(Update, November 2005: After you've read the manifesto, read this and this, which supercede it.)

It's time to take over the world.

Seriously - after three years of blogging I've learned what one person can and can't do with a blog, what the strengths and weaknesses of the medium are. Enough, I think, to formulate a realistic goal. A goal amateur online media in Norway can work towards: Undermining Norway's mainstream media monopoly.

It sounds difficult, even hopeless, but it's not. I know what I can do with one blog, and what a handful of other Norwegians can do with their blogs. I think I have a good idea of what 100 dedicated Norwegians can do with 100 blogs and web magazines.

So here's my plan. Call it a manifesto if you like.

What is our goal? A broad, open public sphere that includes amateur online media. A place where all issues are discussed freely, where all views are represented, where for every large media there are ten smaller ones scrutinizing it and keeping it in check. A place where the border between professional punditry and amateur punditry, professional reporting and amateur reporting, is blurred, where it matters more whether you are right than whether you're being paid and have a diploma on your wall.

Who can join? Anyone with an interest in politics. Anyone who gets into political quarrels with their friends, has ever began an angry letter to the editor, or has groaned over media bias and ignorance. There are many of you, and now is your time. Conditions are changing in your favor.

How do we do it? Any way you like. See or hear anything outrageous? An embarassing mistake, an ugly opinion, or an important story nobody cares about? Let someone know about it: Write to a blogger, post to a web forum, or create your own blog. Write a letter to the editor if you like, but remember that unless it falls within a narrow range of acceptable opinion, they'll ignore it, and you'll have wasted your time.

Remember to spread the word. Let people know that these places exist. If you write about a reporter or politician in a blog or web forum, dig up their e-mail address and let them know about it. They'll ignore you, but they'll know you're there. "First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win."

There are a few things this is not.

This is not a media revolution. There will be no eternal land of milk and honey on the other side, just a more open media community. It will be way short of perfection, but better able to investigate and discuss political issues. These are realistic and moderate goals. American blogs have already achieved many of them.

This is not about any particular ideology. I'm a right-winger. Hans Rustad at document.no is on the left. Who cares? The problem with the media situation in Norway today is uniformity and lack of debate, not leftism. The idea of amateur online media is larger than ideology in the same way that freedom of speech is. I care about my views, but I care even more about creating the conditions for discussing those views.

Impossible? Let's give it a few more years, and see how it turns out. I have faith in the medium. All it takes is people and time.

[This was also published as part of an earlier post.]

yes - everything worth doing takes time, and yes we have to begin, and bravo since you've started

This note I tried to publish in BBC but since is well known their Anti-US bias, let’s see if this blog will allow it.

On Antiamericanis, yet again.

While there are countless books, internet articles, essays… you name it, written on the subject of Anti Americanism, I found a very good and recent one (Jan 21, 2005) in the Front Page Dot Com called “Hating America: A history”. Nothing it says is new, but as I read it, it occurred to me that of all anti-us hating, bashing, etc., the one that looks more illogical and irrational is the European (maybe only second to that of Canadians). Except for the Independence War (1776), which was after all the beginning of independent movements throughout the continent (Simon Bolivar, San Martin, others in South America), the 1812 war and the 1898 war against Spain, all of them were fought on American Territory. I see lots of discussions here about whether US contribution to WWII was critical to win the war or just helpful; but irregardless its impact, one thing we can all agree on, the US (from Washington to Bush) has done no harm to Europe. So why all the fuss?

Your comments most welcome. Vina.

To vina,

I think it is naive to say what we did to europe and why europe hates us, it is not about european hating americans, it is about arrogant US foriegn policies and the declaration of Pre-emptive war, YOU will say that we have the right to protect ourself before we are attacked but the implication of this declaration is that the US can attack any country in the world even without warning, whether the country in the list is anti-american foreign policies or whather it is anti-american political or anti-american corporate interests. The US even decalared that it will not accept and deny any rules by the international court of justice, the US declared at the time that it will not follow the UN regulations like any other counrty in the world, the US decalred that it will follow it is own rules and interest regardless of the international community, that is why the world is fed up with the US arrogant foreign policies, they do not hate the US and its people, but when anybody disscus this issue with a large number of american citizens, they turn unobjective and over-protective, I understand the heroism and the love for own country but it is nothing wrong with self-critizism, you are not less american if you criticise the US foreign policy and you can still be a right or left wing nationalist...

You have to understand why the things are at the moment in the historical and political context for the last 30 years of american foreign policies around the world, it is not black and white as the present administartion is portaying it to the people and the world ( there is a lot of lies in the media and its everywhere, europe, middle east, US ... the main media is full of lies and manufacturing of a proper state-contolled or private-corporate controlled media, It keeps you busy and lusting for more, at one moement ... the fantasy and the reality of the events collapses to one mix of hallucinating media, specially at the time of "WAR", it is war on evevrybody, on own people to keep them quite and on the people who refuse to follow the orders of the giant control freaks...

Europe hates us because we are prosperous, because we did for them what they couldn't or didn't want to do for themselves, that is: fight for their freedom, It took the American GI and the English to liberate them.
Vina, if it weren't for Americans Europe's flag would be Hitler's swastic or whatever it is called.
They accept our money, want to come to America, legally or illigally. They want what we have, and that is why they hate us. I was not born here, but this is my country and I will defend it.

The United Nations is corrupt. In whose pocket
is all that Tsunami aid money going to end?
Their New York real estate could be put to better use.

Joe, stop attacking America!! Our leaders are not arrogant, they are compasionate and generous.

Jo, from California. January 2005

to Jo/California,

Dude,

You do not get the picture and apparently, you will never will, I discuss one point and you just go to another,

Typical american male brain-washed hiding behind the "I love my country" slogan, If you love your country, you should have stood for the people in your country and not the "Rich corporates, military establishments,,, and the few elite at the top", Democarcy means that you choose somebody who represnt the people and good of the people interest and they people in return reward them

and correct them but unfortunately you are choosing between two main parties which apparently do not differ on many things, why is that ?!!

( all this money is spend on rediculus parades and the real issues are not important, the important thing is who looks more COWBOY than the other...

If I will choose a pupet leader because he is more personally appealing, I do not how do you call that democracy...
And still you claim that you want freedom to world while you introduce laws to cut on civil liberiries and you introduce laws to exclude yourself from the international court of justice ...
You collaborate with sadam regime, give him the weapons, You become silent when he murder is own Kurdish population ... and the next day when they IRAQ was at its weakest point, you invade and occupy (the purppose is to control the second oil resvior of energy in the world and to make an example of that to any other country in the region who dare to say WE WANT TO CONTROL OUR RESOURSES( When the people of the country want the resourses of thier own land to be owned by them, this is not accepatable to the US think tank politicians ( where is democarcy at this stage ...) even if you support democratical regime, it is only that regime that guarentees the flow of fortunes to the US will be accepted and yet again turn that place to another hypocritical " democracy " ( you can say what you want but we still gonna do what we want and if you do not like it, will figure a way to make understand that this is the name of the game, )...

Take Saudi arabia for instance, they are good friends, they are the biggest dicatators( Royal family) ... they guarentee maximum US interests, so they are OK...

So, at the end dude, integrety, compassionate and generousity is in the drain ( this is just immage improvement, simply tactical move in the big film

of the American hero episode ....)

Steal, lie and then give a little bit ,,,

So not only they do not have to complain to what is happening to them, they have as well to thank you for stealing thier resources..?!!

( why there is no chance for new ideas and a new party .... whay are the same policies remain in place and they change a bit and if they change, they change to benefit of the RICH and powerful and the control institutions ?!
NO politics is clean and ideal whether its european or asian or american, in the middle of all the lies, people like you and me should tell thier goverment to do the right thing, politicians are supposed to serve the people but they tend, at the end, to serve thier interest and serve the rich and the powerful, all the other slogans of liberation and democracy are just an illusion if we do not tell them that they are servant of the people, but they are not, they are the CONTOLLER of the people ....,,,

Comapsionate and generous, that is a big statement
for maybe I should call them "Liers" and "decievers" .... Or we have forgotten already the lies of yesterday ..?!! WMD, links between pla and pla ... all lies .... and the new lie is comming ... ( The US wants to democratize the world ...., better say, control the resourses and keep them in a safe hand ( the giants hand)...

I would not be angered by politician( they know thier game) as much by blind decieved followers ... hypocritical followers...

Jo/IT,

Yes in a manner of speaking you hit the nail on the head. There is much that need fixing in the US politics ( that's not to say that europe is blameless or paragon of perfection). The public does not realize the intricate web of the military industrial complex. War is profit . In the case of the Saudis - its like choosing between the better of two evils- which is self defeating in the long run. With all our scientific acumen - one should vigorously support alternative fuel sources. The politics of black oil is dirty indeed. It is interesting that the holocaust of cambodia and rwanda did not seem to merit the undivided attention of the US.( or for that matter europe?)..and yet we promised ourselves ....never again after the Nazi Holocaust. Could it be because oil was not at stake?

Angel of Truth
Anjo de verdade

Bjørn,

Enjoy your blog. I have been passing your series on Hayek along to my friends. Keep it up!

Europe - european political extremism (communism and national socialism) and european imperialism - created the chaos in our world that laid the foundation for most of the world political calamities of the 20. century. But they needed someone to do the dikrty work of cleaning up after them, they needed someone that could pay for their security, and they needed someone to blame for all the troubles European politicians and extremists had created. And who else would that be than the United States. And since then Europe has exploited the US since WWII.

Now the time has come for the chattering classes of Europe to embark on the project of making Europe into a new superstate and a new superpower.
Anti-americanism could be used to plant the idea of a european particular identity playing on the anti-american sentiments there is.

The chattering classes, that is, the intellectuals, has never been partticularly fond of the "anarchy and chaos" of the market. They don't like the market distribution. What they would like was a society that resembled the social system of their school days. In their school days their verbal skills made them excel. And the formal, centrally goverend system of grades distributed by teachers gave them the social position that the "anachy and chaos" of the school yard did't get them. US is important to the as them as the symbol of the capitalist distribution system that they hate. What they prefere is distribuion according to their value
http://www.civita.no/civ.php?mod=news&id=38

To marxist and far left intellectuals anti-american sentiments is the psychological defence mechanism that they've alway resorted to when they've been confronted with the harsh political realities of the regimes they have applauded. The strategy of the radicalism of the sixties was to protect their denial and their unwilligness to reconcile themselves with the brutal realities of communist barbarism (communist regimes killed 110 million people between 1917 and 1987 according to Rudolph J. Rummel), was to create in their minds the idea that the US was equally at least. This is the fundamental and real idea of intellectually dishonest perverts like Noam Chomsky, and Johan Galtung and his so called "peace studies".

maybe americans are brain washed,but so are the eurpeon people,the journalists rules ,they dont give us information of both side,only the political left side,alle journalists are political left side,,so they dont like us,what ever they do,,,,,,i dont belive a singel word in the press.i always dobbel check the information as good i can.it was right to take down saddam,he has killed more than a millon people.if it wasent for us we in europa had speak german or russian to day!!!

One simpel question, why the US doesn't change thier unjust unbalanced so called by defenders "chaotic market values" foreign policies around the world, since there is no more cold war with former USSR and no more reason for thier greedy market and greedy culture to continue in this Superevil direction ?!!

Just admit that you are wrong and change it, instead it is easier to blame the former european colonist, american temselves are former european?!

STOP the lies and stop the unjust foreign policies. Do not balme it on the market!

Well, looks like I came upon some luck here. I'll try and make this short, but I'll probably fail.

I am a student of cultural anthropology... I just stumbled across this website 2 hous ago. If you're wonering how I found it, it came up # 1 in google under key word queirie: norwegian culture blog. I read some of the newer articles. I'de just like to say this, I found the debate here (most of the debate here) a refreshing change of pace. Most of the angry-blog.com articles that I read are riddled with insipid pissing matches, or people who type in that pseudo-mongoliod Haxxor format. I found mostly relevant... uh, actually I should say that I found mostly well postualated arguments here. Both sides of the arguments were well reasoned, comparably well reasoned with what I am use to (I'm not trying to bash Uh-maer-kans). What i'm trying to say: people actually write in paragraph form here, and I think that's neato.

Far be it for me to be presumptuous, but Ill'fuckin'doitanyway. I think that this thinking/writting style stems from either a cultural or primordial-assumptionist preconditioning of Scandinavians to think on a more quizzical, anthropological level. I have read the works of more than a few Scandinavian anthropologists, Friedman, Barton, Jenssen. Their works are rather verbose, yet they seem to maintain a rather matter-of-fact parlence. They are not poets. Not trying to be psycophantic... just how I see it.

Uh.. what was my point here. Oh ya. I was wondering If you could point me in the direction of any references pertaining to contemporary Norwegian or otherwise Scandinavian culture. I read some comments that you, Strongbear, made insinuating the leftist incline of Norwegian media. Do you think that this is the result of spill-over from the Sweedish socialist experiment.

I really wonder how Norwegian media compares to the media of midland America. I think that there is the sense of a very Orwellian presence here, but replace Big Brother with Oral Roberts and replace Richard Burton with Senator Tom Coburn (ya, I watched the movie instead of reading the novel... want to fight about it?).

I also wonder how the factors and implactions of the post-modern, economical reliance on Hollywood and celebrity status has affected your country and other countries as part of a seemingly, neo-plantational, entertainment periphery and if this has possibly lowered the bar on the lowest-common-denomonator of theses respective peripheral areas as is has (seemingly) done in the core, plus whatever hyphonated jargon I can use to make myself look more pseudo-intellectual. Actually, I really am interested in the history/cuture of Norway, as well as the whole Pan-hyperborial area. I find this disconcerting: In America, I can safely say that that half the people below age 25 know the name of Paris Hilton's dog... no one here but me and 20 other people have ever heard of Jan Baalsrud.

If parts or the entirety of this banter seem inane or otherwise long winded... chalk it to Sangrias. It's 11 PM CST now, and I've been drinking them since 7Pm, muy sabrosa. Anyway, I like the articles, but I think that you categorized those links under "British Colonies" just to piss me off exclusively. It's called America, Uh-maer-ka. Get it straight next time, jerky.

-Chip Nipply ChipNipply@wmconnect.com

PS. Strongbear sounds like Injun Chief, "Tatanka... In-jee-re Tatanka"

@ jo, california:
[quote]The United Nations is corrupt. In whose pocket
is all that Tsunami aid money going to end?
Their New York real estate could be put to better use.[/quote]

surely you understand that statements like that does not give you and your country any more credibility as a "democratic", "prosperous", "compasionate and generous"?

[quote]It took the American GI and the English to liberate them.
(..)if it weren't for Americans Europe's flag would be Hitler's swastic or whatever it is called.[/quote]
now let's see... america waited and waited, clearly noticing that europe and other parts of the world was under attack. only when pearl harbour got bombed they took action and dropped a few nukes to clear out. liberation is about taking action when needed, not when you get a surprise-party with a bang (with a negative effect).

Geir,

I concede your disdain for the rather crass remark about American GI's, but your rebuttal was far worse. What "credibility" have you earned?

"they took action and dropped a few nukes to clear out. liberation is about taking action when needed, not when you get a surprise-party with a bang "

First of all, the US lost about 400,000 citizens in WW2, which you should not cheaply trivialize. That is like the entire population of Oslo.
Norway lost about 2,000 and also took a "wait and see" attitude, even while the Germans were occupying the country.

Your response is indicative of the Anti-American ignorance that is so relevant in the younger generation of Norwegians. If you have any grandparents alive, I'll bet 200 NOK that they disagree with you.

What many Europeans forget is that sacrifice for Americans is personal. My grandfather was shot 3 times in WW2, most of us lost uncles in Vietnam, Korea, Panama, Granada, etc. and I served in Gulf War 1 and Somalia. My story is quite typical in the US.

Criticize what you want, but to cite inaction is just ridiculous! What sacrafice have you personally made for democracy? The problem is that young Europeans don't comprehend sacrafice. They live in an adolescent sheltered world were they can critisize those who provide that shelter.

"What sacrafice have you personally made for democracy? The problem is that young Europeans don't comprehend sacrafice."

Most Europeans I know do not doubt the (personal) sacrifice of Americans fighting wars all over the world, but whether this actually is a sacrifice for democracy. I do not dislike the US because their kids die in Iraq (that would be evil). I dislike the policy, and I think US warfare does everything but provide any shelter for democracy.

And this has nothing to do with WW2. Doing the right thing once does not make anyone immune to criticism later. I bet you criticized many of the Soviet war efforts despite their huge losses in WW2, and all the russian kids who did personal sacrifices in Afghanistan.

I'm sick and tired of "US friends" who throw some emotional "personal sacrifice" argument into a debate on US foreign policy. You are fighting strawmen!

The website,www.norwayuncovered.com is doing the rounds in Norway and it relates to the worst case of institutional hatred of Muslims by Norwegians I have ever seen. All the newspapers in Norway for years have written stuff that would get English editors fired.The police lie and cheat and the PFU are viciously partisan.

Norwegian men are hot.
I am curious to know how Europeans stereotypically perceive Norwegians. Can someone explain Norwegian humor to me? Thanks y'all.

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