There are no magic answers, no miraculous methods to overcome the problems we face, just the familiar ones: honest search for understanding, education, organization, action that raises the cost of state violence for its perpetrators or that lays the basis for institutional change—and the kind of commitment that will persist despite the temptations of disillusionment, despite many failures and only limited successes, inspired by the hope of a brighter future. (Noam Chomsky)

The Norwegian court trying Anders Behring Breivik’s case has decided to impose solitary confinement on him for a lengthy period. This is a miscarriage of justice, because solitary confinement is torture, absolutely banned by the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. There is no moral justification for further dehumanizing those who are already dehumanized. Denying the perp, most likely a very traumatized person refusing to acknowledge his victimhood (thereby warding it off and thus neutralizing a much needed protection against sadism—Alice Miller), such a basic right will only play into the hands of the ultra-nationalists. Besides, there is no evidence whatsoever that strong punishment leads to decreased recividism rates. In fact, it increases it. But the problem is that this insight is not servicable to power. And the new victims of the repeat offenders are most likely, as is to be expected, typically ordinary citizens for the most part, but that is servicable to power, since the common folk are always fair game, even domestically. All this is a gift from above to the Islamophobic ultra-nationalists, but a severe blow to democracy