Wednesday, March 28, 2007
The Emperor Has No Clothes
Thus, the Greenland Norse society’s structure created a conflict between the short-term interests of those in power, and the long-term interests of the society as a whole, said Jared Diamond in Collapse. Sound similar to what’s happening now in the USA? Much of what the chiefs and clergy valued proved eventually harmful to the society.
Yet the society’s values were at the root of its strengths as well as its weaknesses. The Greenland Norse did succeed in creating a unique form of European society, and in surviving for 450 years as Europe’s most remote outpost. We modern Americans should not be too quick to brand them as failures, when their society survived in in-hospitable Greenland for longer than our English-speaking society has survived so far in hospitable North America.
Ultimately, though, the chiefs found themselves without followers. Reality reared it’s ugly head. The people had had enough and decided they weren’t going to take it anymore. The last right the Norse chiefs in Greenland obtained for themselves was the privilege of being the last to starve. Much as many of our chiefs deserve a similar privilege, I trust we will not follow them to the death. Enough! The emperor has no clothes. There are alternatives. We know what they are. Let’s begin to make them happen.
Yet the society’s values were at the root of its strengths as well as its weaknesses. The Greenland Norse did succeed in creating a unique form of European society, and in surviving for 450 years as Europe’s most remote outpost. We modern Americans should not be too quick to brand them as failures, when their society survived in in-hospitable Greenland for longer than our English-speaking society has survived so far in hospitable North America.
Ultimately, though, the chiefs found themselves without followers. Reality reared it’s ugly head. The people had had enough and decided they weren’t going to take it anymore. The last right the Norse chiefs in Greenland obtained for themselves was the privilege of being the last to starve. Much as many of our chiefs deserve a similar privilege, I trust we will not follow them to the death. Enough! The emperor has no clothes. There are alternatives. We know what they are. Let’s begin to make them happen.
