Reykjavík Grapevine - 14.03.2014, Blaðsíða 10

10The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 3 — 2014
No matter the topic of conversation, the
debate will go like this: 320,000 experts
will immediately appear, everyone shar-
ing their expertise via Facebook. (Yes,
where once we used to meet for a coffee
and a chat like normal people, Iceland-
ers have now, for all intents and purpos-
es, replaced human contact and public
debates with statuses, links and likes.)
But no matter how much heat an
issue generates upon its debut, within
minutes—before you can even fake
an interest—the discussion will have
shifted, with camps dividing on whether
the issue even merits our time or if our
energy would be better spent elsewhere.
This is the cue for someone to introduce
another conversation into the mix. Some
of the experts will dig in, defending the
vital significance of the first issue. Other
experts will decide the second topic is far
more important and will promptly divert
their attention. A select few will try to
balance both discussions. And then, fi-
nally, a notable group of commentators
presents itself: the moderators.
The Burden Of Sanity
Debate anything in Iceland and you are
bound to meet a moderator. They’re
everywhere—chances are you’re one
yourself. Presenting his or herself as
the voice of reason, a moderator bears
the burden of sanity in the otherwise
barbaric world of Iceland’s public debate.
Staking a unique and individual claim
on reason is a popular pastime in this
country.
Moderators are inveterate explainers,
earnestly pushing others to see reason
and change their erroneous ways. Mod-
erators will start by explaining that the
debate should be better framed. More
focused. They lament the lack of fact-
based arguments and how hysterical
the discussion has become. They will
tell you that actually, the issue at hand is
quite simple. And if you’d just look deep-
er, you’d see that it all comes down to ba-
sic principles and is therefore a lot more
clean cut than you realise. In a firm, but
fatherly way, moderators explain the big
picture and remind you that while we all
share certain principles, principles that
shouldn’t be that hard to live by, we need
to be realistic. Be calm, the moderators
intone. Don’t get carried away with is-
sues that aren’t important. Issues that
they don’t find important, that is.
Because you see, while moderators
are quick to brush off concerns beneath
their own notice, they are equally quick
to condemn their fellow citizens’ apathy
towards those issues they deem to be of
great importance. Call for a politician to
take some responsibility and you’ll see
this in action: a moderator will rarely fail
to mention that at sometime in the past
you remained silent when some other
politician did something completely un-
related and not remotely relevant.
One Uproar After Another
Are Icelanders just addicted to turmoil
or is there such a thing as functional de-
bate here? These were among the ques-
tions that pushed Hjálmar Gíslason,
the founder and CEO of Datamarket, to
visually map Icelanders’ conversations
for 42 days. Every uproar, one after an-
other. The resulting graph clearly reveals
the short attention span of Icelandic de-
bate: a news item will dominate every
medium in the country for a few hours
before disappearing completely, never
to be mentioned again. Almost nothing
survives the initial quarrel stage and
continues on for a full and comprehen-
sive discussion. Instead, attentions are
distracted by new outrages, or by outrage
at all the outrage.
It is important to note that Hjálmar
readily admits that his method is in no
way scientific nor terribly accurate. And
his graph does reveal two topics that
outlast the status quo. The first of these
revolved around a new governmental
bank levy, which appears to be an in-
tentionally designed tax-free status for
a particular Icelandic bank. The second
centred on whether Icelandic politicians
should have attended the Sochi Olym-
pics. Those two subjects kept people
enraged for slightly longer than usual—
two whole days.
Everything In Moderation
Are we Icelanders wasting time and
energy by constantly expressing our
shock and anger over any and every is-
sue which is tossed our way? Yes—noth-
ing is gained by this. Equally, nothing is
gained by attempting to police everyone
but yourself. Perhaps us moderators
could spend a little more time focusing
on an actual issue instead of harping on
the fallacy that is debate in Iceland. Es-
pecially given that this is the one topic
which Icelanders have already reached
an agreement on: We all think it sucks!
Icelanders tend to agree on one thing, and one thing only: the horrid state of
discourse in this country. Any other topic is automatically polarizing. Find your-
self against the wall in any discussion, rest assure you can always hide a lack
of knowledge by turning the conversation to the dismal state of the debate. Try
it—see how quickly people line up to agree.
Here Come The Moderators
Icelandic discourse in a nutshell…
— By Atli Þór Fanndal
Society | Discourse
Hjálmar Gíslasson
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ð
Aníta Not Selected As
Iceland’s Athlete Of The Year
The Ljost.is Leak Of
Financial Documents
The President And
PM’s New Year Addresses
Þjórsárver Highlands
Conservation Increase
Rescinded
Vine Social Media
Stars Appear In
Smáralind
Shopping Centre
2013 Fatal Plane Crash
Recording Aired On Television
Minister Of Industry
And Her Chocolate
Kleinur (Women Who
Benefit From
Affirmative Action)
State-Funded Artist
Wages Under Scrutiny
Björn Bragi’s Nazi
Simile Made During
Iceland-Austria
Handball Match
Ex-PM Geir H. Haarde’s
Racist Article Resurfaces
After 50 Years
Committee Says Revoking
The Indexation Of Loans
Is Unfeasible
Icelandic Politicians
Visit Sochi Olympics
Interview With Economist
Guðrún Johnsen On The Collapse
Domestic Data Downloads
Charged At Foreign Rate
Intestine Content Found
In Whale Beer
Fiasco Over MP Bank
Benefiting From New Bank Levy