This is an opinion piece in Dagens Nyheter. The author is responsible for the opinions in the article.
Wherever I have been in the last few weeks, sooner or later the conversation turned to Epstein and Mette-Marit, Marius, diplomats and politicians. All of this has brought the nation together in a way that only Melodifestivalen can. Should Haakon get a divorce, should Marius be imprisoned, would that be the end of the monarchy and so on? I say: You can’t make this shit up. My editor would never let even ten percent of it through because the reality is the worst.
And where were the adults?
Where were the adults when Marius held his cocaine parties at the crown prince couple’s residence in Skaugum, reportedly attacking them one by one? Where were the adults when Epstein surrounded himself with little girls in full view and still managed to pry top Norwegian politicians and diplomats from his hands? Where were the adults on the palace staff when Mette-Marit partied at a convicted sex offender’s palace in Florida?
As a starting point the end: How could they do this, how could they lie about it, and what would we have done if we had faced the same temptations?
Last but not least: How could this happen to thoroughly good, peace-loving and incorruptible Norwegians?
But maybe that’s how it is with people like us, as nouveau riche and naive as we are, intoxicated by the feeling of doing good, vulnerable in our desire to be validated, to have a seat at the table, to emerge as a moral superpower. And then they only cared about our money (the diplomats and politicians) or the title (Mette-Marit).
Now they’re all laughing at us – the Swedes, who have long seen us as the simple cousin from the country that won the lottery thanks to oil money, and the Germans, who have been obsessed with Mette-Marit for years, not to mention the rest of the world.
And as if not That would be enough, Mette-Marit’s son, Marius Borg Høiby, is currently standing before the Oslo District Court, he is accused of no fewer than 38 charges, including several rapes of sleeping women, violence, bodily harm, drug offenses and traffic violations. Marius, who turns thirty next year, laments that he has been persecuted and bullied by the media all his life and that everything he has done stems from a recurring need for validation based on the suspicion that people are only interested in him because he is the son of the Crown Princess.
And of course it’s a pity for him, just as a pity for all criminals who, although many of them cannot read and write beyond the level of a third grader, have nevertheless learned the word self-medication. But Marius had even more challenges: First, too much fame, attention, wealth and privilege too soon. Secondly, an above-average appearance. A look that, along with his fame, has caused the girls in town to flock around him “as if he were a rock star,” to quote one of his closest friends.
A prosperous environment allows people with weak character to grow up for a long time. There will never be any
Because they are the constant object of sexual advances, most women have long practice dealing with it, but for a man it can be fatal. He now faces several years in prison. How did he get there, is it because of this need for confirmation or is there too little or too much of one or the other, or is it “psychological problems”? ADHD was of course mentioned.
Or it could be a complete lack of, to use an old-fashioned word, education?
A prosperous environment allows people with weak character to grow up for a long time. There will never be any. And they don’t have to be. Parents and the welfare state are prepared to eliminate any consequences of a grown man behaving like a three-year-old.
But there is still hope.
If I had to choose, I would send little Marius to a farm without water or electricity. The sentimentality of our time, which hurts so many young people who were not born with the resilience to withstand it, had of course done everything to stop me. But let’s say I was all-powerful. Then I sent him to a farm guarded by soldiers, far off the beaten path, where little Marius had to cut wood and fetch water from the stream with others of his kind so as not to starve or freeze to death. Back to farm life.
When he was done with the day’s tasks, he could repair motorcycles, something he’s obviously good at and is also the only area where he’s done anything remotely decent.
Translation from Norwegian Jonas Thente
Read more texts about the Norwegian royal family in DN.
