Finnpundit

I was not surprised when I heard that Anders Breivik, who conducted the massacre of Norwegian Social Democratic Party youth camp members this past summer, has been found insane by Norwegian forensic psychologists, and therefore mentally unfit for a murder trial. I was, though, disappointed.

The disappointment is simply due to the fact that all signs had indicated that this was cold-blooded, calculated murder, yet knowing the way Nordics think about their own societies, I feared that they would not be able to confront the disturbing arguments that Breivik’s actions bring forth about their own societies. The dogma expounded in welfare states precludes acceptance of the possibility that there might be violently fierce critics of such welfare states; therefore, anyone opposed to such states must clearly have some sort of a mental condition preventing them from seeing the light.

This is why, in Brezhnev’s Soviet Union, social malcontents were often condemned to psychiatric care in state mental hospitals. After all, only mentally disturbed people could possibly find fault with the Soviet Union.

Now, nothing less than the left-wing Der Spiegel. has published the reactions of other psychologists to the Breivik finding. It is good to know that there are some within the system who are able to present a counter-argument.

But it says even less about the Norwegian state, as even with full knowledge of these critiques, Norway sought a solution that had less to do with justice, and more to do with the preservation of their own welfare state.

Although I would not support the left-wing nationalist True Finns party, Member of Parliament James Hirvisaari delivers a stunningly accurate broadside against journalists, as reported by the left-of-center Helsingin Sanomat. It is such an accurate skewering of the journalistic class that I was amazed such statements actually came from a Finn:

“Democratically elected Members of Parliament face an insolent, arrogant, and lying group of riffraff. They have not been chosen in any election.”

How very true! Journalists arrogate power to themselves in so many ways, they can truly be called the enemies of the demos, the people, – and enemies of democracy.

The article goes on about some issues with politically-correct language in Finland today, which are rather amusing. (English speakers might understand why the True Finns – perussuomalaiset, in Finnish, – resent being nicknamed persu by all the other political parties when one sees that word’s resemblance to the word perse, which means a**hole in Finnish.)

James Hirvisaari also scores some hits in an earlier attack against the fully state-funded Finnish Broadcasting Company, YLE, which is akin to the NPR network in the United States:

“Hirvisaari said that as long as YLE has the declared aim of promoting multiculturalism, something which he sees as brainwashing the Finnish people, he would not want to give the company any kind of support from state funding.”

I’ve long thought of the Finnish people, – as well as the rest of the people of the Nordic countries, – as profoundly brainwashed by state-supported media and academic institutions. It is immensely satisfying that there is at least one Finn who agrees.

Sometimes it’s useful, – and fun! – to revisit old time Marxist ideas regarding societal change, borrow their terminology, and apply them in ways that are much more appropriate today. For example, the concept that capitalists were parasites who exploited societies in their “natural” state, thus distorting them, and causing a class society where the strong exploited the weak.

Well, who is being exploited today? Aren’t the real parasites today all the people on welfare who stay within their publicly-subsidized housing, turn down higher paying work in order to continue qualifying for food stamps, and agitate for special treatment due to their “former” status as one of the exploited classes of the past? As the public’s understanding of economics grows, it’s getting really harder to claim that anyone on welfare is being exploited, or that capitalists are the parasites. It is quite obvious that the roles are reversed, and most likely always were.

And then there’s the old trope about capitalists being “enemies of the people”. As far as I can tell, the new enemies of the people are the monopolists who make up labor unions. All the rest of society only suffers when unions are allowed to thrive. And the concept that unions provide a beneficial service to society in the form of professionalized skills might fall flat when we measure the obscene amount of money such professionalization costs us, regardless of whether we want it. Labor unions can easily be seen as the new enemies of the people.

Of course, I’d throw in journalists into that category, too. There is no such thing as an honest journalist anymore, and the damage they do in main stream media is enormous. Citizen journalism is now possible, and we can only hope that journalists will soon bite the dust, as a class.

For it is about class warfare, after all. Let us hope that those two classes, – labor unions and journalists – will soon be eradicated, as classes. We might as well throw in a truly Marxist wish and add that history justifies their eradication with all means necessary.

Everyone seems to bellyache about the coming Chinese behemoth, the one that will overtake the West and have all of us dancing to their tune within a few decades. But sometimes it’s useful to review the reasons for China’s rise, and I as well as many others have read up on how well such a post-communist society was able to marshal the forces of organized production, albeit in a new, capitalist setting, and how all of this seems to portend doom to those societies who cannot command their masses in a similar vein.

Yet there is something that most people overlook, perhaps simply out of politeness: namely, that China succeeds because the Chinese lie, and they steal.

Transparency in China is notoriously absent, whether it be in politics or in financial matters. In fact, western economists have long suspected that growth data as reported by Chinese institutions are regularly inflated, both for domestic and foreign consumption. Such glowing numbers tend to corroborate the path taken by the leadership, as well as entice foreign corporations to invest more in China. The better the numbers, the more prestige for China. Never mind if not everyone trusts those numbers – they’re simply out to humiliate China, to keep it back from achieving its due as a great nation.

And when it comes to stealing, well, the Chinese are at the top. Though the officers of the People’s Liberation Army, as the Chinese armed forces are called, might not orchestrate acts of piracy in the South China Seas anymore as they did in the 1990′s, the level of intellectual property theft is staggering. From luxury good knock-offs, to DVD duplication, to computer program copying, to organized cyber attacks against western institutions, both private and public, – the list goes on and on.

So it’s no wonder China has been such a success. Lying and stealing can lead to success, especially when everybody does it, from top to bottom. The question remains if such dependence on lies and thievery will guarantee long-term survival in a world where innovation is paramount.

Much has been written about Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisian fruit-seller whose self-immolation was the trigger for the “Arab Spring” revolts that rocked the Middle East six months ago. Bouazizi’s act has been declared the act of a desperate man who was sick and tired of the constant humiliation at the hands of government officials, a man yearning for the kinds of freedoms and civility enjoyed by people in the democratic world. Yet on a close reading of what actually transpired, it is hard to believe that Bouazizi was ever really that concerned about democracy and freedom and other such lofty ideals. It seems that his major motivation was to have a chance to make money in peace, without the endless interference of government. As such he is more of a capitalist martyr, and a Tea Partier, rather than a freedom-loving, social reform-minded patriot.

I can’t even recall if there has ever been a martyr for the sake of capitalism and entrepreneurship. As capitalism is a system where self-interest is seen as paramount, setting oneself on fire for the sake of self-interest doesn’t really make sense. Yet capitalism can be snuffed out quite easily in contexts where its values are not understood, appreciated or, – worse yet, – denigrated or opposed.

The lesson is totally lost on the masses of Arabs who took to the streets. They seem to be concentrating on overthrowing governments who have ignored them in order to establish… governments who would not ignore them, such as they have in European welfare states. This, of course, is a tragic mistake, as Europe’s states are increasingly a failed model.

It would have been far better if they had concentrated on governments who’d have a minimum presence in their lives. Everything about Bouazizi’s act says that he would very much concur.

The fact that Murdoch gets pilloried by left-wing media on a regular basis is well known, but most of the time no one gives thought to why Murdoch’s media entities have succeeded so well over the years. The usual charge is that Murdoch concentrates on scandal-mongering and “populist” politics, appealing to the prurient tastes of the great unwashed, whereas left-wing media seeks to elevate public discourse through supposedly well-considered analysis.

Yet I see Murdoch simply seeing an opportunity in filling a market niche that others have abandoned. As most journos and editors in Main Stream Media are decidedly left-wing, they recoil from providing any balanced reportage, and steer their publications towards left-leaning views. This, however, will only appeal to, – roughly, – 50% of the public at any given time and at any given place. The other 50% who identify with right-leaning views will naturally feel unrepresented, and will look elsewhere for media that reflects their thinking.

Enter Murdoch, the only major publisher with no compunction representing right-wing views. His positioning in the marketplace in a place others have abandoned becomes all the more brilliant when we know that the majority of the rest will never seek to compete with him there. It is a wise business move, if there ever was one, as most of Murdoch’s media entities wind up being the most financially successful ones in their respective fields. Fox News has the largest market share in America because the rest of them are all competing, – not against Fox News, – but against each other on the left-wing.

The frustration of the left is palpable, leaving them no other strategies other than forcing him into inconsequential hearings, as we have recently seen in Britain.

The US Senate was stunned by the surprise visit of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords on Monday, to deliver her vote on the recent budget plan. While it certainly is nice to see a victim of an attempted assassination walk in despite the best wishes of her would-be murderer, there is something strange about the lack of media speculation regarding her present capacity to operate as a servant of the people, given that she suffered extensive brain damage in that attack. Does she still have the mental capacity to make rational judgments? Or will she always rely on her Democratic Party colleagues to tell her how she should vote? All in all, it seems that the constituents of her state will suffer from this kind of impaired representation.

The voters, after all, voted for a Gabby Giffords with a full set of marbles. If some of her marbles have been lost, can she still provide the service she was expected to provide? In all honesty, she should probably recuse herself, at least until the next election. If the voters still want her as their representative, then that would be a complete validation of her suitability for service, marbles or no marbles.

In the spirit of multicultural understanding, now would be a good time for the Norwegian Labour Party to ask that very important question: why are they so hated? How could such a tragedy take place in a country governed with such humanistic values? What have they done wrong to have bred someone like Breivik – whose parents are both Labour Party loyalists, after all?

The tragedy will certainly inspire a lot of introspection, but it is already clear that it will mostly be directed not at questions such as above, but against the ones who don’t share in the closely-hewed ideological convictions of the Labour Party. The witch hunt has already started, mostly against “Islamophobic” blogsites (as if these bloggers really fear Islam) and right-wing libertarians. It’s as if there is nothing to be gained from thinking outside the box: maybe, just maybe, the Labour Party was attacked – and it was clearly an attack against the Labour Party, – …because of its policies. Perhaps it would be time to examine those policies which clearly have engendered such much hate against them.

But, most likely that will not happen. Norway is perhaps the most arrogant country of all the Nordic countries, claiming for itself a special messianic role in various far corners of the world where it really has no business to be in. An in-bred, socialist elite has long governed the country without any real kind of challenge, as the country is awash in oil wealth that keeps its citizens appeased enough to buy into the Labour Party’s idealism. The elites then turn outward, into the world, to try to solve problems that have nothing to do with them, but which gives them further assurance that their benign intentions have been validated.

It’s time Norwegians ask themselves what went wrong. Breivik is a native son, the product of socialism. How could such a creature go against the system itself?

The elections in Finland were two months ago, but the strong showing of the left-wing nationalist True Finns – who placed third, after the Conservatives and the Social Democrats – caused long-term negotiations between Conservatives (the first-place winners) and Social Democrats (second place) as they tried to form a new government without the True Finns.

Imagine my surprise when the Conservatives acceded to the demands of the Social Democrats in having their former foreign minister and anti-American bigot, Erkki Tuomioja, as the foreign minister again! It would have been wonderful to be rid of this idiot, after his poor showing when Finland had the presidency of the EU. Even the Jacques Chirac, – a socialist masquerading as a conservative – called Tuomioja a “zero”.

Look for more anti-American rhetoric coming from Finland, and more Finnish support for anti-Israel terrorist organizations, – such as Hamas and Hezbollah – in the future.

It’s time to start blogging again, as we live in such interesting times, unfortunately.

For those of you who would like to see my earlier blog, you can go here.