The Creepiness Obscured by the Horror: Ignore at our Peril

In the extreme horror of the terrorist attack in Norway, there is something insidiously creepy that is not getting the thoughtful consideration it deserves. The youthful victims of Anders Breivik's calculated shooting spree were attending a Labor Party summer camp, and many of them were the children of Norway's political elite. Nowadays, there are many wonderful camps for children, each catering to special interest groups such as rising soccer stars (e.g., Olympic Development Camp), learning a foreign language (e.g., Concordia Language Camps) or perfecting musical virtuosity (e.g.,Interlachen). Fine and good, although I would advocate a little balance, and encourage even the most specially-gifted kiddos to expand their horizons by attending a simple get-out-in-nature sort of camp, or a church camp. But youth camps run by a political party for rising members of the party? Creepy, creepy, creepy, as in Hitler's Youth Camps.

Anders Romarheim, a fellow at the Norwegian Insititute for Defense Studies, was quick to spin away the appearance that Norway forces political indoctrination on its youth. "No other political party has a political camp like this one," said Romarheim, as quoted by the New York Times.

Could it happen here? I dearly hope there are no camps run by Democrats or Republicans for their future party elite. Let's hope this idea doesn't take root here in America. The last thing we need is to seed divisiveness by sending our kids to hobnob ONLY with kids whose parents hold the same political beliefs. That's the sort of fundamentally nasty action that provokes even nastier reactions.