Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.

-Winston S. Churchill

You might wonder why a Norwegian would want to criticize the current world system. However, Norway, or Europe for that matter, isn’t isolated from the rest of the world. It never has been. As I look around myself and see how little the current system makes sense, I can’t help but try to put things in perspective so that other people may begin questioning the logic of Capitalism. Please, bear with me, every new idea seems radical to an old society.

This blog will be a place on the web where I will try to do some writing on what is wrong with Capitalism and what the possible alternative might be. I will start off with my own deep ancestry, so that we can try to grasp where I come from, and how we are related. It is my hope that with a longer perspective than the one currently given in most educational institutions, we can get some better idea of how and why we should be doing better not only for each other,  but also for the planet we live on.

01. Cultures and National Boundaries

My history, in part based on the evidence of DNA-testing, shows me that my ancestors ultimately always have come from somewhere else. Since I’m interested in genealogy, I’ve been researching my family tree as far back as I can with written records. So far, except for a few Swedes, I haven’t been able to find any other nationality but Norwegians among my ancestors. 10, 000 years ago, however,  Norway, along with Sweden, was covered by ice. There were no people living here. The ancestors of the future Scandinavians were all living elsewhere. Some of them were in the south of Europe, others in widely different parts of the world. Some of their future descendants, several generations down the road, ended up in Scandinavia since our planet gradually got warmer as time wore on. Slowly, the ice started retreating. As it did so, the reindeer followed. Along with the reindeer came other wildlife, and a great many of my ancestors.

As DNA evidence will show, history is a long tale. My direct maternal lineage, through my maternal grandmother, is thought to be ancient to Europe. Based on the mutations in my mitochondrial DNA, geneticists believe that this lineage entered Europe some 30, 000 years ago. Quite possibly, some of these people were responsible for the cave paintings in Lascaux, France. In all probability, this long series of mothers and daughters was among the families of Homo Sapiens that followed the reindeer, moving to a habitat quite unlike that of their African forebears.

This is one of the reasons why I believe that borders and nation-states are ultimately detrimental to the progress of our species. They create the illusion that we constitute separate entities with our own isolated histories. However, if we wish to get rid of poverty, hunger and human suffering, the current tribal mentality has to go. The borders are artificial. They are invisible lines that are relatively new to our history as a species. They divide us and create differences that, frankly, never were there to begin with. Your religion, language or skin color is irrelevant: I am as related to you as you are to me. We are all brothers and sisters. You share ancestors with every stranger you met. If you don’t believe me, go read up on the National Genographic project.

Patriotism is a disease.

-Albert Einstein

If you can understand, ultimately, whether you are white, black, red or yellow, that we are all related to one another–no exceptions–you might also understand that we are all basically the same. We all want the best for our children, we all share the basic necessities of life: clean air and water, nutritious food, the company of others and a relevant education.

The differences that we think exist between nations, cultures or creeds, are not innate. Every human being reflects his or her culture, and in that way we are all victims of our cultures.

Another way of putting it, is that we are all reflections of our culture. For example, if you were raised as a headhunter in the Amazon, and you had never been exposed to anything else, you would have been fine with collecting heads for the rest of your life. If I were to ask you: “Doesn’t it bother you to have 10 shrunken heads?”, you might answer “Yes, my brother has 20!”. Are you then insane? No, quite the opposite. You are sane to that culture.

Think about it. If you are a Christian, chances are that you come from a society where a Christian background is normal. The same applies to every other religious community. I’m not saying there wouldn’t be exceptions, but in that case that’s exactly what they are: exceptions, not the general rule. You are what you eat.

If people are brought up to believe that their country is the greatest on earth, that’s what most people will believe if they aren’t exposed to anything else. If you ask an American which country is the best in the world, he might answer that his own is the best there ever was. But has he seen all the other countries? Has he lived with families in Germany, Bangladesh or Chile? Again, just like everyone else he is a reflection of his culture. Like everyone else, he has been indoctrinated to a set of values and beliefs. I am no different, you are no different. And what is a great country, anyway?

If you have been conditioned to believe that you live in a sane society, then, if not exposed to anything else, that’s what you’ll believe. The Romans used to take Christians and feed them to Lions in the Colosseum. First, they would starve the Lions so that they would be ever the more ferocious when let loose on the Christians. Families would take their kids to the Colosseum and watch this take place. It was the entertainment of their culture. A kid growing up in this culture would ask his or her parent: “Daddy, can we go next week, as well, to watch Christians be fed to Lions?”, and the parent would answer: “Only if you behave yourself!”. Is that insane? No, to that’s sane to that culture. My point isn’t that we should approve of what the Romans did to Christians in retrospect, but we should be aware that the values and beliefs we uphold today are historical in nature. Future people might consider us the worst there ever was.

02. Fossil Fuels, Political Incompetence and Witchcraft

Now, there have been other, more horrific practices through the ages that have been sane to the cultures that employed them at the time. As you may know, people didn’t stop burning witches over night. It took a long time before rationality began shaping the opinions of the powers that be. Sadly, the same generality holds true for the burning of fossil fuels today. We have reached peak oil, but still, regardless of the environmental damage it is currently causing, Governments all over the World still sanction the use of fossil fuels. The United Nations just reported from the Climate Change Conference in Durban that unless we start reducing our CO2 emissions, with the peak in 2015, there will be “irreversible damage to our planet” (Gateway to the UN System’s Work on Climate Change – The Science). World carbon dioxide levels are the highest for 650, 000 years, says US report. Recently, it has also been pointed out that”carbon-intensive industry is preventing effective climate legislation” (Derailing Durban’s climate change conference)

Is it really so strange to compare burning witches to burning oil and gas? What seems normal to us today, will in all likelihood seem abhorrent to future generations. That is, if there will be any future generations. The only reason why the world hasn’t replaced fossil fuels yet, a source of energy which is unsustainable and damaging to the environment, is, simply put, because of the profit motive. Without the profit motive, there would be no rationale for going down the dangerous course we are faced with, today. The monetary system feeds on scarcity of goods. Only that way can the price be high enough to make a profit. In that regard, it’s actually good news for the oil companies that we eventually will run out of the stuff. Without a substitute for fossil fuels, prices might become alarmingly high.

The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun.

-Ralph Nader

Equally so, it is sane to our culture that the elected officials that are supposed to be competent at what they do, in fact are among the most incompetent people we have. Typically, if they have any education at all, politicians are trained as lawyers or economists. People in power should at the very least have some inkling of what Sociology is about. How can they be competent if they don’t know what influence the environment has on a person?

Former president Harry Truman used to be a hat salesman, he had no college education, but still he got to authorize the use of the Atom bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; killing between 250, and 350, 000 people. Do you really think that the Japanese killed constituted more than a big number to the powers that be? They, let alone you or I, can never understand what really happened when those bombs were dropped. What a cruel joke on Humanity.

Sociologist Anthony Giddens comments that:

National governments and the politicians within them, it is said, are increasingly unable to exercise control over the issues that cross their borders — such as volatile financial markets and environmental threats. Citizens recognize that politicians are limited in their ability to address these problems and, as a result, lose faith in existing systems of governance. (Giddens 2006: 61)

In the current system, for corporations to keep the competitive edge, they put into use planned obsolescence. This means that for a product to sell, the market can never be satisfied. So, products cannot be made out of the best materials. With no market you don’t get any profits. Stuff breaks down, quite simply so that corporations can continue producing goods. These will bring in more profit, and inevitably cause a truly insane amount of waste and pollution. The rules of the game are not necessarily for the sane.

If we lived in a truly sane world, the goods produced would be made out of the best materials known to Humanity. We would not allow products to break down after just a few years. We would recycle everything. We would not allow the shameful waste that accumulates in our oceans. As the the Independent reports (The world’s rubbish dump: a tip that stretches from Hawaii to Japan):

A “plastic soup” of waste floating in the Pacific Ocean is growing at an alarming rate and now covers an area twice the size of the continental United States, scientists have said.

So, you might be thinking that I’m doing well at pointing out problems, but I do also have some thoughts as to how, exactly, we should be solving them. First of all, I’m equally against both Capitalism and Communism. Both of these systems breed corruption. What I advocate is a society where the monetary-based economy will be history. Due to our current level of technology, most manners of production and maintenance can and should be automated. All the world’s resources can and should be declared the common heritage of all people. Nutritious food, clean air and water and a relevant education, should all be a given. This system of a resource-based economy is the invention of American engineer and social designer Jacque Fresco. He calls it the Venus Project. Learn more about this humane vision of the future on www.thevenusproject.com. On his web site he presents all the technical details. He holds nothing back.

In the words of Jacque Fresco:

At the beginning of World War II the U.S. had a mere 600 or so first-class fighting aircraft. We rapidly overcame this short supply by turning out more than 90,000 planes a year. The question at the start of World War II was: Do we have enough funds to produce the required implements of war? The answer was no, we did not have enough money, nor did we have enough gold; but we did have more than enough resources. It was the available resources that enabled the U.S. to achieve the high production and efficiency required to win the war. Unfortunately, this is only considered in times of war.

You might be thinking that I’m hoping for some sort of Utopia. Nothing could be further from the truth. The rights of Women, the abolition of child labor; all were vehemently opposed at the time they were being promoted. Did you know that Scientists used to write books about why Man would never fly? I guess the Wright brothers never read those books. Have you ever heard of the guy who said “We will never send a rocket to the Moon in a thousand years!”? Just because a better world can be outside of someone’s frame of reference, doesn’t mean a proposition is impossible to implement. We have the resources to feed the entire world. Currently, one billion of our brothers and sisters live under 1$ a day. According to the United Nations (UN-backed global drive to slash maternal and child deaths kicks off), one child dies every three seconds. One, two, three. One, two, three. At the same time, the richest 1% of people in the world receives as much as the bottom 57% (Income Inequality). This is the system we adhere to. This is what the system conditions all of us to believe is normal. What a cruel joke on Humanity. We can and should do better than this.

Anthony Giddens asserts that:

It is not beyond our abilities to reassert our will on the social world. Indeed, such a task appears to be both the greatest necessity and the greatest challenge facing human societies at the start of the twenty-first century. (Giddens 2006: 69)

Greed is not a part of human nature. If it were, we would be seeing greed and theft in all cultures. We sometimes forget that our Western culture is not representative for all the world’s peoples. In some cultures, “primitive” to us in the West, the abundance of food and water makes it illogical for one to steal from one another. In the west we are increasingly conditioned to believe that material wealth adds to our happiness. We forget, or are ignorant of the fact, that cultural diversity proves how values and beliefs vary from culture to culture.

There is something terrible wrong with a society that allows the concepts of resources and money to be mixed. As long as the price of food is money, and not human need, there will always be hunger and human suffering. It is the system that’s at fault. We need a global strategy for a better future that, as a starting point, declares all the world’s resources as the common heritage of all people. This will free people from monotonous, repetitive work and enable them to pursue whatever interests they have.

So, what can you do? First of all, try to spread the word around about the Venus Project. Read, write and talk about the ideas of Jacque Fresco with your friends and family. Point out where the current system is failing us. Show them the solution. Nothing will change if we stay quiet. Nothing. Again, the web site is: www.thevenusproject.com. Thank you for caring.

Le holmgang (c’est-à-dire un duel)

Eh bien, finalement je suis recruté par les gens au centre nationale culture de Stiklestad. Cet été je vais travailler comme guide en français, en anglais, en norvégien et peut-être même en néerlandais. Je suis très heureux d’avoir l’opportunité de travailler dans ce centre car en plus de mon intérêt pour des langues, j’ai aussi un grand intérêt pour l’histoire de cet endroit. La bataille de Stiklestad à 29 juillet 1030 est très importante pour l’histoire norvégienne. C’est là qu’Olaf II Haraldsson se fait battre et tuer, et c’est avec son mort qu’on décide de mettre la cathédrale à Trondheim et y établir à 1152/53 l’archidiocèse de Nidaros. C’est là qu’on a enterré les restes de son corps; le premier saint norvégien. Avec la reconnaissance de la Norvège comme état par l’église,  les norvégiens savent qu’ils ont réussit à créer leur royaume comme leurs contemporains européens.

L’un de les mythes nationaux de la Norvège est que la bataille de Stiklestad était une bataille entre le paganisme et le christianisme, et que le christianisme est devenu la religion officielle grâce à la bataille. Aujourd’hui on sait que ce processus de conversion était beaucoup plus graduel. Les endroits côtiers étaient les premiers à devenir chrétiens, et les endroits intérieurs étaient les derniers. Sur les côtes de l’ouest on a reçu très tôt beaucoup d’influence de la Grand-Bretagne dû à la proximité. Ils y sont venus surtout des moins irlandais afin de convertir les païens depuis au moins le IX siècle. Les croix en pierre dans l’ouest datent de ce siècle, et on pense que si les chefs dans l’endroit n’étaient pas favorables vis-à-vis le christianisme, ils n’avaient pas permit élever ces monuments. La religion ancienne faisait partie de leur légitimation, donc si les chefs ont pensé que le christianisme était une menace, ils ne l’avaient pas permit. Ça signifie qu’aussi les hommes d’un certain importance ont embrassé  la religion nouvelle relativement tôt.

Un croix en pierre à Numedal

Graduellement il y avaient de plus en plus de chrétiens. Ce processus de conversion a aussi été renforcé par les norvégiens eux-mêmes en gagnant des nouveaux impulses et idées par leurs voyages à l’étrangère. Saint Olaf a même été baptisé en Rouen. Donc c’est vraisemblable que les norvégiens qui ont voyagé le plus, étaient le plus exposé au christianisme. Ils étaient par conséquence aussi les personnes les plus faciles à convertir. Donc les voyages de les Vikings servaient paradoxalement aussi comme un portail au christianisme.

Au fur et à mesure les chrétiens ont formé une partie de la population de plus en plus grande. Les païens sont par conséquence devenus de plus en plus menacé par la religion nouvelle. Cela était à cause de fait que le christianisme était une religion fondamentalement intolérante; il n’y a qu’une vérité; un dieux. Par conséquence de cette pression, les norvégiens païens ont commencé à décrire leurs dieux en utilisant le langage des chrétiens. Odin est devenu le tout-puissant, et les historiens pensent que l’utilisation du marteau de Thor comme collier est probablement inspiré par la même utilisation du crucifix par les chrétiens.

La ferme Stiklastadir avec la maison longue

Récemment le directeur de cette musée m’a contacté pour voir si je voudrais travailler chez eux. Naturellement j’ai répondu oui à cette question. Donc ce vendredi j’irais aux musée pour voir si mon niveaux français est suffisant pour ce job. Franchement mon français n’est pas aussi bon que mes autres langues, mais je pense comme même que travailler comme guide ne serait pas un problème. Je suis ravi qu’une occasion s’est présentée où j’ai besoin de mon français. Ça m’aidera beaucoup. Cependant ce n’est pas forcement certain que le directeur voudra recruter quelqu’un comme moi. On peut espérer.

Interessa for dei gamle måla har blussa opp att med nyåret. Jau, no om dagen sat eg og leita etter lesestoff på Google Books. Der fann eg til mi store forundring ikkje berre ei solid færøysk-engelsk ordbok, men også eit par velskrivne historiebøker for det som venteleg må vera den færøyske ungdomsskulen.

Interessa har fått nytt liv i og med oppdaginga av ei samleside på nettet for gode gamle færøyske avisar. Eg og ein kompis måtta flira litt av det som vart omtalt i ei av desse. Dei visste tydeligvis å finna på litt av kvart uti Atlanterhavet. Mellom anna kunna ein på Færøyane 29/7/1892 lesa det fylgjande:

Ein mandarinur í eystasta China hevur bjóða at senða okkum ein dvörg, eina avgamla, rukkuta skrukkuta spákvinna og fleiri lögli fólk, sum har eru líka so tött sum hundaland hjá okkum í eini eplaveltu sum er töað við basarin.

Dei var etter alt å døma heller ikkje uvite om det som gjekk føre seg i gamlelandet. I dei fyrste numra er det flust med skriv om det eine og andre i Noreg:

Sum kunnugt er, strevast Normaðurin við at sleppa sær frá fremmand (danska) málinum, sum i langar tíðir hevur havt vald bæði ovarliga og niðarliga. Málið er nú komið rættuliga væl à leið. Tað hevur fingið sæti i háskúlanum, er góðkennt at nýtast i fólkaskúlunum og í øllum almenningsskúlum er fyrisett í tað minsta at kunna tað. “Det norske samlaget” hevur fingið studdning til at utgeva skúlabøkur uppá Norskt. Nýliga hevur tingið sett málið i hásæti við at geva tí rætt at nýtast sum landsins lógmál í ríkissalinum sum fyri skrivarinum.