Mayor Compares Nation to Alcoholic Family

[Electric Monk]

(Iceland)

In a compelling speech Reykjavík mayor Jón Gnarr made to city hall yesterday, he compared the nation to a family with an alcoholic father who is "still in treatment" today.

The occasion of the speech was the second discussion of the city's annual budget. The mayor, addressing city council, delivered a speech that many Icelanders have been praising as frighteningly accurate.

"One may compare the nation to the family of an alcoholic father who's been drunk for many years," the mayor said in part. "He had big ideas, especially when he'd had a few. He had a mouth and wasn't afraid to tell people where to go. He was a viking and a tough guy."

This attitude, enabled by his family, was not without its problems. "'I don't listen to any bullshit!' was his motto, and his family trusted him. In part because the family loved him, despite his drinking and his faults, but also in part because people were simply afraid to stand up to him. And so the family began to wonder whether he was some kind of genius, not a mentally ill alcoholic but rather brilliant, capable of seeing things that the average loser wasn't smart enough to see."

However, this proved a mistake, as the alcoholic father ran into money troubles, hiding his financial mistakes, taking out loan after loan.

"In the end, he could do nothing more than admit spiritual, physical and financial ruin. And so he went into treatment. And the family stayed behind, left bewildered, confused and angry."

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Iceland isn't alone in this. I think the analogy fits America pretty well too.

[Uncle Joe]

1. I agree with your final sentence.

Thanks for the thread, Electric Monk.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. I said during the Bush years that a segment of Americans acted like

they were going through battered spouse syndrome.