Published August 4, 2009

We haven’t really been covering ECONOMIC COLLAPSE in Grapevine as of late. Not since we did the whole IceSave issue, the one with the soon-to-be drowning girl on the cover. That was the last time we paid full attention to the whole ECONOMIC COLLAPSE, FAILED SYSTEMS, PLUMMETING CURRENCY, NATIONAL BANKRUPTCY, BANK ROBBERY OF THE CENTURY thing, really.

We grew bored of it.

Oh, of course it still permeates large portions of our writing. As editor, it is my job to read and mull over every single word we publish, and it’s interesting to note how every other one alludes in some way to how Iceland and its people are in fact bankrupt, and how that has affected every aspect of our lives.

You will find it in our music, art and literature reviews, in the opinion columns, in articles about whale watching and Superjeeping. It’s. There. Now. We have it. It is a dominant aspect of Icelanders’ lives and thoughts, and it will remain so for a while to come. We may act all jolly; we will play our music and dance our dances, we will smile in the face of despair and diminishing options. It’s still there, at the back of our minds, every minute of every day:

“Life will never be the same. All our ancestors built is being dismantled. Everything will suck for the next couple of decades. Etc. Ad infinitum, ad nauseam.”

Jeez, it sounds like an evil, buzzing beehive when you start listening in. Especially if you follow discussions on the Internet, where the average person has its say. Everyone is disconcerted, discombobulated. Upset and/or frightened.

With seemingly good reason, too.

Now, much like everyone else, I foster some views on what happened and why. I like to think that what we have is the result of what the majority of us asked for, what the majority of us voted for, approved of, condoned and cheered on. Not me, ever, but that’s how democracy works.

This is not to say the good people of Iceland weren’t royally and unfairly fucked over by a bunch of psychopath banksters, businessmen and politicians – they were. Still, it’s not like they weren’t being warned, again and again. It’s not like our corrupt system wasn’t evidently and obviously so – it was. Probably still is.

Still. We woke up. We reassessed our values. We protested. We drove that government away. We voted in a new one, comprised of parties that were seemingly all set to take on the corruption, the nepotism, the recklessness and the greed. And clean things up. In good faith, I try and believe they are currently trying to do so, that they are making their best efforts to set things right. I am cynical and untrustworthy of politicians in general, especially those in government. But for the sake of my sanity, I choose to believe that they are trying.

I am sure lots of other folks are choosing to believe this. For the sake of their sanity.

Still. There is an anger. A growing anger, a biting, searing, burning, painful sort of anger. An anger that shows no sign of letting up, an anger that is fast reaching a boiling point of unheard proportions. One that might burst out in violence and despair, as anger is apt to.

This anger stems from confusion, from having ones moral axioms and belief systems demolished and turned to dust. It stems from learning daily about family and friends going bankrupt or leaving the country, about massive cutbacks in our education and healthcare systems, about how things will be grim (and must be grim); about how every last króna of our mutual funds and taxes and our children’s taxes will henceforth go towards repairing the damage wreaked upon the world by a bunch of psychopath banksters, businessmen and politicians in the span of a decade.

It stems from knowing that the responsible parties – psychopath banksters, businessmen and politicians – are still running around carefree, posing for snapshots on their luxury yachts, headed for private parties on their private jets. That they have still not been prosecuted for anything, or even accepted a smidgeon of responsibility for THE SITUATION.

Anger is always ugly, but this anger, this rage, it looks to get repulsive and monstrous.  Fast. It threatens to dismantle and burn down the foundations of our society, our compassion, our very core.

And that anger feels good.

Yes, there is an anger.