Jón Ólafsson

How can we distinguish good politics from bad politics? One could do it formally or procedurally and one could do it substantially or from the point of view of the content. The formal part is easy. One can most often determine whether or not some given formal requirements have been fulfilled or not, if they [...]

Our world is fundamentally unjust in so many ways. Take justice itself: It seems not even worth questioning that most people engaged in some kind of public work (politics, business etc.) will recognize (with Machiavelli, Glaucon and others) the necessity of appearing to be „just“ i.e. appearing to respect (as a matter of moral choice) [...]

Thomas Pogge argues that the sum needed for a serious offensive against poverty on a global scale is relatively small (300 billion USD). Yet too large for it to be realistic to raise the money in the traditional way by appealing to affluent donors, moral sensitivity etc. In other words it is an easy task [...]

Quoting the Romans always sounds a little affected, but “primus habere quod necesse est, proximus quod sat est” (Seneca Letters I,2) is too striking not to repeat it. Its form expresses what it says even better than its content. The limit to wealth is not hard to see: necessity and sufficiency. To be wealthy is [...]

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 [...]

The selection of films available from the back of the seat in front of you tends to shape the expectations you have about each film (rather than for example whether some of them won the Icelandic EDDA award). Maybe that is why Brim was such a nice surprise. Is it a noir? (I always seem [...]

The area around Kleifarvatn is eerie this time of the year and maybe it always is, at any time of the year. The lake, partly dried out, yet still there, very very quiet. Except for the pieces of ice forming a broad band along the shores and rattling like icecubes in a big half-filled glass [...]

It was a bit like Bugsy Malone. Children in adult roles. The are all dressed up in military uniforms in this case, but the event is organized by people who are themselves old and whose views are, well, nationalistic. The cadets, aged 7 to 15 are invited on the stage where they dance waltz under [...]

[A talk given at SLOWAR: The Dictionary of War, Moscow 2-3 September 2010] . I The “After” Cataclysmic events, myth-making and truth-making Cataclysmic events change everything. Or, one could say, they happen and after that nothing can ever be the same. This is in some sense obvious. Natural disasters are cataclysmic events in precisely this sense [...]

I have had this conversation many times, and now I was having it once again. She said: I am not deceived. Of course the government was behind it. Look: Any sane person can see it. The buildings could not have collapsed this way unless they had been prepared previously. They fell straight down, the planes [...]