is scary to think what is going on that we are not aware about. Scratch the surface of our idyllic democracy and you will find: a Murdoch Hacking scandal, British politician’s cash for peerages, the Australian Wheat Board kick backs to Saddam Hussein, Mamdouh Habib being tortured in a “black site” in Egypt while Australian officials stand idly by, refugees treated as sub humans and fair game by politicians and the media, the Iraq and Afghan wars based on lies, the FBI involved in the smuggling of arms to Mexican cartels in their never-ending “War on Drugs”, lobbyists outnumbering the number of US congress men and women by four to one, the US Courts’ decision to legally classify corporations as individuals in the political system, and unelected CEOs having far too much influence in policy objectives and directions. The list can go on.
Furthermore, immigrants not only provide an important part of the people power in an expanding economy, but also the consumeristic need that Europe requires. That is, the greater the population, the greater the increase in consumer activity, and we know this bodes well for corporations in a profits based economic and debt riddled system.
Thus, it is clear the globalised capitalistic order trumps over any cultural ideology that Breivik and others of his ilk may have. Therefore, they should be directing their anger at a system that destroys foreign lands and enables mass migration to Europe as a necessity for survival, and not blame migrating Muslims, who are only reacting to push and pull factors of western hegemony.
