> >Oskar Gudlaugsson wrote:
>
> >I was personally somewhat shocked when David Oddsson said at the
> >festivities for the NATO summit in Washington that Iceland was the
> >world's oldest democracy. I mean, am I incorrect that the Althing was
> >just a local courthouse for virtually all of the last millennium? I had
> >been
> >under the impression that all real power since 1380 had been concentrated
> >in the Danish monarch. Does Iceland really have that strong of a
> >nationalist
> >movement?
Oskar, what you have written below is one of teh best articles in defence of
free thought that I have ever read. Bravo!
> Embarrassingly, yes.
> Well, I admit that I have made some exaggerations in my recent posts, out
of
> sentiment mostly.
>
> It's not exactly a movement, it's more a deeply embedded national
certainty
> of a number of "facts"...
> We, the people in the advanced West, consider ourselves well educated,
> critically thinking, and independent individuals. Fair enough, to an
extent.
> When we see the people of autocratic populist countries (such as N-Korea)
> mass together to hail their great leader as their personal god, we are
> revolted and yet thankful that our minds are so free and independent. Yet
we
> often exert a very similar behavior. No mass hailings, but Western people
> are no more able to think critically about certain concepts, than
N-Koreans
> about their leaders; we have our gods too. "Democracy" and "Human Rights"
> are our principal ones, the common gods of the West. Another set of gods,
> relative to each country, is "Our Great Language", "Our Glorious
Heritage",
> "Our Superior Culture", etc.
>
> The Icelandic people have a few such gods: Democracy is of course highly
> revered here, as well as Human Rights. But Icelandic Language and
Icelandic
> Heritage are probably the most powerful gods in the society. The school
duly
> teaches the proper worship of those goods, as does the intelligentsia,
and,
> to some extent, the media.
>
> Don't feel that this is something strange. Icelandic society is a very
> typical, normal, Western society.
>
> But I wish we could grow up from our unquestioning respect for Icelandic
> Language and Icelandic Heritage; it's a weakness, a need to cling on to
> something in a big world of powerful cultural entities, where Iceland's
> 280000 souls have a hard time making a difference.
>
> This has been a somewhat philosophical and perhaps incomprehensible post,
> admittedly. I'm just having a need to express myself on this. Not many
> people share my view, and most would be shocked at some of the things I'm
> saying.
>
> Oh yeah, and my involvement of democracy and human rights is not to be
> misunderstood. I don't oppose those concepts, per se. I oppose the
> unquestioning belief in them in our society. Because I see unquestioning
> thinking as more of a threat than non-democratic government or
> lack/reduction of human rights (by Western definitions).