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Re: CHAT: Multi-Lingos

From:Fabian <fabian@...>
Date:Tuesday, August 22, 2000, 14:02
> >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).