Balance
Image by Óðinn, three years old. Today is 20.09.2009 and I've little to say but that fall is here, and dark nights still warm enough to stroll around in without mittens or muffs or such. We walk a thin line these days between hope and dolor, and I think it's safe to say that, honestly, at this point, the waiting is the hardest part. Our collapse lingers, a slow motion graceless tumble, as infighting and fracturous party bickering keep us clinging to old structures and ideals when letting go, fully falling into true humility, admitting fault, releasing blame and dissolving useless, demeaning obligations might be the only way to save our national soul. But what do I know. I've always found politics, finance and the ways of the worldly truly confounding.
And then there's all this, the true measure of our life force: our art. Visit these links and know that our hearts are still beating and our blood runs as hot and cool as ever, and that we'll never, never give up:
Add This Song by gusgus, directed by Heimir Sverrisson and Jón Atli Helgasson
gusgus web site
Hljóðaklettar Icelandic Music Label, feat. Rúnar Magnússon, DJ Musician and Thor Magnússon
Anonymous feat. Tanya and Marlon Pollock, video by Berglind
Reykjavik Roundup
gogoyoko Fair Play in Music
E-label Designs by Ásgrímur Már Friðriksson
Thormuzik
Reykjavik International Film Festival
Nikita Design
Eve Online
Olvis
Ólafur Eliasson at TED.com
Ragnar Kjartansson at the 2009 Venice Biennial
Snorri Ásmundsson
Steinunn Designs
11th annual Iceland Airwaves music festival
Sequences Art Festival
And so many more...Do yourself a favor and check them all out *.*
Comments
I like governments that are founded on the principle that no one knows how to govern. That's why we start out with something and then fix it as we go along. We will survive as long as we are civil.
Just got back from Prague. What fascinated (and frustrated) me there was the passive aggressiveness, the lack of problem solving skills, and the way they continue to do something that doesn't work rather than try something that might work.
The government is in chaos there, too, but in a different way than Iceland, as far as I can understand it. Something about cancelled elections and the dissolution of parliament, so basically, as far as I can tell, no one is running things.
But the metro system still ran perfectly! ;)
Civility in government -- I think Fredwrite is correct. Unfortunately, the losing party here in the US has forgotten it (sour grapes on their part). They're only interested in stirring up trouble and destroying the country even more than they did the previous 8 years.
Anyway, politics is conceptually fascinating but the nature of any system, including governments, is to collapse when overloaded, redundant or inefficient. Not a bad thing, though challenging to those who don't like change *.*
I'm more of an Ayn Rand type of conservative: Acting in one's own self interest is the most effective means toward promoting the common good. Neither presidential candidate was suitable for me in 2008. Obama was clearly the better choice for the job, though. I'm pleased that he won.
So you think that money is the root of all evil? Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?
and :
Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men's stupidity, but your talent to their reason.
Excellent stuff! I agree that an individual challenging themselves to reach their own highest potential is crucial to the full development of self, as well as to the development of a strong community. Even more important though, is society allowing and encouraging that development instead of fearing (and subsequently) punishing success, rewarding mediocrity and creating a mass status quo tented under political and religious ideologies.