I have vowed that before I leave this planet, I am going to Iceland. So far the trip back from Copenhagen in 1990 and the shelved documentary about the Original Anarchy haven't gotten me there yet. The recent financial meltdown may. I was hoping to wait until my son turned twelve and my daughter nine in order to make the journey to my Mecca, but if the devalued krona is sinking faster than the dollar, what the hell. 
Fortunately the tale of Iceland goes deeper than this financial crisis. At the top of the world is a relatively small place with few people, that has survived for centuries. From Njal's Saga to Independent People the stories of perseverance, death and struggle have created no small wonder that it would be the first to simultaneously house democracy, common law and Christianity. And while some may take pot shots at the vainglory of the past, we might all do well to watch the reactions of people raped by their own elites for trusting the global currency markets.
I get an email update from an operation called Iceland Elitist. Before this meltdown that meant that special offers for awesome trips were made aware to me in a hip and worldly manner and taste. Whether it was the Hot Springs and Aura Borealis that Quentin Tarentino retreats to or the fact that you can sidle right up to a water fall with no chains, fences or authorities, the longing and hope was only sweeter and more bitter as my days pass. I even passed on my wife's offer at turning forty to go up there and let my mid-life go wild on glaciers, volcanoes and sea fishing.
So when the next email comes and the offers are half off, the temptation to grab the Canon GL2 and go interview the regular folk of Iceland might be irresistible. I would imagine that there is not a big Austrian Economic crowd up there, but the Scandinavians can will surprise you. One minute they all wait on the side of the road for the signal, even if there is no traffic, and the next they might be pounding beers with you and regaling their innermost's.
I suspect the journey that the average folks of Iceland will be taking in the next few years will be much easier than the average Americans. A couple generations from constant material and economic suffering and most Americans will have a real hard time with the day to day struggle of gravity and oxygen that the rest of the animals endure. The cacophony of whining and the possibility of violence will only strengthen the apparatus of the state and its rationale for existence. Schools and churches will struggle to explain it all and derive half truths and a serious culture of misgiving. If anything, the anti-Age of Aquarius now threatens every boomer that believed Dennis Hopper in those new commercials.
Iceland will survive, I'm still going there.
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