BRENTON TARRANT isn’t one of us. He may have been born in Australia, but he isn’t really an Australian either. If his own words are any guide, he identifies himself, above and beyond all other considerations, as White. Like so many of the horrors currently disfiguring our world, Brenton Tarrant’s crimes are an expression of pure and murderous racism.
He came here a couple of years ago to plan and to prepare for action in another part of the world, most likely in the United States. Once here, however, he appears to have changed his mind. Something about New Zealand, most probably our acute vulnerability to the sort of terrorist attack he was planning, convinced him that shots fired here would be heard around the world.
New Zealanders have nothing to reproach themselves for in relation to the horrific attack on the two Christchurch mosques. We must not for one moment entertain the notion that there was something we could have done to stop Tarrant. Lone wolf terrorists of his sort are not produced by the ignorant racist mutterings of gun club members. Nor are they inspired by the rantings and ravings of social media. That’s not how it works.
All the literature points to this sort of terrorism being born of real, geopolitical events. Indeed, if the perpetrators could not locate their murderous racist impulses within a global context, then the scale of their ambitions would be commensurately smaller. The ravages of Western and Soviet imperialism, and the asymmetrical resistance launched by the victims of that aggression, have been the drivers of global terrorist extremism for more than a century.
We didn’t start that fire.
It is no accident that one of the heroes of the rambling 73-page “manifesto” which Tarrant posted online is Anders Breivik – the Norwegian white supremacist who murdered 72 of his fellow citizens in 2011. Like Breivik, Tarrant locates himself in a phantasmagorical world of evil invaders and righteous defenders. At stake is nothing less than the survival of the “white race”.
Those who enter this fever dream are utterly inaccessible to reason. And it is precisely this inaccessibility that makes the weaponised hate of Breivik and Tarrant so dangerous. In the memorable line from the first Terminator movie: “[I]t can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop.”
That such individuals are psychologically damaged is axiomatic. No individual capable of empathy can murder men, women and children with the robotic efficiency of a Breivik or a Tarrant. Inevitably, the subsequent psychological assessment of these individuals throws up a toxic mixture of sociopathic cruelty and extreme narcissism. The injustice and suffering unfolding in the real world is reinterpreted by the defective personalities of these lone wolf terrorists as something which is happening not to others – but to themselves. They take it personally. Far from being “the continuation of politics by other means”, their terrorism is a savage quest for vengeance.
As the dreadful events of Friday, 15 March 2019 were unfolding, I couldn’t help recalling the words of King Theoden in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. As his fortress of Helm’s Deep is on the point of being over-run, he asks despairingly: “What can men do against such reckless hate?”
That is now the question which New Zealand must ask of itself.
Part of the answer, the most important part, we have already seen. In the floral tributes outside the nation’s mosques. In the images of the imam and the rabbi embracing each other. In the Pasifika voices raised in a hymn of heart-breaking poignance. In the Maori and Pakeha faces wet with tears, yet set in grim defiance. In the passionate cry of the massacre survivor: “This is not New Zealand!” In the nearly $5 million already raised to support the victims’ families. The answer already given by the people of New Zealand, united in grief, is unequivocal: When confronted with such reckless hate, the only possible answer is aroha – love.
The wrong answer; the answer the terrorist is always hoping the strategic targets of his rage will give; is to meet recklessness with recklessness; hate with hate.
While the ruins of the Twin Towers were still smoking, the American people shackled themselves to the Patriot Act: voluntarily curtailing the very freedoms the Al Qaida terrorists were condemned for attacking.
The contrast between the American response to 9/11, and the Norwegian Government’s response to Breivik, could hardly be more striking. At a memorial service in Oslo Cathedral, the Norwegian Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg, declared: “We must not allow this attack to hurt Norwegian democracy: the proper answer to such violence is more democracy, more openness … No one has said it better than the [young woman] who was interviewed by CNN: ‘If one man can show so much hate, think how much love we could show, standing together.’”
It is to be hoped that our Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, allows herself to be guided by Stoltenberg’s example. To date, her handling of the Christchurch tragedy has been faultless. Her sole policy response, an uncompromising pledge to reform New Zealand’s gun laws, was focused, measured and appropriate. It will be an uphill struggle for any person or lobby group foolish enough to oppose her call for stricter regulation of firearms – especially of the semi-automatic weapons that made Tarrant’s attack so costly.
The Prime Minister will, doubtless, come under increasing pressure from angry and misguided persons to curtail the rights of New Zealanders articulating unpopular views concerning Maori-Pakeha relations, the Islamic religion, multiculturalism and immigration policy. In defence of the liberal-democratic values that Tarrant assaulted so violently, Jacinda should calmly resist all such calls. We must not allow the unanimity of our grief to be translated into a demand for unanimity of opinion.
New Zealand has been horribly scarred by a fanatical follower of the international white supremacist movement. He hid among us in plain sight, masking his murderous intentions from his Dunedin neighbours, the Police, the SIS and the GCSB – until it was too late. Brenton Tarrant is a lone wolf terrorist who took advantage of everything that is good about New Zealand to perpetrate a devastating act of homicidal violence against defenceless Muslim worshippers. He could not have been stopped – except by the most extraordinary stroke of good fortune. And, at 1:40 pm, on Friday, 15 March 2019, New Zealand’s luck ran out.
What happened at the Linwood and Al Noor mosques was horrific, but it wasn’t our doing. As we begin the long journey towards recovery, it is vitally important that we keep that fact squarely before us. New Zealand is a good place. New Zealanders are good people. We are not responsible for Brenton Tarrant’s dreadful crime. This is not us.
“He may have been born in Australia, but he isn’t really an Australian either. If his own words are any guide, he identifies himself, above and beyond all other considerations, as White”..
Never been to Queensland Chris? This filth has a support base numbering in the hundreds of thousands there.. Where do you think he got what passes for an ideology? He’s as fair dinkum as they come…
The truly sickening thing is being here, and watching politicians, and various sector leaders contorting themselves into pretzels trying to sound sincere in their condemnation, while (not so subtly) making excuses, and dissembling at mach 2…
I had hoped this woulf jolt them into changing their rotten attitude toward Kiwis, but it’s not looking good for a reasonable outcome there..
Legally he is Australian and nothing was said to the contrary in that statement. It’s what Tarrant believed, not actual reality.
He couldn’t even get the National Front’s name right when he said they were useless in his script send out just before the attack.
I believe the N/F wouldn’t be capable of something like this.
I have never seen it as a strong organization that really developed a militant wing, or would motivate lone wolf attacks akin to this, even going back to the late 80’s and 90’s.
His writings read of an idiot who is dumb enough to want to live in a non stimulation environment for the rest of his live.
The murderer had no empathy for others.
The lack of empathy is not a crime and many of our successful business and wealth individual display little empathy and share traits of narcissism, sociopathy or psychopathy with many in the community.
But the combination of lack of empathy and psychological susceptibility to dogma against others is a not uncommon. It is the extreme cases that may well come to public notice through outspokenness or a tragic action against others.
While murder is illegal, other forms of harm to to fellow community members may not be.
Predatory exploitation exhibited in NZ is widespread and looking at the widening division of inequity, it is obvious little empathy is held by predators for the poor and lower paid working population. This creates a breeding ground for powerlessness and desperation for many thousands.
Who has the power to change this unbalanced and dangerous situation. The opposition for such change appears to be very strong from the haves who oppose sharing with the have nots.
Lack of empathy has to be recognised and a a destructive force within NZ.
John W, nice to see someone thinking about this non ideologically. Yes the killer did psychotic psychopathic stuff but I’d suggest from his modus operandi the major trait was narcissism. He wanted to be seen. At any cost. There are lots of sick puppies out there.
Nick, your rejection of the alleged killer’s motivation is apalling. Trying to frame the atrocity in “non ideological” terms when he laid out a White Supremacist manifesto for the entire world to read makes your comments ludicrous.
The question is why you are trying to re-frame this as a “psychotic psychopathic ” when he practically threw his ‘manifesto’ in our faces.
No dispute that he is a “sick puppy”. But this “sick puppy” had far-right, white supremacist beliefs. And he acted on them.
And that Frank is your view which precludes understanding anything through any lense apart from ideological. In your haste to have a go at the alt-Right or whoever you miss that there must be thousands of people with extreme views who wouldn’t do this. Would it be fair to say that all those fervent communists in Russia in 1917 had unanimity of murderous intent? Seems to me you tar anybody from the Right that way.
“The Prime Minister will, doubtless, come under increasing pressure from angry and misguided persons to curtail the rights of New Zealanders articulating unpopular views concerning Maori-Pakeha relations, the Islamic religion, multiculturalism and immigration policy. In defence of the liberal-democratic values that Tarrant assaulted so violently, Jacinda should calmly resist all such calls. We must not allow the unanimity of our grief to be translated into a demand for unanimity of opinion.”
I call BULLSHIT Chris!!! I’ve compared your comments with that of Frank’s who commented on the same issue but came to a vastly different conclusion. Rightly so!!!
You and your fellow free speech disciples had your chance. You advocated for the unfettered freedom of speech for Molineux and Souther and they took it. They came and they spewed their toxic venom and months later one of their ilk went berserk.
Take your free speech and put it where the sun never reaches Mr Trotter. Those families of 50 dead people probably aren’t too interested in your free speech for fascists. You know what, you might feel a bit more EMPATHETIC yourself, but it wasn’t your family that ended up dead.
In fact, your concern for the right for hate merchants to speak freely without due regard for others? How is that different when a deranged fascist starts shooting, without due regard to others?? HOW?
Just to be clear, my comments on this issue related to Non-New Zealand alt-right/white nationalists visiting our country to speak to their faithful and recruit new members.
How we deal with our own tolerance for home-grown extremists “free” speech is more problematic.
“What happened at the Linwood and Al Noor mosques was horrific, but it wasn’t our doing”
Thats the problem Mr Trotter, it never is OUR DOING. Tarrant simply bought a lethal weapon in OUR community from a shop in OUR country that permits these vile things to be sold. Tarrant simply used OUR telecommunications facilities to engage with other far right extremists.
You know what Mr Trotter, if you check out OUR social media, you’ll find an abundance of far right bigots living in OUR country, many working for OUR media. (You know the ones I mean.) We have plenty of OUR own local bigots and they cheered on this guy, or at least are apologists for him.Not OUR fault? Of course it isnt. Its always someone elses fault.
100% MJOLNIR
Perfectly put. Thank you.
MJOLNIR – an initial agreement to Chris Trotters writings came to a thudding great halt after reading your responses. It then became a case of recalling the words of the ex-military man who reported his observations of the culture of the Milton gun club to the Police, the report of the Gun City owner and his advertising that was left displayed in Christchurch depicting the encouragement of children to ‘ play’ with weapons, the rush of gun enthusiasts to acquire the tools of the assassin pending the outcome of the PM’s assertions regarding firearms legislation and the hand wringing of representatives of the gun lobby that believe they have the right to own battlefield weapons. We, as a nation, need to admit that we have responsibility for the evil deeds of Tarrant and his fellow travellers though our ‘she’ll be right’ liberalism. Our thoughts and prayers and outpourings of sympathy are not enough, unless we are prepared to blithely submit to the realism of Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) who, today, might well have extended his prescient words to include,
“Then they came for the Muslims, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Muslim.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
CC: “We, as a nation, need to admit that we have responsibility for the evil deeds of Tarrant and his fellow travellers”
No. We do not. Blaming an entire country for the crimes of an Australian immigrant is a step much too far.
“…though our ‘she’ll be right’ liberalism.”
And isn’t it just this aspect of our culture which attracts refugees from repressive countries and conflict zones? What do you want to do: turn us into the sort of society from which those refugees have fled?
Chris Trotter is right when he says, “We must not allow the unanimity of our grief to be translated into a demand for unanimity of opinion.”
I’m certain that you would not want to live in a country so transformed. I’m equally certain that I wouldn’t either.
You might like to listen to this Chris,
RNZ National radio 9.15 am today 18/3/2019
Islamic Women’s Council : we told them about the vitriol
Anjum Rahman is spokesperson at Islamic Women’s Council of New Zealand. She says her group has repeatedly warned intelligence agencies about the rise in anti-Islam sentiment and the rise of the alt right.
I listened to that interview and was very disappointed that Kim Hill didn’t remind Ms Rahman the fact that the person who perpetrated these atrocities was completely unknown to both the NZ & Aussie intelligence services.
As Christopher Dickie wrote in his piece for the Daily Beast says, the shooter in Christchurch was no ‘lone wolf’, as he belongs to a worldwide group of white racist militant assholes who need to be called out for being the terrorist group that they are. The killer signaled to them in court. He may have acted alone, but he was no lone wolf. Somehow it has escaped authorities to keep tabs on this type of group and individuals, they admitted themselves that they were not looking under that rock. Why not? I also do not understand how a lone gunman could go to do killing at two mosques. The situation is unprecedented and terrible but the minute police heard the call they should have dispatched protection to all mosques immediately. I praise their incredible brave efforts in apprehending the shooter in 36 minutes, but that ignores the fact the gunman went back to his car multiple times and killed at two locations.
Chris – I and my family have apreciated your balanced and non partisan commentary on this unimaginably tragic event. Please continue to keep the politics of identity away from any need to identify, groups within, to cast blame upon and create further division amongst us. Let those discussions happen much later.
This is a time to come together, not fall apart, as no doubt was the aim of this appalling act of horror.
The rise of neoliberalism has seen business interests considered paramount in government. In particular to the western education system and schools …
Welcome then to a world of anti vaccers, white supremacists, nut jobs who believe in anything from the world is flat to Obama is not a US citizen to anyone who is not your religion is the ‘other’.
The world needs to eradicates neoliberalism and replaces it with a better solution of world governance for all people and fairness to all rather than rampant worldwide profiteering. The fall out of that policy is driving people into all sorts of individualistic rages and delusions as their identity and society is threatened and the rise of political groups to ‘belong’ to that then start taking it out of ordinary people that they don’t even know but hate anyway.
Part of the responsibility for the attacks are the pathetic gun laws here which in spite of 3 enquiries have left any migrant, visitor to NZ and Kiwi able to buy semi automatic weapons! Not sure if true, but visitors don’t even have to do a test and can get a gun with a piece of paper from their home country. Why the fuck would anyone need semi automatic weapons in NZ especially if they were just visiting and had a job as a personal trainer? Nobody in NZ needs semi automatic weapons from farmers to visitors here apart from the military!
The attacker never planned to commit the act in NZ, and would not have been able to massacre as many people in OZ because they have stricter gun laws and no doubt he could have been over powered sooner.
These ‘lone wolf’ types are the types of people the government LOVES to attract into NZ. Aka young men and women with low paid jobs, little education or a fake one, few prospects and make them ‘compete’ with others. Increasingly they might start to find meaning outside their low paid blue collar job, perfect for recruitment into some fucked up cause, like white supremacist or some other fucked up religious or political agenda here or overseas?????
You just need Laissez-faire gun controls from the above fucked up policies and viola!
What I find weird is that businesses are so quick to denounce Facebook but I betcha some of the businesses leading the ‘rage’ have financial funds in gun companies and supported the Afghanistan/Iraq/Syria/Yeman invasion that have killed a lot more muslims in cold blood!
Hypocrisy is everywhere on this issue.
Firstly, who invited the NRA in here (Shona, like I’m buying that), Bugger off and learn how to shoot a shotgun or rifle.
Secondly and to the point, Chris you said… “Lone wolf terrorists of his sort are not produced by the ignorant racist mutterings of gun club members. Nor are they inspired by the rantings and ravings of social media. That’s not how it works.”… Sorry Chris but you severely underplay how it takes a village to build a terrorist. He was nurtured by his community near and far. He was brought up in Grafton rural Australia (say no more). The gun club members could well have supplied him with the means to illegally modify his assault rifle etc. The media too is to blame for Stochastic terrorism. We allow Fox news to spread their lies and propaganda under the noses of the general public, whilst dog-whistling to those that are “utterly inaccessible to reason”. Indeed, people have had to be deprogrammed in the U.S off Fox “news”.
We should ban Fox news outright, Fire the head of the SIS for chasing Keith Locke and Nicky Hager. Hold Facebook, Google etc, accountable in law (they have technology with bots that can within seconds tell you if your advertising is legal, so why not hate sites and video). And of course ban semi-automatics (Shona).
Sure we had an unwanted import of global terrorism, but we are not entirely faultless.
We may not have started the fire but we kept it burning bright.
Finally common sense voices start to be heard
Well said TI!!!!!
I dont know what cloud Chris and his cohort live on but its not the one where 50 people were killed
Chris’s self indulgence comes from being privileged white. No fear for him of being shot down like a dog in his place of worship
The Informer;
“We allow Fox news to spread their lies and propaganda under the noses of the general public, whilst dog-whistling to those that are “utterly inaccessible to reason”. Indeed, people have had to be deprogrammed in the U.S off Fox “news”. We should ban Fox news outright,”
Whoa, whoa , whoa, there. Not so fast.
If you seriously believe this then you have lost all credibility in anything you
have to say.
“utterly inaccessible to reason” and “people have had to be deprogrammed in the U.S off Fox “news”. We should ban Fox news outright,” are typical phrases that would be used by CNN.
You know, that CIA funded channel that has one of the lowest numbers out of the big 10 that spew nothing but weaponized propaganda 24/7 of a lower quality than cartoon level.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/373814/cable-news-network-viewership-usa/
With your name and all,have I spotted an international or intelligence troll here?
In your defense, a number of years ago now, (after hearing this from others
as well) an experienced taxi driver told me “Fox fucks news”.
Thinking that he would drive around a few ‘big wigs’ in his time and he should know, the expression stuck with me until I retired and purchased my first computer.
Now having the time and already knowing that MSM were not telling the whole truth half the time I started researching some of the big issues for myself.
Well, what a machine. All that info at your finger tips.
Having a reasonably high IQ and the ability to read scientific papers and such,
it did not take long to figure out what was fact and fiction or propaganda and deception.
How anyone could watch Racheal Maddow or Chris Cuomo, who has made such a big fool of himself lately, is really beyond me.
Looks like “Fox Fucks News” has been a huge successful meme and it’s no wonder when CNN has paid to have their coverage in all airports/transport hubs, hotels/motels, malls/supermarkets etc, etc, etc.
As you can see with link above, Fox has the no 1 viewers platform in
America by far. And that fact was a huge surprise to me.
First I would change your name, then do some research and get educated.
Cheers.
I rest my case.
Pardon me for commenting from afar. With respect to the argument about freedom of speech, it appears to me that as long as the rapid fire weapons, and the ability to own more than a couple of guns is allowed in New Zealand, the country is in the position of the audience in a crowded theatre when someone yells “Fire!” deliberately causing a damaging and chaotic rush in which many are trampled.
Get that law in place to eliminate the rapid fire weapons and register the remaining guns, and then talk about freedom of speech. (I say that wishing the country in which I reside would heed such advice, and hoping my native land will.)
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