It's Norway or the Highway

At which point we all hush up and decide that for all of our hand-wringing, Norway probably knows better than us anyhow.

It's been nearly a week since the most deadly attack in Norway in more than 60 years, and slowly the dialogue around the tragedy has evolved from “blame Muslims” to “blame right wingers” to “legislate new laws” and (hopefully finally) to, “well, Norway's better suited to figure this out than anybody else.” That last sentiment comes in large part from Simon Jenkins of The Guardian, who advises that Norway “needs no patronising from more 'mature' democracies, least of all ones that react to every threat with another turn of the illiberal screw.” This is Norway, after all, the country, as Jenkins elucidates, that celebrated it's 100th anniversary by launching a massive study on the health of their constitution and democracy. Knee-jerk reactions to such horrors come a dime a dozen from the Anglosphere's columnists, newscasts, and legislature floors (check out this piece in today's Globe, or this one in the Edmonton Journal for further proof), but, as Jenkins writes, “to seek normality in [the attacks'] abnormality only gives them currency, and probably spurious meaning.”

No better example of that Norwegian sensibility can be found than that of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, whom Oakland Ross profiles in the Toronto Star. Stoltenberg's “finest hour” of his career came during the “outpouring of anguish and resolve” when he addressed his fellow citizens in Oslo on Monday, delivering “a message of moral resilience and spiritual generosity at a moment when lesser men or women might have succumbed to recrimination, the casting of blame, the counsel of hate.” Stoltenberg, an economist who rides his bicycle to work, encouraged his compatriots to cry and to embrace a new openness in society instead of “feigning a stoicism he did not feel or seeking to project an artificial strength.” His honesty and resolve have set the standard for how a head of state should respond to a tragedy; let's hope no others have to live up to his precedent.

Chris Selley of the National Post figures Stoltenberg's policy response to the tragedy – ordering a review the country's police and security forces, and nothing else – couldn't be better. No burdensome new security protocols, no reviews of Norway's gun laws, just a bare bones study of how the massacre unfolded and what can be learned from it. “We’re talking about the world’s perpetual honour student, standing proudly atop every known index of human development, equality, prosperity and happiness,” writes Selley. “Trust that Norway has this under control.” Asking for the inflated egos so rife in Canada, U.K., and the U.S. to pipe down and let the adults figure this out might be asking a bit much. But there could be far worse legacies of last Friday's attacks than providing a reality check to those who think they have an answer to every problem.