Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress

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George Santayana had irrational faith in reason - I have irrational faith in TV.

Thursday, January 10, 2019

Vikings 5.17: No Harmony in Iceland

Floki and his flock in Iceland made their biggest appearance so far in Vikings in this week's episode 5.17. Except ... it turns out to be a flock at war with itself, which leads to a spiraling series of events that result in multiple killings and one suicide.

Floki tried in vain to stop all of that. But he has no sway, and is reduced to looking on with horrified eyes at what his settlement has come to. It's deeper than sad to contemplate. After that promising start last week, it's come to this. Floki is even losing faith in the guidance of the gods.

There's an obvious and painful lesson here about all human beings. We are given to and driven by all kinds of demons, always present as a check on our more noble instincts. There's a lot of relevance in that to our current age.

The other notable part of last night's episode was the introduction of the "Danes" as attackers of England. The scope of Vikings has been expanding from Kattegat to Norway and now Denmark. And, indeed, in history there were many more than one or two bands of Viking raiders.

Ubbe's offer to militarily defend Wessex from the Danish raiders continues the tradition of Rollo in France. It was a pattern that was repeated many times in ancient and medieval history - a plundering group is brought into the fold by the target, and comes to defend the target against other foes. This often worked very effectively.

Back to relevance to our current world, Ivar's little speech in which he urged his people to give up democracy, and him take care of them, was a chilling presaging of the rise of fascism in the 20th and 21st centuries. Not only is there no harmony in Iceland. There's no harmony anywhere.