(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
The first few weeks of 2009 have been an interesting sight as to what is occupying and has occupied the Norwegian people ..
One thing is now Gaza, of course. But if you take the media coverage and debates seriously, there are two people who have engaged Norwegians more than Mads Gilbert: Namely the princess' spouse Ari Behn, and a healing miracle man of 82 years, Joralf Gjerstad – better known as Snåsamannen. It's like you'd think you lived in 1809 and not in 2009.
During January, Norway's print media mentioned the author Ari Behn – after his attack on a former deputy chief in the middle of the Gaza war – 1463 times. On average almost 50 times a day (sic!). But then Behn attacked both Erlend Loe and what was worse.
Snåsamannen, on the other hand, received 1050 press reviews in the first month of the year. One of them was actually a post here in Ny Tid on 9 January. It was clearly one of the first with a critical look at how Snåsamannen, his cinematographer Ingar Sletten Kolloen and weapon bearer Cato Schiøtz have been uncritically lifted up as supernatural truths. Associate Professor Asbjørn Dyrendal wondered how such a mythological phenomenon could have emerged in a so-called modern and rational society, which has since been taken up more strongly by other critics.
Only 17 per cent of Norway's population before Christmas were critical of Gjerstad's magical abilities. Unless otherwise indicated, the belief in belief or superstition does not perish in modern or postmodern society. On the contrary, it may seem like.
Possibly in response to the seemingly high-tech online community and the rationality chase in today's public space, individuals are searching for more mythical and non-scientific answers in their spare time. But if nothing else, one can no longer claim that the Norwegian people have a more rationality-based sense and way of thinking than people in the rest of the world. Both the beliefs of voodoo priests and the NRK Indians' beliefs are at least as high on a scientific level as the health minister's belief in colic healing through the telephone line.
If nothing else, ridicule of others' beliefs or superstitions should now end. Much further down in the matter than the belief in Snåsamann's healing voice, as Norway's foremost skier is good for, it is not possible to come.
At the same time, the belief in Snåsamannen can probably also be linked to more specific developmental features in Norwegian society in recent decades. One lies in the attacks on the science-oriented view of reason. Through the last couple of decades, Norwegians' oil wealth has also become a See & Hear-reading people created for populist parties and easy solutions. At the same time, the more fundamental problem lies in the tradition Ari Behn has married into – namely the pre-modern form of government consisting of an alliance of both monarchy and forced evangelical-Lutheran Christianity.
What is special is that, a century ago, Norwegians actually voted in favor of an undemocratic state form of inherited power in a democratic poll. That problem is plaguing our society to this day. The problem is not solved until the monarchy is dissolved.
In this way, Ari Behn's remarkable play has been a gift package for those who want more democracy in Norway. Behn is now the foremost proof that we need a modern and democratic form of state. May he and Snåsamannen continue with his ableys.