Jón Ólafsson

I know now what I don’t like about Inspired by Iceland. I needed actually to see the video first, before I could be sure. It’s the intense and self-congratulatory attitude conveyed by the whole action. Inspired by Iceland presents Icelanders as just the kind of creatures I would not like to be.

Does this mean I am unpatriotic or “negative”? Some might think so. In a country like ours it is a big decision not to participate in telling the big world about Iceland, its riches and beauties. After all most people around me found it entirely natural to post the video on their facebook sites, not only to show their loyalty to the fatherland, but also to help.

I wonder if it is easier to be something else, Danish, German, Italian or British for instance, than to be an Icelander from time to time (sometimes it’s more difficult of course). At least it seems that the idea of national character goes more in the direction of stereotypes, for nationals of the larger European countries, than in ascribing concrete beliefs to them. It can surely be difficult to fight the stereotype, but what do you do when you are, as a part of your national self, to have all kinds of beliefs about yourself or your place in the world or even about the way the world is, because you happen to have a certain nationality?

As an Icelander I am often expected to believe in all kinds of supernatural things including elves since (so the story goes) Icelanders, as a matter of national character, believe in such phenomena. How am I to react to questions about such things – including the question whether I really hold such beliefs, myself, personally? I have several options. I can be sincere and either declare that I don’t believe in them, being a logical and rational person who simply does not believe in supernatural things. Or I can stick to the stereotype and claim that I do in fact hold such beliefs like every Icelander. Both approaches, however, leave much to be desired.

The only way out actually, seems to be to adopt an ironic attitude. It means one doesn’t quite embrace the “national” beliefs wholeheartedly, nor dismiss them with distaste. Rather, I will accept them as talking into some kind of a national myth as well as being one of the selling points for the tourist industry – along with the northern lights.

In such a case it is clear that irony, far from being just the indifferent dismissal of any value, in fact makes it possible to keep certain beliefs alive without thereby becoming in all sincerity committed to their literal truth. I guess that with many other ideas and notions, generally perceived as more serious than the idea of elves, the situation is the same. Irony is not a rejection or a dismissal of values or fundamental beliefs. It is rather a way of dealing with such beliefs without becoming too sincere about them.

What bothers me about Inspired by Iceland is the total lack of irony in it. Icelanders can keep saying Iceland is the center of the universe if they are only ironic about it. Once one actually believes it, Iceland becomes comical rather than inspiring.