65° - 01.11.1969, Blaðsíða 29

for he left the island. I’m glad it was accep-
ted.
I’m still a;s fit as I was at forty and just the
other day I was referee at a soccer match. I have
often been asked if I would like to go back to my
native land and do a job there. I believe I would.
For a good time there has been a certain amount
of nostalgia in my life. But if I left Iceland, the
work which lay ahead of me would have to be a
challenge. Nevertheless, whatever destiny holds
for me, I’ll be satisfied.
Recently I found an old battered book of verse.
On the end cover there were the words:
Never say you’re beaten. Lift up your head
and go your way.
Faith will bring its own reward. Just wait and
trust and pray.
Robert Jack.
Observing ....
THE BITTER BRILLIANTS
It is questionable taste to quote from one’s
own writing even if there is good reason for
doing so. I do it here, nevertheless, to recall an
attitude prevalent in 1960 which in the vicis-
situdes of daily life has changed without our
knowing.
“It is another matter for professional people
.. . who have trained abroad at some length and
at relatively great expense. Despite the strides
made toward material well-being, they find they
are far ahead of their times, trained beyond their
usefulness . . . There is no place for many of
these men . . . Those studying abroad are pri-
vately advised not to come back, for they will
only stagnate here while they work overtime, and
they will have to accept one-third the salary they
could command abroad. And why should they
return! These bitter brilliants can find little com-
fort in the thought that they are spearheading
a movement that will be a reality in ten more
years. They want to fulfill themselves now. But
for them, the time is not now.”*
In the years since that book was published and
especially in the twenty-five months since this
magazine began, I have come in daily contact
with an increasing number of these talented
people in all fields who truly have something to
* Ripples From Iceland, Norton, N.Y., 1962.
offer Iceland and who are instead ignored, milked
dry for the profit of others of impoverished
imagination but of vast power, who must ally
themselves with established figures as “yes” men
in the hope that by remaining insignificant they
may yet make changes through another’s voice,
or who know that age is so honored that in order
to put their training to work they must be silent
until they are forty or fifty.
I have met and talked with those who have
come to see the stranglehold of politics behind
the noble words and the stony resistance of tradi-
tion behind the self-styled progressiveness, so that
they despair of achieving individually or col-
lectively, unless they become part-time and then,
inevitably, full-time politicians themselves.
In an actual case where a patient had a kidney
deformity treated with medication for forty years,
it was only by chance and through desperation
that she knocked on the door of a new doctor
whose training advised X-ray as the first measure,
not as the last. Yet many a young doctor or other
professional is up against seniority ,an archaic
or rusting educational background, or a clique,
the code of which prevents him from “singula-
rizing” himself. And the seniority, archaism and
cliques, whether political or not, exist in every
imagineable area. As in other countries, behind
every large endeavor develops a power clique
which usually stalemates the aims of the endeavor
itself, but more often here, perhaps, where in the
insistence on equality, superiority is not acknow-
ledged, and because all should be leaders and
none followers, no one leads and no one follows.
This is a paralyzing component of an equalitarian
society.
In other areas, the activator may not in any
way challenge chauvinism, for even suggestions
for improvement imply that a need for improve-
ment exists.
“Rocking the boat”, or challenging the status
quo to the extent of expecting pride in a task
well done, a personal level of job perfection, an
integrity grounded on fairness can be frustrating,
for often there are no standards, or there is com-
placent ignorance, or there is politics, or with
little unemployment and many seniority jobs,
there is no competition or fear to stimulate better
work. A welfare state by its nature can encourage
the feeling that “the state owes me a living”,
thus negating personal endeavor in favor of using
the energy to grease palms and make deals in the
hope of preferential treatment. This is a sorry
65 DEGREES
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