Kvalmende røre

Og der kan du finne i listen til høyre Egil Asprems utmerkede blogg som det kan være viktig å følge for å forstå noe av det mer esoteriske eller ordensromantiske bakteppet til Anders Behring Breivik.

I første omgang anbefales denne artikkelen som belyser både hvorfor ekstremistiske motkulturer kan lene seg til stoffet som mainstream kaster på søppelhaugen - og samtidig hvor overfladisk Breivik forstår det.

Perhaps this does not explain much, but it does provide a nuanced answer to those who might want to start talking about a right-wing “esoterrorism”: No, we should not consider Brevik’s neo-Templar terrorist fantasies a “proper part of” Western esotericism as such. But neither is the presence of esoteric motifs entirely coincidental, and in fact we do find other traces of this within segments of the European New Right (Nouvelle Droite). In fact, however, when the esoteric links with politics in modern history it is almost always connected with various “countercultural” movements, and these may very well be on the left as on the right. Consider for example the utopian Socialist Spiritualists of the 19th century, and the connection between esoteric ideas culled primarily from Theosophy and Anthroposophy on the leftist counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s. It is as if an ideological critique of (or revolt against) modernity which seeks to incorporate a religious dimension hardly ever escapes the esoteric – whether the revolt comes from the left or the right.

Behring Breivik koker i det hele tatt sammen en illeluktende røre av dels motstridende elementer, dels elementer han ønsker å reformere til det ugjenkjennelige.

It also sheds some light on the question of religion in Breivik’s motivations, a topic which, among others, Massimo Introvigne has written about over at CESNUR. As Introvigne shows, the “Christian Fundamentalist” label which was tossed around quite a lot does obviously not fit at all. Instead, the strong Judeo-Christian element of Breivik’s ideological discourse is itself motivated by identity politics. One only has to read from the manifesto to confirm this. Breivik does not hide the fact that he considers himself a “cultural Christian” rather than a “religious” one:

“Myself and many more like me do not necessarily have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God. We do however believe in Christianity as a cultural, social, identity and moral platform. This makes us Christian.”

In fact, the existing institutions of Christendom are all seen as corrupt, weak and “suicidal”, and a thorough reform of Christianity is another of Breivik’s revolutionary aims. This would be a different church indeed, and it would include much of what has been “rejected” through earlier phases of European identity politics. Including “Odinism”.

Et usalig oppkok som krever at vi vender tilbake til en fortid som aldri har eksistert.