Essays in Idleness

We see that a general election in Greenland has occurred, and that the Democraatit Party, which secured 30 percent of the vote, has nominally prevailed by means of proportional representation. They are the “little-endians,” who promise to seek independence from Denmark more slowly, compared to the relatively hot-headed Naleraq Party; but, as it were, both are just throwing snowballs. Proportional representation guarantees that governments will change very rarely, so that bureaucratic arrangements won’t be disturbed. A coalition of the most experienced and corrupt will almost always win. Should this not happen, the election will be cancelled and the winning party banned (as recently occurred in Romania). This is the European idea of “democracy.”

It is fortunate, however, that — as might develop in a first-past-the-post election — a majority can never emerge, for the winning party might be dominated by lunatics. At least, this is the theory currently espoused in America, where government on the European model of irremovable bureaucrats is currently being challenged. Trump, Musk, Vance, &c, do not understand that this is unthinkable, and the progressive class now proposes violence as a means to remove them.

Violence is a more solid, historical method for changing governments, as for adding one country territorially to another. In my view, historical example should not be discounted, although I, personally, recommend against it. Still, if the United States should decide to conquer Greenland, I would give the Greenlanders even less chance than the Ukrainians against the Russians. The purpose of treaty organizations such as NATO, or the Danish Realm, is to discourage the big without allies. I imagine Mother Denmark and the Faroe Islands making a poignant stand, the morning after Trump makes his demands.

Greenland, we are informed, by those journalists who have discovered the Wicked Paedia, is legal home to fifty-seven thousand souls, about as many as the founding provinces of Canada. Perhaps it is so small now, in comparison, that even we ought to be able to conquer it. But we do not have a military that could invade any country in the arctic, or anywhere else for that matter, and anyway the Americans asked first.