Reykjavík Grapevine - 21.09.2018, Qupperneq 56

L IF E , T R AV EL & EN T ER TA INMEN T IN ICEL A ND
Issue 17 × 2018
Sep 21st – Oct 4th
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LAST WORDS
Iceland Has
No Future
Words: Grayson Del Faro
Photo: Art Bicnick
When I say that Iceland has no future, I mean
that the Icelandic nation is not famous for
thinking ahead. Neither collectively nor
individually. In Iceland, the future may as
well not even exist. The typical Icelander’s
propensity for living in the now is often com-
mendable. I’ve learned a lot about lightening
the hell up here. Pretending that tomorrow
doesn’t exist so you can have another beer
tonight can be a good choice. But an admi-
rable ability to live in the now shouldn’t be
confused with an exasperating incapacity
to think ahead. That means that pretending
that next year doesn’t exist so you can build
another hotel right now is not a good choice.
It was just ten years ago that the world
economy crashed, popping Iceland’s banking
bubble and crippling the nation financially.
Iceland then elected its only liberal admin-
istration since WWII and a few years later,
things were back on track. Now, a few more
years later and after reelecting the same
dumb shits that ran the country into a moun-
tain of shit, things are booming again.
This time, though, it’s a balloon instead of
a bubble. It hasn’t popped, but it has stopped
inflating. With it, the króna has begun to
drop, but everywhere the hotels just keep
popping up. Hotel employees are already
living in basements, attics, and vans for ab-
surd rental prices in a housing market that’s
been hollowed out by Airbnb. Some are living
paycheque to paycheque, while others are
buying, selling, renting it out, and raking it
in. Some live month to month, while others
live in one infinite day, in a country without
a future.
But here we are regardless, in another
shitty tomorrow that wasn’t supposed to
come. Whether the day feels like endless
working class tedium or infinite with invest-
ment possibility, time does move forward.
Ten years is more than a thousand tomor-
rows. One of these tomorrows, something
will have to change. Personally, I’d vote for
the legalisation of slaughtering and eating
the greasiest ringleaders of the touristoc-
racy, but I’d also settle for euthanizing them
humanely and turning their glossy hotels
into affordable apartments. Hell, I’d even
let them live modestly in exchange for rent
control. Until then, there’s that other beer
tonight.