Occupy Reykjavik

I visited Occupy Reykjaviks tents outside of the Althing. It was a small assembly of nice people who kept the fire burning. We discussed some current events but pretty soon people started interject with conspiracy theories. Not that I do not see the angle of them, I am just not so interested of hearing them again, even the true ones. But you can't really cut someone off mid-rant without at least risking a deep insult. So I found another discussion instead with a nice guy who had been severely conservative during the heydays of the financial buildup that lead to the crash. But since then he had left his construction job, now in special needs instead and had converted towards socialism. He told me more about how it actually had looked on the ground during the crisis. And we could agree that what had changed was mostly peoples ability to buy luxury. Now they might not have two cars anymore and fewer plasma screens. But everything necessary to live was still in place. Iceland is not poor, it still has quality of life and very few people under the line so to speak.
I have actually made the observation that there are quite few smart phones in the hands of the young here. As anti-consumerism as I am I see that as something healthy but realize that this came about with the crisis.