The question is always, "Why?" But that's the wrong question. We already know why.

Why do fanatics (of all religions, as near as I can tell) feel compelled to attack and murder those who are perceived to be enemies? Because, at some point, the fanatics began believing that their beliefs were the only valid ones. Because the fanatics began believing that any path other than the one they chose is not just wrong, but evil. And because the fanatics began believing that they were God's appointed purveyors of justice.

That's it. Once you believe that you have been appointed by God to carry out His will (the paternal is appropriate in just about all cases of fanaticism, though that's a topic for another column), there's really nothing holding you back. You can act with impunity. God is your conscience, and He has already given sanction to whatever you might do.

I have little sympathy for the man in Norway who killed at least 93 people on Friday. I'm sure there's something in his upbringing or his past or something that led him along this path, but it is a path that he appears to have chosen alone. I have a wee bit of sympathy for folks who follow leaders they admire (misguided though that admiration might be) and perform acts of horror. In truth, however, the only way to go out and indiscriminately kill people is to abandon your humanity and assign it to something else--a leader, an abstract ideal, a God or whatever. You have to see the people you are killing as something less than human, or you must see yourself as something greater than human. There's really no other way to do it.

While in recent times, this behavior has been largely committed by people who could be described as arch-conservative, far right-wing, fundamentalist or the like, the truth is that politics or general worldview doesn't really enter into a person's potential for mass murder. Those kids in Columbine, for example, had no real political views that I can discern. The main requirement for this kind of behavior is that the person feel marginalized. Back in the 1960s, the people who felt marginalized were young people who felt that society wasn't opening up enough. So we had groups like the Weather Underground and the Black Panthers. In the 70s, there were groups like the SLA and, over in Europe, the Red Brigades.

These days, societies are changing rapidly, largely due to the Internet's massive increase of communications capacity. When societies change, folks with conservative views are the ones who feel left out. The faster the change, the more isolated these people feel. Those feelings, however, aren't nearly enough to cause what happened on Friday. That requires a special kind of madness.

Should we ban extremist parties of all stripes? I don't think so. That simply isolates people that much more. And that very isolation is what helps lay the groundwork for madness. The more people feel they have no recourse, the more likely they will act out. Suicide bombers don't kill themselves just for the promise of 72 virgins in Heaven. They kill themselves (and many others) because they feel their lives have no meaning, and so they believe that the only way to give their lives meaning is to end their lives by killing a lot of people. This sounds crazy, but if you lived in Gaza I think you might see the logic, even if you disagree with the premise. Palestinians have been isolated for so long that it makes sense that some have fallen off the deep end of despair.

All of us, and that includes anyone we might perceive as an enemy, are part of humanity. We all make up our collective civilization. No one has a monopoly on the truth. Given the myriad of lives we lead, it's safe to say that there is no one perfect way of human life. Given that we are human, there are no perfect lives, period. If you're religious, to claim perfection is a blasphemy against God (or your gods). If you're not religious, to claim perfection is to claim to know all the secrets of the universe, which is impossible.

I don't have any true solutions. I don't have any perfect answers. People will continue to kill people, as they have since the dawn of humanity. But maybe, if we try to keep as many of us within the fold and don't keep kicking folks out into the cold, we can help to minimize the conditions that foster folks like the man in Norway (whose name I will not publicize).

Jesus said (I'm paraphrasing a translation, but still), "Love your enemy." This precept is a common one in all religions (Islam included, in case you were curious). It is a recognition that there aren't "others" or "outsiders," but simply people. As philosophies go, I think that's a good one. We can build from there.

Jon Worley would love to be kicked out in the cold this week.