Now & Then: Goosestepping

History doesn’t repeat; it rhymes

History doesn’t repeat; it rhymes, is a quote often attributed to Mark Twain. Perhaps Mr. Twain was thinking about how many famous ancient Greek philosophers thought of history, not as a linear process but a cyclical one, where patterns tend to reemerge. True or not, the concept seems in some cases applicable because even the worst type of events and ideas of history tend to pop up again. War. Hatred. Stupidity. All are evergreen.

The pictures above frame the same part of Austurstræti in downtown Reykjavík, where it intersects with Ingólfstorg square. The older picture is from May 1, 1935, the other picture is taken sometime during the weekend of July 4-6, 2025. That makes 90 years in between.

The older picture has been partly colorised, probably by hand, making visible the colours of the Icelandic flag, also used on a couple of flags where the cross has been replaced by a swastika.

Under these flags march members and supporters of a since-defunct political party that used to be called Flokkur þjóðernissinna, a Nazi-inspired Icelandic political party founded in 1933 and officially dissolved in 1944, by which point nobody was delusional enough to think of this strain of ultra-right politics as having much of an immediate future. Even though the street is packed, this party never gained any significant traction even though it participated in both parliamentary and municipal elections, their best turnout being a 2.8% of the vote in the 1934 Reykjavík municipality elections, with a total of 399 votes.

The latter picture, taken this summer, shows a group of people wearing sweaters with so-called crusader crosses, which also look like an iron cross with the words Skjöldur Íslands on them, which means Shields of Iceland. The symbols obviously have strong neo-Nazi and Nazi connotations. According to the group itself they are patrolling the streets of Reykjavík in order to “shield” locals from the “dangers” of asylum seekers. The group’s members also maintain that their choice of imagery has nothing to do with far-right ideas. A statement that is even worse if made in earnest, because of its implied stupidity. Also, most of the group’s founders have criminal records for violent crime. Their initiative has been seen by few as positive, but most of those who have spoken up on it have simply ridiculed the effort, since well, it is ridiculous.

So while we may debate whether or not Nazis are back, stupid never left the stage. And if history is cyclical, the cycle is around 90 years.