Why Oslo

"I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am." -Joseph Baretti, quoted by James Boswell, 1766

Giuseppe Marc'Antonio Baretti, an Italian-born writer born at Turin whom was to be a lawyer if his father had his way. But Joseph, as he became known during his years in England, would become a literary critic and author of two influential language-translation dictionaries.

While in England, he was assaulted on the street and he stabbed the assailant with a fruit knife he carried. This would be common to the idea of carrying a pocket knife today. The assailant died and Baretti was tried for murder, but acquitted; several people of renown giving testimony in his defense.

During the time, many people jumped to a conclusion of Joseph's brutal attack upon the murdered man. The uproar of the public over this Italian born man forced the hand of local law enforcement. He was guilty of being different and without the facts. Those facts were of course brought up eventually and he was acquitted of the crime.

We now jump forward nearly 250 years to Oslo, Norway. An attack, brutal in nature takes place and people immediately begin to point fingers. Given the nature of the attack, people immediately view it as an attack by a radical Muslim group. It had to be the extremist Islamists picking soft targets. Whom else could it be but them?

I would dare to say that all the world is slightly jaded due to the terrorism and threats for nearly ten plus years. But this wasn't an Islamist "death to the infidels" group. No, in-deed this was very reminiscent of the Timothy McVeigh bombing in Oklahoma City. I really dislike even giving credit or mention to McVeigh, but there it is.

Now we have Anders Behring Breivik standing accused of a twisted idea of hatred for Islamist ideas and terrorism. An odd way to hate terrorism with a terroristic act upon people. It is purely an act of violence against humanity, against innocent people. But our first conclusion was to blame the Islamic terrorists and they win the mind game this time.

We have to understand that most people of all faiths, cultures and places are pretty decent folks. They are trying to live a great life. They want the same things you and I want; food, shelter, clothing, love, peace, and children to carry on their legacy. And terrorism plays to the worst of human characteristics. It plays to our worst fears.

We have to fight terrorism not only with strength, but also with kindness. Kindness for the hearts and minds of those that terrorism chooses to recruit. We won't succeed by waging it at their level. As the American cartoon Dilbert says, "Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level, then best you with experience." I contend if we lower ourselves to the level of terrorists, they will win that battle.

We need to keep the level higher and as I stated before, fight terrorism with strength where it occurs. But fight for the minds and hearts of everyone else. Let us not allow mob rule to take over our minds and actions. When chaos becomes the course of action, evil wins.

This is not the Pollyanna Principle but does take a positive route to confronting the negative. If we fight negativity with negativity, what are we left with? We are left only with negativity. A no-win result in my mind.

Life will continue to throw the extreme views of both ends of the spectrum at us. If we choose to live at either end we are doomed as humans. If we choose to find common ground and sanity in all of the noise, then life can be pretty great for all of us.