Anders Breivik - What we can all learn.

I don't often care for the news on the front page of any major news site. This is not because I don't like to know what is going on, because I do like that. I like that a lot. It's more because normally, whenever you load such a major news site up, the stories they have to tell are grey, boring and bland. "Someone does something," reads the headline, and I find myself not caring about either the someone or the something they have done. 'Something happens that is bad,' the next one says, and again I don't really mind because those sorts of bad things happen all the time and in reality the world can only get better, can't it? Hurray for positivity! More often than not I just skip the front page all together and go straight for the more unusual articles about cats saving lives or men who have antelopes for arms. I like that type of story.

But yesterday, for the first time in a while, the front page caught my attention. Why? Because Anders Breivik, the man who blew lots of people up and then shot even more like he was playing the sort of video game that gets blamed for this sort of stuff, pleaded not guilty to charges of terrorism and mass murder. This was a bit of a revelation, because he had definitely done these things. Loads of people had seen him, the police had caught him red handed (pun not intended, I'm not sick) and he'd even admitted to the crimes himself. So why the innocent plea? Well, he wasn't exactly denying he'd done anything, he was just denying he'd done anything wrong. 

Certified wrong'un.

This probably shocked a lot of people. They probably thought he was mental and evil and a bit of a wrong'un, and for a while so did I. But then I got to thinking, "Hey, what if he's right about everything?"

Now before you jump to the same conclusions that the sane side of my brain went to, bare this in mind: I don't actually think he is right about everything, or anything for that matter. But... what if he is?

We've been brought up, some may say correctly, in a way that makes us think mass murder and extreme racist beliefs are wrong. But this guy apparently wasn't, so how are we to decide who is correct? Because society has told us it's a bit of a bad move to kill loads of people, we obviously think he has done something dodgy. But his society, at least the society in his head (where many strange ideas lurk) has told him it's all OK to go ahead and shoot people. They told him it was in Europe's best interests, and in a way I admire him for sticking to his guns. I think we can all take something from this whole saga that will make us stronger people.

It would have been very easy for him not to go on a killing spree, but that wasn't what he thought was right. So he bloody well went on that killing spree and has made a bit of a name for himself in the process.  Sure, theres's a lot about the guy to disapprove of, but there are some elements to his personality that we should all try and adopt.

Not the killing aspects.

Not the mental aspects.

The self belief aspects. It's important you chose the right ones.