generalspeaking

Irrational Sanity

A judgement of sanity when assessing the mental state and capacity of someone accused of horrendous crimes against humanity can make us very nervous indeed.  We would far prefer that someone who appears so criminally unhinged as to deliberately plan to slaughter countless people under the guise of being an ideological warrior, be deemed deeply lunatic.

After all, people who are rational, deliberate and in full possession of their decision-making, would not commit mass murder.  Would they? 

This is also the self-serving argument of Anders Behring Breivik, that he is completely sane, and that, as a political warrior the crimes he committed are not really crimes but rational acts meant to impress upon those who can be impressed by his mode of thought, that he is a crusader for the rights of the indigenous people of Europe.

Against the sly, coersive incursion of hordes of Muslims from under-developed countries bringing not only their rights-distorted cultural baggage with them, but their true agenda of achieving world dominion through political, fanatic Islamism.  Is he mad in his contention that creeping Islamism with its determination to spread and enact Sharia law throughout Europe is a reality?

Obviously not. 

But he is mad to think that his depraved act of mass slaughter, killing 77 people in Norway last year, will produce a solution to what he sees as an existential dilemma for the future of his country and the disappearance of its values, traditions and culture.  Although he admits to having planted a bomb killing eight people in the capital, and attacking young people at a camp on the island of Utoya, slaughtering 69 of them, he regrets not having been more successful.

Criminal guilt, though?  Not he.  This was a deliberate, albeit desperate act designed to open the eyes of his countrymen to the danger that awaits them in the not-too-distant future.  Where nothing and nowhere in Norway will soon be familiar, reflecting its heritage and values.  Where the country will have been transformed to reflect values and a religion and justice system that bears no resemblance whatever to Norway's.

He is anguished at the very thought of being locked up in a mental institution.  This would be, he claims, a fate he does not deserve, "a fate worse than death", humiliating to his grand purpose.  "To send a political  activist to an asylum is more sadistic and more evil than killing him."  Well, that is his entitled opinion, of course.  For this man has an intimate knowledge of sadism and evil.

In acknowledgement of which perhaps it is not all that far-fetched an idea to reverse the conclusion of those experts, the psychiatrists who now claim that the man is sane.  And, as such, criminally responsible for his action.  And that 21 years' incarceration for his crimes reflects Norwegian justice.  On the other hand, declared once again insane, he could be challenged to a lifetime in a psychiatric facility.

After all, he does continue to pose a violent threat to his society.  And since he so abhors the very thought of insanity declared, perhaps that punishment is more equal to the crimes committed than criminal responsibility.

Labels: Conflict, Human Fallibility, Immigration, Islamism, Political Realities

posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, April 11, 2012