Jón Ólafsson

We know very well that a group of people may show more competence than the best single person in that group. Therefore collective decisionmaking makes perfect sense and a democratic decision may bring out a better solution than any single person could. Using this criterion for the collective decision of Icelanders to reject the Icesave deal, a hopeful optimistic assessment might that this must, therefore, have been better decision, whatever one may belive oneself. But then there is the repertoir of bad to horrible decisions made democratically where crowds follow leaders. The interesting thing about Icesave is that there is no tangible leader. Those who thought they would profit from rejection don’t. The rejection has made no one king. Everything is unchanged. I met an octogenarian last Thursday who said to me with excitement flashing in his eyes: We may have gotten rid of this government by Monday. But he was wrong. The crowds perhaps made the wrong choice, but they were wise enough not to crown any one. The old guard of the right, recently turned anti-global and radical, are still what they always were. Defenders of small-state corruption. Hopeless demogogues.