The Red Hat Resistance. February 26th.

Gunnar Sønsteby, Norway’s most decorated resistance member, said the following, cited as his mission statement on his official website (1):

“As long as I live, I will do my part in making sure we never forget what the fight was all about. We shall not take the fundamental values our democracy is built upon for granted. We shall use every opportunity to remind each other about the importance of maintaining a living and engaged democracy.”
(“Så lenge jeg lever skal jeg gjøre mitt til at vi aldri glemmer hva kampen dreide seg om. Vi skal ikke ta de grunnleggende verdiene vårt demokrati er tuftet på for gitt. Vi skal benytte enhver anledning til å minne hverandre på viktigheten av å ivareta et levende og engasjert demokrati.”)

Democracy. A simple word, yet so complicated an institution. But in light of what the Norwegian resistance movement fought against, it is understood as the counterpart to Authoritarianism. It is what we the people uphold to push back against power being consolidated with small a group of people.

We stand for Democracy by saying what we believe freely, whether in large scale demonstration against the government, or in our inner circle of friends.

We’ll be wearing our red hats as a reminder that we are free and allowed to stand for whatever we want to. And we allow our fellow man to differ in opinion.

In the literature surrounding this time period in Norway, as well as in later references to the Resistance, the word “menneskeverd” appears perhaps more frequently than any.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, describes in a speech (2) “what Gunnar Sønsteby said during his school visits”, (so I assume this is a paraphrasing of general sentiments.)

“We didn’t only fight against an enemy, but for something — for a free society, for menneskeverd, for peace.”
(“Vi kjempet ikke bare mot en fiende, men for noe – for et fritt samfunn, for menneskeverd, for fred.”)

Menneskeverd means “the value of the human being, merely for being human.” It stands in stark contrast to the Nazi propaganda that relentlessly grouped people based on race, ethnicity, and political belonging, to be used as pawns in a game of power.

Focus on every human’s fundamental equal worth breaks down the barriers, and renders this form of power play obsolete. An Authoritarian leader can not rise to power unless we the people going along with a language of dehumanization and stark labeling and grouping of people.

Norwegian poet Nordahl Grieg published in 1936 a poem called “For the Youth” (3) — it was widely circulated in secret by the Norwegian Resistance Movement, as a mantra and moral anchor.

Here are a few lines that stand out, with the theme “menneskeverd”.

“Here is your defense against violence,
here is your sword:
faith in our life,
in the human worth”
(“Her er ditt vern mot vold,
her er ditt sverd:
troen på livet vårt,
menneskets verd.)

“Then the weapons fall
powerless to the ground
If we create human worth,
we create peace.”
(“Da synker våpnene
maktesløs ned!
Skaper vi menneskeverd
skaper vi fred.”)

War is spite for life,
peace is to create.
(“Krig er forakt for liv.
Fred er å skape.”)

Under German WWII propaganda it was all about “the Jew”, “the foreigner”, “the Bolshevik”. The labels were used to stoke fear of the other and separate good people from each other. All the while “the Aryan” label became a justification for doing anything to your “Enemy”.

“The mightiest counterpart to the Aryan is represented by the Jew.”
— Adolph Hitler, in Mein Kampf (4)

Today's media has been turning up the heat on similar rhetoric for years, and it’s time to resist. Labels such as Leftist, Right-winger, MAGA, Nazi, Communist or “the immigrants” are frivolously thrown around, stoking the flames of division. It divides good people into imagined groups.

We resist, first by realizing that media is thriving off of division. Then we put down our phones, and spend more time in the real world, breathe the free air, and learn to know and value individuals that are different from us. Thus we break the spell.

When it comes to bringing crimes to justice, or demonstrating for justice, it must always be on a case by case basis — based on action, not group belonging.

A red hand-knit cap is as unique as the hand that knit it. Let that be the symbol that we are all human beings and individuals — carrying human stories worth sharing with each other — and we don’t accept the factioning and division.

Listen to someone. Care for someone.

As my friend Elias said, “maybe the red is a symbol that we all bleed the same.” And I don’t know any symbol more simple and unifying.

Resistance is to not lose hope that “there is some good in this world and it’s worth fighting for” — to quote Sam in the Lord of the Rings movies.

Resistance is to refuse simplistic language that pits groups against each other.

Resistance is to take a break from media when it stokes your fear and anger.

Resistance is to get to know your neighbour, especially those unlike yourself.

The red hat to me, has in times of less tension, been a symbol of adventure. I would say your adventure begins when you realize all you can do is the next thing in front of you. And then you do it.

Just do something good.

“It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien, in The Return of the King (5)

“Do what you can, with what you got, where you are.”
— Theodore Roosevelt, in citing Squire Bill (6)