| Da sikh-tempel-morderen Wade Michael Page begynte å spille gitar som tenåring så han opp til folk som Stevie Ray Vaughan. Så kom han inn i et helt annet musikkmiljø. I slutten av tyveårene, la han ut på en reise, som man kan si endte foran sikh-templet i Milwaukee. Han tok sitt eget liv etter å ha blitt skutt i maven. Han ble 40 år. William Pierce, leder av den nazi-inspirerte Nasjonalalliansen, kalte ham en taper blant tapere. Stemoren har snakket med Wall Street Journal. He sold all his possessions and set off on a road trip to extremist music festivals, including one called Hammerfest 2000 in Georgia, according to an interview posted on the website of his record label, Label 56. He eventually settled in California, joining a band called Youngland, whose songs include “Speed Racist” and “Pride of America.” På 90-tallet var det en viss oppmerksomhet rundt nazi-rockeband i Nord-Europa, som gruppen Oskar Dirlewangler – oppkalt etter en beryktet SS-mann. Jo verre, jo bedre. Far below the radar of mainstream music fans, the hate-music circuit thrums to its own beat. All-day concerts feature loud music staged in front of mosh pits, with gun and merchandise sales, including Third Reich memorabilia, said Todd Blodgett, who from 1998-2001 co-owned Resistance Records, a label that has recorded hate music. “It’s very common to have stabbings and teeth getting knocked out,” he said. Calls to Resistance Records in Hillsboro, W.Va., went unanswered. Bands often try to outdo each other with hateful lyrics, he said, recalling one Georgia concert where a blond-haired woman did a take-off on the famous Nancy Sinatra song “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’,” in which she had changed a line to say: “One of these days these boots are gonna’ stomp out every Jew,” according to Mr. Blodgett. “The crowd went wild.” Miljøene virker perifere, de gir identitet til mennesker som sliter, og populærkulturen har tematisert den unge hvite mann som blir høyreekstrem. En negativ identitet kan være bedre enn ingen. For den som er i opposisjon til samfunnet er nazist, eller skinhead, det mest ekstreme man kan være. Dette er en tiltrekning i seg selv. USA er stort nok og har en våpenlov og First Amendment, ytringsfrihet, som gir slike miljøer et mye større spillerom enn i Europa. William Pierce, mannen bak The Turner Diaries som inspirerte Timothy McVeigh, Oklahoma-bomberen, kjøpte opp flere platemerker og samlet dem under en paraply. In the early 2000s, when Mr. Page started his road trip, hate rock was hitting its stride, according to Daryl Johnson, founder of DT Analytics, a Washington-based law-enforcement consulting firm. The National Alliance, a white nationalist group led by William Pierce, late author of “The Turner Diaries,” a seminal white-power book, consolidated a number of hate-rock record labels and set up a music catalog. Under Mr. Pierce, it was a well-organized and even profitable operation, he said. Mr. Page played with Youngland for two years and “filled in for various bands on guitar and bass including Celtic Warrior, Radikal, Max Resist, Intimidation One, Aggressive Force [and] Blue Eyed Devils,” according to a 2010 interview with Label 56, which produced Mr. Page’s most recent band, End Apathy. Mr. Blodgett said he met Mr. Page at various festivals during that time. Mr. Page, he recalls, would hand out literature, stuffed into a compartment in his motorcycle, including magazines that espoused subversive, anti-government themes and brochures promoting a videogame with simulated killing of ethnic groups. Etter James Hanson, Joker fra Aurora, og nå Page, vil USA bli mer opptatt av de hvite unge menn som går av sporet. De vil helt sikkert også være interessert i Anders Behring Breivik. Det er klare paralleller; vanskelige hjemmeforhold, drømmer om å bli noe stort, samtidig som man står uten fotfeste og kastes rundt av sosiale krefter. Som Breivik drømte Page også om å telle, om å lage noe som kunne ha innflytelse, enten det var på meningsmarkedet eller musikk. Men deres egne personlige mangler gjorde samarbeid vanskelig. On several occasions Mr. Page discussed his musical aspirations, asking if Resistance Records would invest money in his metal band or provide him with a solo recording contract, said Mr. Blodgett, who is now a consultant with a San Antonio marketing firm and who said he was an FBI informant during part of his time at the record label. The FBI declined to comment. Mr. Blodgett said that Mr. Pierce, who owned all of Resistance Records, after buying out Mr. Blodgett, had no interest because Mr. Page came off “as a loser among losers.” “Pierce wanted people who could at least appear presentable and not so truculent,” he said. Mr. Page, he added, “was a fairly shy, quiet guy until he started talking about Jewish people, blacks and Latinos—and then vitriol would spill out of him.” Det ville vært mer etter boken om den norske massemorderen hadde endt sitt liv som Page. Det ville passet den den heroisk-tragiske banen som de selv dyrket. Samfunnet må spørre seg hva det er som gjør at noen tipper over. Det kan ikke forby hat-rock, like lite som det kan forby rapping, med sin homofobi og kvinneforakt. Men det kan bli mer oppmerksom på hat i alle former. |
