Sunday, December 02, 2012

The Gates of Hell

The Devil Belial Before the Gates of Hell, from ‘Das Buch Belial’, Augsburg, 1473

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer wrote to us this morning with a tip about an editorial that was published in Thursday’s edition of Morgenbladet. He didn’t have time to translate it — and it probably wouldn’t have been worth the effort, anyway — but he thought we would be interested (and amused) by parts of it.

This particular opinion piece is yet another rehash of the controversy concerning the Norwegian academic Asle Toje and what he wrote about a fellow academic, Thomas Hylland Eriksen. We covered this territory sufficiently last week, and there’s no need to go over the latest round in any detail. From an outsider’s perspective, it’s a storm in a teacup, a joust between Lilliputian cavaliers astride dormice.

However, a sentence in the fourth paragraph of the editorial is worth noting:

Disse misforståelsene bringer en sakeløs professors navn like til helvetes porter, til Gates of Vienna

With the help of several kibitzers among my horn-helmet friends, I can provide a reliable translation of the text:

These misunderstandings bring the name of an innocent professor straight to the gates of hell, to Gates of Vienna.

This little tidbit is of interest to us because, as The Observer noted in his email, “When things are published at Gates of Vienna, the foundations of the left-wing sandcastle in Norway begin to shake.”

Which is strange, when you think about it. Why are the musings published on an obscure blog based in Virginia considered significant in the hallowed cloisters of the Norwegian academy?

Why does anybody in Oslo care what we say?

Well, they do. If we publish a Norwegian author in translation, or quote him with approval, it can have a negative impact on his career. He risks being tarred with the dreaded Breivik Brush, after which the doors of opportunity slam shut in his face.

None of this was true before July 22, 2011. Before the Butcher of Utøya earned his place in the halls of infamy, this blog and its Scandinavian contributors could be safely ignored.

Such is no longer the case. Circumstances have changed in the past sixteen months. Every morning, after perusing the news on the websites of Aftenbladet and Dagsavisen over his croissant and cup of Darjeeling tea, the self-respecting Norwegian litterateur also checks the latest from Gates of Vienna — if for no other reason, to determine which of his countrymen is now considered anathema, to be avoided at all costs.

Once again, from an outsider’s point of view, the situation in Norway seems utter madness. How is it that no dissenting points of view may be aired without all this scapegoating, ostracism, and intellectual bullying?

Is there to be no argument about the most important issues of our time?

In a word: No, there isn’t. All the important questions have already been answered, and the keepers of received wisdom brook no disagreement. The politically correct Marxist Multicultural paradigm is sacrosanct. The hallowed canons handed down by the elites have been placed beyond all doubt. Those who dare to question them are cast into the Outer Darkness.

The truth has been fully revealed. All else is rank heresy.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

All of the above is well-known by now. Such is the situation in Modern Multicultural Norway; we’re all aware of it. There would be no point in rehashing it except for one niggling fact:

There are dissenting points of view in Norway.

I know this because the dissidents send us emails (and monetary donations). They support what we do, and find the articles and points of view posted here refreshing, timely, and helpful.

They generally agree with Fjordman and other dissident writers who post their articles and essays at Gates of Vienna. But they dare not express their agreement at home, or they might put their careers, their well-being, and their families at risk.

At Gates of Vienna they find politically incorrect opinions that are backed up by facts.

There are opinions aplenty in Norway, but virtually all of them tilt towards the left. Anyone who leans just slightly to the right — or even hews to the center — is demonized as a “right-wing extremist”. Anyone who recognizes the value of a community of shared values with a common history and a distinct ethnicity is reviled as a “racist” and a “xenophobe”.

A typical Norwegian conversation on sensitive topics might run something like this:

Dissident:I’m not certain that mass immigration from the Third World is a good idea for Norway.
Establishment:You sound like Breivik.
Dissident:Yes, it’s true that Breivik cited some of the same authors that I refer to. But does that mean they’re wrong?
Establishment:They are right-wing extremists.
Dissident:But why can we not consider the long-term deleterious effects of flooding Norway with hundreds of thousands of foreigners whose cultures are absolutely incompatible with ours, and who cannot possibly be integrated — let alone assimilated — within Norwegian culture?
Establishment:Racist!
Dissident:Why is it a bad thing to value the culture, language, history, and traditions of Norway?
Establishment:Racist!
Dissident:What will become of our country if current trends continue uninterrupted?
Establishment:RACIST!!

This is why Norwegians read sites like Gates of Vienna. If they generally agree with us, they’re rewarded with accurate information and a refreshing point of view that aligns well with their own.

If they disagree with us, they want to find out what the “racists” are up to, and maybe catch some of their less progressive colleagues expressing unacceptable opinions. Hence the attention paid by the apparatchiks at NRK and Morgenbladet.

Here they will find open discussion. As regular readers know, anyone who adheres to the basic rules of decorum and civility of discourse may express any opinion he likes in our comments section. If you treat your hosts and your fellow commenters with common courtesy, your viewpoint is welcome.

This is where you will find Norwegians who don’t adhere to the orthodoxy of the High Church of Politically Correct Multiculturalism.

This is where the heretics hang out. That’s why these are the Gates of Hell.

12 comments:

dymphna said...

Yeah, it's about Norway so I have to say something: Caroline Glick was right: a totalitarian democracy.

For those who are interested in an exploration of the Norwegian psyche, I recommend this book. A Norwegian professional who left his homeland for freer pastures told me he re-reads it every so often- perhaps to remind himself of how Breivik came to be?

I bought the book, Lillelord but I don't think I can get through it. Here's a snip from one review:

Written in 1955 but set in 1912, Lillelord (Little Lord, as his mother and aunts call him) is a study of anomie that harks back to Leopold and Loeb and looks toward the future, our future, of school shootings and date rape drugs among young people who seem to have the best things of life right in their hands.

It's a grim, scary tale, narrated out of the sidelong peripheral vision of Lillelord himself.


Lillelord is Breivik without a Manifesto. I'm curious as to whether ABB read this "classic of European literature in the 20th century". It certainly resembles him.

Good writing without any other redeeming virtues cannot be considered "classic". In Lillelord there is no goodness, truth, or beauty. That is unless you consider looking at the disintegration of one mind as a kind of "truth".

If Lillelord is Norway's contribution to the 20th century, no wonder...

Anonymous said...

"Is there to be no argument about the most important issues of our time?

In a word: No, there isn’t. All the important questions have already been answered, and the keepers of received wisdom brook no disagreement. The politically correct Marxist Multicultural paradigm is sacrosanct. The hallowed canons handed down by the elites have been placed beyond all doubt. Those who dare to question them are cast into the Outer Darkness.

The truth has been fully revealed. All else is rank heresy."

This reminds me of Berlin's lecture on the nature of tyranny, and what he said about those who believe they have found a "final solution" to the question of how man ought to live. You did publish an article on this not long ago, as did British Freedom. Here's the link to their article.

Anonymous said...

Norway needs a second Black Metal revolution. The first one, being against the collectivism of the christian religion, this time against the real enemy, the collectivist left wing socialist cancer.

Anonymous said...

Maybe what the Snatchers in Norway need is an hour of silent meditation over the following pearls of wisdom concerning the real Gates of Hell:

“The road to Hell is paved with good intentions” – very old
but authorship unknown.

“Then I saw that there was a way to hell, even from the gates of heaven [which is assuredly where Norway’s progressives think they are]” – John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress.
Takuan Seiyo

Anonymous said...

"A typical XXXXX conversation on sensitive topics might run something like this:"

Where XXXXX can be substituted with any Nordic/Scandinavian Country.

anthropologic said...

Anyone with a minimal understanding of the human nature should know that a welfare society must be inversely related to diversity.
Someone should warn the scandinavians that their much beloved welfare state is not going to survive the multi-culti social program. It is an either-or situation

Anonymous said...

The coiner of the comparison between the Gates of Vienna and the Gates of Hell was not necessarily wrong. Perhaps he just did not realize what side of the gate he was on. Consider the following description from the game, Gates of Hell:

“The Gates of Hell is the physical line between the mortal realm (that is to say the living world) and HELL itself.This is the second level of the game, where Dante meets Virgil for the first time...”

The robots and clones in positions of authority in so much of the Western world certainly give the impression of being on the wrong spiritual side of the separation between living and dead. How else to explain their lack of feeling for real people as versus social theories? And if ever the rest of us needed a Virgil to guide us, it is now, and GoV is as close as it gets.

G.E. Lessing

halfwit norwegian academic said...

What´s the problem with unlimited immigration? Some "Inge" raped in Mälmo? She would do it willingly for some hash anyway; some blue collar folk stabbed in England? hooligans, white trash, the world is better off, who cares? But look in exchange what could be accomplished: myself, an obscure professor lost in this forsaken wilderness surrounded by stupid rednecks`daughters heading for Harvard or Yale, dinig with the Obamas, who knows? If I play well my cards the sky is the limit. Allahu akhbar¡

Beach Bum said...

@anthropologic:

The welfare society in the current socialistic incarnation, is doomed, no matter what. Someone depending on spending other peoples money will always run dry in the end. Importing more welfare clients will only hasten the demise, unlike what the socialists believes. That in itself is actually a good thing. The bad are all the other side effects, that will manifest themselves as the welfare checks gets smaller and smaller over time.

Anonymous said...

Hey. Here's an idea. Just start agreeing with Norwegian progressives over 'fake points' they've made.

"It's obvious that Mr. So-and-so expresses sympathy to our cause."

Then watch the progressives career burn.

Anonymous said...

The strength of White societies has always been in the unity and
homogeneity of the citizenry.
Individually we are weak, together
we are difficult to beat. The left and their allies such as the
self-styled 'halfwit Norwegian
islamic retard' above have sussed that the White man has been dozing off and is at a disadvantage at
present. We must hope that the sliumbering giant will wake up in time to send these fraudsters back
to the past.The alternative is too
awesome to contemplate.

Anonymous said...

I think the half-wit Norwegian retard is meant to be a parody of your average Norwegian "intellectual," perhaps Thomas Hyland Eriksen in particular.