If democratic socialism is so bad, why is Norway so great? The spectacular upset victory of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in her recent New York congressional primary election has catapulted the topic of democratic socialism to the top of America's political discussion.
Conservatives have argued that the leftist politics of Ocasio-Cortez represent a policy program guaranteed to fail, and a sure electoral loser for Democrats. (Plenty of moderate liberals, including my colleague Damon Linker, have cosigned the latter part of that argument, too.) Let's set aside electoral politics for now and focus solely on democratic socialist policies. Helpfully, we have a country that very closely approximates the democratic socialist ideal. It's a place that is not only very far from a hellish dystopia, but also considerably more successful than the United States on virtually every social metric one can name. I'm talking about Norway. On the policy side, American conservatives have one international example in their case against democratic socialism: Venezuela.
Special Report: Life after Breivik. Inga Bejer Engh: Norway's truth-seeker in Anders Breivik case - Profiles - People. Inga Bejer Engh's reaction was typical: her blond hair swinging above the white necktie and black gown worn by prosecution lawyers, she stood up, walked forward and in an utterly disarming gesture, shook hands with the killer.
He responded with a weak smile. Blue-eyed and doll-like, Bejer Engh looks almost too unworldly to be leading the prosecution case against the man who carried out one of Europe's worst acts of violence since the Second World War. It is an appearance that deceives. Behind the state prosecutor's cool facade there is clearly a woman driven by an iron conviction in the Scandinavian approach to crime and punishment so often derided by outsiders as "too lenient". In comments before the trial, Bejer Engh let it be known that she was proud to be part of the prosecution team.
There is, of course, no doubt that this trial will end with Breivik's conviction. The key question is whether Breivik will be deemed insane or fully responsible for his actions. Norway: Was Breivik Influenced by Violent Video Games? Blame video games — that’s the watch phrase these days when something tragic happens.
The non-gaming media seem to enjoy zeroing in on video games that are highlighted in horrifying crimes, invoking the rhetorical question: Do video games screw people up? Like the trial of Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik, 33, a right-wing extremist charged with killing eight people in a car-bomb attack near a government building in Oslo last July and 69 others in a follow-up shooting spree at a youth camp run by Norway’s Labor Party.
Norway's trial, and a democratic lesson. The legal procedure in the case of Anders Behring Breivik, the perpetrator of the Norwegian massacre of July 2011, is a case-study of democratic values - in particular, that democracy is not a "what" but a "how", says Thomas Hylland Eriksen.
In the aftermath of the events of 22 July 2011, many in Norway became acutely aware that something more important was at stake than the petty little things that we quarrelled about every day; namely, the respect for life and the ability to live and thrive in a community of disagreement. The trial may serve as a reminder of the fundamental importance of these values.
Many of the foreign commentators on the Breivik trial have expressed dismay, admiration or mere surprise at the civil, ordered, dispassionate way the proceedings in court are being conducted. Foreign journalists are surprised. "In my country In Oslo, there has been none of this. The national debate There is considerable disagreement about further issues. Inside Halden, the most humane prison in the world. Halden prison smells of freshly brewed coffee.
It hits you in the workshop areas, lingers in the games rooms and in the communal apartment-style areas where prisoners live together in groups of eight. This much coffee makes you hungry, so a couple of hours after lunch the guards on Unit A (a quiet, separated wing where sex offenders are held for their own protection) bring inmates a tall stack of steaming, heart-shaped waffles and pots of jam, which they set down on a checked tablecloth and eat together, whiling away the afternoon. The other remarkable thing is how quiet the prison is. There isn't any of the enraged, persistent banging of doors you hear in British prisons, not least because the prisoners are not locked up much during the day. The governor, Are Høidal, is surprised when I ask about figures for prisoner attacks on guards, staff hospitalisations, guard restraints on prisoners, or prisoner-on-prisoner assaults. The hotel comparison comes up frequently.