Reykjavík Grapevine - 23.05.2014, Blaðsíða 21

21The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 06 — 2014
If you are in favour of every-
thing human, helping those
who are most in need and want
more democracy you should vote for Dö-
gun. We want the people in the neigh-
bourhood councils to have more power
and more money.
If people want more of the best
and less of the worst they should
vote for Bright Future. There is
only one Jón Gnarr, but there is also just
one S. Björn Blöndal, and he is a tough but
fair man.
Samfylkingin has governed
Reykjavik alongside Jón Gnarr
and The Best Party—in difficult
times and with good resultts. Dagur B.
Eggertsson is a hardworking and experi-
enced leader who has proved that he has
what it takes to manage the city. Recent
polls show that 58% of people in Reykja-
vík want him as their next mayor. Not
because he is like Jón Gnarr, but rather
because people see Dagur as his natural
successor.
We are here to work for the
people of Reykjavík. We are go-
ing to change the education
system by prioritizing stu-
dents. We are going to bring down the
cost of renting and buying apartments in
Reykjavík with the power of the private
market, specifically by increasing the
number of available housing plots in the
city and by lowering taxes.
Our leader, Halldór Halldórsson, has
experience running municipalities and
private companies. He has also been a
fisherman and a kayak guide. He is well
educated with an MBA and an MA in hu-
man resource management. Everyone
is different but Halldór’s strength is in
managing a municipality and bringing
people together.
First of all, we in the Left-
Green movement do not be-
lieve in “strong leaders” and
celebrity politics. We believe
city council politics are about more than
just the mayor. Politics is about policy and
ideology, it is a debate about different vi-
sions of society, rather than who should
be crowned king (or queen) of the prom.
And this is the reason why people
should vote for the left-green movement.
We take the business of politics seriously.
We understand that it if Reykjavík is
truly to be a wonderful city we must ad-
dress social problems. We must address
poverty, rising income inequality, gender
inequality and environmental problems.
Politics is not a game of Icelandic Idol.
Therefore, we more concerned with
real issues than speculation about who
should become “the next Jón Gnarr.”
Dangerous Ideas
But isn’t it problematic if your only
guiding principle or philosophy
commands that you are powerless,
that you need help and guidance?
Shouldn’t a politician represent a
firm idea of how society should ulti-
mately be run?
Well, such ideas have plagued both
politics and philosophy. There has been
an abundance of great theories and ideas
over the course of history, put forth by
smart people, like Ayn Rand—she wasn’t
stupid, you know. But those ideas are of-
ten adopted by people who maybe aren’t
as smart and don’t quite understand
them—or even people who harbour self-
ish ulterior motives.
One of the most valuable lessons
that I have learned is that ideas are dan-
gerous, especially good ones [laughs].
Because it is almost certain that some
halfwit will pick them up and misinter-
pret them and misuse them. And this is
why it was so important that the Best
Party presented no ideology, no solu-
tion. No theory. Nothing that some idiot
could then adopt and develop and use as
a basis for something horrible, making
us the ideologues behind some atroc-
ity. And this is why it was so important
that the Best Party remain blank, that
it stood for no idea or theory other than
impotence and powerlessness. And the
will to collaborate, to seek help.
There are lots of great ideas out
there. But they get misunderstood. And
the cause is more often than not simple
human frailty, which the theories don’t
account for, because they exist solely on
the ideological plane, without taking
into account emotions and error. Just
look at our best thinkers over the past
few centuries. From Schopenhauer and
Nietzsche to Marx and Engels. Their
ideas led to a lot of misunderstanding, a
lot of horror. Schopenhauer was Hitler’s
favourite philosopher. Karl Marx cre-
ated communism because he was out-
raged by how the underclass was being
treated. But then, their theories even-
tually inspired all sorts of atrocities,
events and ideas that in no way reflect
their intentions.
We thus figured that the best ideol-
ogy would be no ideology, save for the
one espoused by the AA: Powerlessness,
humility, frailty. To realise that we don't
have all the solutions.
And Taoism. Taoism has definitely
been an influence.
Orthodox Anarchists
What about anarchism? You’ve pro-
claimed on many occasions that you
were an anarchist...
To me, anarchism and Taoism rep-
resent the same idea. The only differ-
ence is that anarchism went the way of
any other ideology. It was written down
and demarcated, what counted as anar-
chism and what didn’t—and in that in-
stant, it fell dead.
You can’t be an anarchist if you’re
this way or the other. And in effect, this
is oppressive. Take straight edge, a re-
ally cool movement that sprang up right
in the heart of consumer culture preach-
ing different values, preaching health.
All of the sudden, you could be cool and
a punker without always being wasted.
But that quickly turned into a kind of
elitism, the group instated rules and
even turned to violence against outsid-
ers who didn’t share their outlook. This
is a clear example of something that
started as a positive force, but quickly
turned negative. And it’s of course due
to human error and selfishness, frailty
and all that crap.
It became an orthodoxy?
So easily! And this is why when I say
I’m an anarchist, it ś not because anar-
chism is some perfect ideology, but be-
cause there is no perfect ideology.
The whole idea—what’s important—
boils down to the right to remain an
individual within a community, to be
able to live your life as you will so long as
you’re not stepping on anyone else. That
you can live in peace, whether you’re a
homosexual or like to smoke cannabis
or whatever, so long as you don’t disturb
others. And that is the only ideology that
matters.
A Kick In The Balls
One of the more frequent criticisms
levied against you is that you’ve re-
lied too much on administrators
and officials. That you’ve entrusted
Reykjavík and your mayoral duties
to city employees and hired experts,
that you’ve instated a technocracy,
limiting your role to figurehead...
The city of Reykjavík was sorely
lacking balance in these matters. It is
proven that the best way to run a city is
with minimal political interference. The
role of politicians should be confined to
shaping policy and then enforcing that
policy. The idea that politicians should
be hands-on in every matter is a misun-
derstanding, and a harmful one at that.
You hire a gardener to renovate your
garden, and you have to trust him and
what he’s doing. You tell him what you
want and maybe draw up a little map or
something, but you don’t go against his
professional advice.
There needs to be a balance. And
a little research will show you that the
world’s highest rated cities are the ones
that place an emphasis on profession-
alism, on proper processes and proce-
dures, and on following expert advice.
And you feel the city of Reykjavík had
neglected this?
Absolutely. We have countless exam-
ples in our recent past of politicians going
directly against the counsel of experts,
often with horrible results.
This idea that a mayor should be
hands-on with everything, fostering pet
projects and GETTING THINGS DONE
is also directly connected to this mascu-
line mentality that has prevailed in Ice-
landic politics for far too long. This idea
that a real man just ambles forth, solving
every problem with brute force, never
admitting that he doesn’t understand or
that he needs help. Like some wimp.
And yeah, I get a lot of that, people
saying I’ve entrusted all of my power to
specialists and technicians, that I’m not a
real mayor. The funny thing is that while
they think this hurts me—that it's a kick
in the balls—that couldn’t be further
from the truth. It makes me happy; it’s
what I wanted all along. I am not a strong,
masculine problem solver. In fact, I strive
not to be one. I believe strong masculine
problem solvers have caused a lot of dam-
age through the years, and I am proud to
be thought of as the opposite.
Superficial Tendencies
This is perhaps in line with what you
discussed during your campaign,
about changing the language of poli-
tics and attacking its culture—about
the importance of cultural revolu-
tion. Sometimes foreigners will ask
me what you and the Best Party have
accomplished, and I have a hard time
answering, beyond the Reykjavík
Energy reforms... there’s no entirely
new system, no sweeping structural
changes or free admission to the
swimming pools—in fact the prices
have gone up. The changes I have no-
ticed are more subtle, pertaining to
the atmosphere in city hall and how
its denizens interact in public. Pre-
paring for this interview, I spoke to
a few city employees and administra-
tors, who all maintained that their
working environment has changed
for the better, that it’s more polite,
more human.
I am happy to hear that. And I would
add that, maybe most importantly, we
have improved the administrative pro-
cess. It’s a lot more professional.
What lies underneath is often more
important than the surface. We humans
have a tendency to superficiality... peo-
ple spend a lot of money fixing their face
through surgery, undergoing intense
and life-threatening operations, but
they don’t get operations on their brain,
to create new connections so they may
understand and experience the universe
in new ways.
Yet, creating a new understanding
or new state of mind, a new process or
way of doing things, is much more im-
portant in the long run. And out of that
process, we eventually make progress
and achieve visible results.
It’s like education. You spend a lot of
time teaching someone how to be a doc-
tor, but they’re not curing anyone while
their brain is processing the information
and creating the necessary connections.
This could be likened to what we’ve
been doing. Teaching, training, signify-
ing something. Representing a mode of
thought or method. Proving that this is
possible, that this can work.
But then, we’ve of course done all
sorts of concrete things. We helped
Reykjavík Energy overcome its difficul-
ties. We’ve moved statues, and laid hun-
dreds of kilometres of bike paths. We
made a new zoning plan. And all sorts of
important stuff.
Then there is my personal cam-
paign for peace and human rights. Even
though it hasn’t yielded concrete results,
I believe it is the most important thing I
have ever done in my life.
Like Love
It might have had some effect. Inde-
pendence Party mayoral candidate
Halldór Halldórsson has remarked
that he admires your emphasis on hu-
man rights, and that he will carry on
that tradition if elected mayor. And
he’s not the only candidate to express
such a sentiment—international hu-
man rights have become an issue
that anyone who’s running is forced
to contend with and at least take a
stance on....
Exactly. This is my proudest accom-
plishment. It’s invisible and intangible,
yet very real. It is like love. Love is a
certain consciousness or state of mind
that isn’t anything until you express it
in action. When you act out of love for
another. And that is what we have been
trying to do, to build a loving environ-
ment that is based on consideration, re-
spect and trust. To convince people be-
lieve that we respect them even though
we are in disagreement, that this is pos-
sible and that it works. That political op-
ponents can walk
side by side in good
faith, trusting that
neither party will
use the opportu-
nity to hurt them
or push them aside.
We wanted to show
that this works, that
you exist in this
way without being
burned or abused.
This is what I
think is important,
what I believe will
ultimately be the
Best Party’s legacy.
It’s this entirely unique thing that wasn’t
supposed to happen, yet it did happen.
Then, we can talk about numbers re-
garding Reykjavík Energy and that can
be a discussion in and of itself, but, you
know, what I find important is that I am
the first mayor in the world to publicly
protest the jailing of Pussy Riot. At a Gay
Pride march. This act of mine didn’t free
them, so you could claim it was a failed
attempt, but it wasn’t. It left something
behind, a seed that will grow and move
us forward.
That’s the thing with ideas. They
tend to grow.
So I take pride in that, but I also take
pride in the fact that I am coming out of
this without having made any enemies—
sure, there are people who purport to
hate me, but I am glad to say the feeling
is far from mutual. It’s been difficult, but
I could well have come out of it a bitter
mess. But I didn’t. I am happy and grate-
ful for the past four years and, thankful
to the people I have worked with, and to
the people of Reykjavík.
As I express my gratitude, I must ac-
knowledge that I couldn’t have done this
without admitting my shortcomings re-
peatedly, every day. Facing my power-
lessness.
A Horrible Culture
This culture you say you’ve tried to
establish, of humility, cooperation
and good will. Do you believe it will
remain in City Hall?
Yes, it will carry on. But I have no
idea how it will grow.
I mean, I am a bit of a gardener, and
just yesterday I made a decision about
my garden. I planted some shrubbery a
few years ago, and it has thrived. Except
for one bush. And the past winter seems
to have taken a big toll on it, so I decided
to remove it and plant a new one in its
place.
You can’t always know in advance
which plants will thrive and which will
wither away. And then of course there’s
the chance that your plants will get in-
fected by some random plant disease or
ravaged by insects. I don’t know.
At least, I think it will be hard for
things to revert to the way they were. I
don’t think that’s a possibility.
That’s a hefty claim you make, that
you instigated a permanent change to
city politics. Do you likewise feel you
had an effect in last year’s parliamen-
tary elections?
Yes, we were very influential there.
Óttarr Proppé [HAM singer] is an MP
now! That is very important, and that
would have never happened [laughs]!
H o w e v e r ,
Alþingi’s problems
are obviously a lot
greater and more dif-
ficult than the ones
facing the city. It is
plagued by a devas-
tatingly inefficient
and faulty adminis-
trative process, a hor-
rible culture of dis-
course and massive,
ingrained nepotism.
Naturally, the big-
gest threat facing
Western democracy
today is the power of
the financial elites. They pose a direct
threat to democracy, they have devised
ways to manipulate the system to their
own end. It is a vicious circle wherein
money buys advertising, and advertis-
ing buys votes through stylized, empty
promises, and those promises are never
honoured, and this leads people to even-
tually stop respecting politicians and
lose faith in the process. It becomes in-
creasingly evident that it doesn’t mat-
ter how much you study or read, what
opinions you hold or any great ideas you
have—whoever has the most money to
spend will have their way. Political can-
didates might have good intentions of
servicing their community, but when it’s
common knowledge that they’re there
because someone bought them a ticket
they are hard to support. And without
the public’s support, they can’t accom-
plish anything. So they’ll need to raise
funds and hire advertising agencies to
get voted in again. And the circle contin-
ues.
Oligarchs and corporations have hi-
jacked democracy. The problem is not
that we have a few corrupt politicians—
I’m sure we have many—but they are
only symptoms of a greater ill, the ever-
growing vicious circle. A few people re-
signing doesn’t solve anything.
The only thing that can create mean-
ingful change is a shift in attitude. A bal-
ance must be created. This is what we
stood for on the municipal level, and this
is what needs to happen on a global level.
Balance and equilibrium.
Women Cyclist
Hegemony
To name an example of what needs to
change, car dealerships have wielded an
unreasonably great influence of Reykja-
vík’s affairs. This goes a ways towards
explaining why the city has evolved in
the way that it did—sprawling, rife with
freeways and cars and parking lots. This
is in part due to the influence of car deal-
ers and oil companies. I’m not saying
that they’re bad people or that we need
to get rid of all of them—just that a bal-
ance is needed, that other points of view
also need representation.
Women cyclists, for instance haven’t
had that much of a say in anything. No-
body considers their interests when big
decisions are made, because they don’t
have the resources to back up certain
“It becomes increas-
ingly evident that it
doesn’t matter how
much you study or
read, what opinions
you hold or any great
ideas you have—whoev-
er has the most money
to spend will have their
way.”