A good question.Norway's tragedy

A good question,Norway's tragedy

To Virtual Hearts

Told the BBC. "You can never use terror tactics like he has used. But do we want to learn from it?"

That is a good question, no matter its source, and the answer may seem counterintuitive. The depiction of Breivik as unhinged and unaligned has been widely coupled with another idea: of Norway as a violated Eden, its innocence shattered by bomb and bullet.

Human reflex, like breathing or sobbing. As dust from the bombed buildings. Clogged the air and paramedics searched for survivors. The twin massacres in Oslo and the nearby island of Utoya. Norwegians and the wider world began trying to make sense of the senseless. An early template’s discarded after the arrest of Anders Behring Breivik. The horror couldn't be pinned on the familiar of Islamic jihadism. So another narrative began to emerge, of a rarer form of madness. These had been the actions of a psychopath, a lone wolf.

The freedom-loving, anti-Islamization ideals, no matter how much some people would like that."

Breivik did not act in a vacuum. In the propaganda of the slick political parties, ragtag mobs and paramilitary organizations that make up Europe's far right — and the response of the establishment to this diverse movement — lie at least a few of the seeds of Norway's tragedy.

Norway victims

Mass rallies for Norway victims

 Cities across Norway to remember the victims of Friday's twin attacks by Anders Behring Breivik.

Crown Prince Haakon told 100,000 people gathered in Oslo that "tonight the streets are filled with love".

Earlier Breivik appeared in court, accepting responsibility for the attacks but denying terrorism charges.

Scores of thousands of Norwegians poured on to the streets of the capital in the early evening, many of them raising up flowers in memory of the eight people killed in the Oslo blast and 68 now known to have died on the island of Utoeya.

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg also addressed crowds in Oslo saying: "By taking part, you are saying a resounding 'yes' to democracy."

A sea of people stretching back as far as the eye could see held roses aloft as they listened to speeches calling for Norway not to let the attacks change its way of life.

He said this was a "march for democracy, a march for tolerance, a march for unity", adding: "Evil can kill a person but never conquer a people."

Crown Prince Haakon said: "The government district and on Utoeya were targets for terror. But it has affected us all."

Judge Kim Heger ruled that the hearing should be held behind closed doors on the grounds Breivik might have used it to send signals to accomplices.

Prosecutor Christian Hatlo said Breivik now claimed he had worked in a cell, or group, and that there were two other cells working with him.