From 1993 and until this very day I have had a problem with the Norwegian media and even the Norwegian educational system, who systematically, consequently and intentionally spread lies about me, to undermine me as a dissident voice. So even today the most common perception of me in Norway is that I am just some retarded lunatic, a ‘satanist’ and a ‘neo-nazi’, with serious mental problems. As late as last year they had a psychologist say in the media (Aftenposten) that I would have been given a diagnosis, had I been examined today. It is indeed interesting to see that a psychologist I have never spoken to thinks he can tell that I need a diagnosis, when psychiatrists, and not at all psychologists, are the ones who normally diagnose people (after talking to them personally). Well: apparently it is not so in Norway, and certainly not in relation to me!
We know well the tactic of giving diagnoses to dissidents, from the Soviet Union, Communist China, North Korea, DDR and other totalitarian regimes, and this is done to undermine them and basically destroy their credibility. Yes: Norway is no different from these regimes in that context! This should not be surprising though, considering that a fair number of the politicians, journalists, reporters, lecturers and teachers in Norway were Marxists, Maoists, Enver Hoxha fans and Pol Pot-supporters in the 70ies, and many even consciously worked as agents for the Soviet Union or – more commonly – DDR. When the Cold War ended the former Warsaw Pact countries changed, but ‘Soviet Norway’ was on the winning NATO side, so it mostly remained a horribly oppressive, socialist extremist system. The one single state-controlled TV station was given controlled competition (Yes! We had one single state controlled TV station in Norway until 1991!), and the few state-controlled radio stations too, but by and large the totalitarian system remained – supported by the USA and NATO. The petroleum industry alone ensured Norway’s economic survival – and much of the ‘oil wealth’ was and still is used to create a false image of Norway abroad, and even to bribe others to talk warmly about Norway: “the best country to live in in the world”, no doubt.
Parts of the extremists in power in Norway also try to ignore me though, to pretend that I don’t exist, to erase me from the history of Norway. The official Norwegian online encyclopedia for example does its best to do just that: I am only mentioned once, and only in context with Mayhem – and of course without mentioning my real name… they just call me Kristian Vikernes. Varg Vikernes never existed, according to them… “Varg who? Never heard of him.”
A journalist who reviewed “Belus” in 2009, and was rude enough to say he liked it, had to defend having done so in several radio interviews. According to another journalist, the leaders of the mass media institutions in Norway have agreed upon not to review any more of my albums. I am not to be described in a positive way, and thus to describe me as a creative musician is a big no no. If they are to mention me, it is only to be done in a negative way: as a terrorist suspect, a ‘satanist’, a ‘neo-nazi’, a murderer, a church burner, and not least: as a person who should have been given a diagnosis…
Ah! So they do know who Varg is after all then, and they know well who I am. *Phew* I almost thought I was imagining my own existence there for a moment…
Will this never change? Will they continue to ignore me or spread lies about me in Norway? Well, I honestly believe that things will change. Even in Norway, the most totalitarian state in all of Europe, information seeps in, the truth prevails, slowly, but surely. Now, don’t get me wrong: the information itself flows freely, we have the Internet now, but the truth is struggling to get through the truth-filters that most people today, and in particular Norwegians, have been equipped with – by the educational system and the entertainment industry, by the system itself. They are taught that up is down, and down is up, so they struggle to see the truth even when it hits them in the face, so to speak, but like I said: the truth seeps in, slowly, but surely. With time they will open their eyes, and after some time of feeling only shame, for having been so easily duped, they will grow angry – and when they do they will demand a change.
