Rune @skalden@qoto.org

"In her despair she had resorted to desperate measures. She had read philosophy in the original German, and the more she read, the more she was disheartened that so much culture should lead to nothing⁠—nothing. After talking of Herbert Spencer for an entire evening with a very literary transcendental commission-merchant, she could not see that her time had been better employed than when in former days she had passed it in flirting with a very agreeable young stockbroker; indeed, there was an evident proof to the contrary, for the flirtation might lead to something⁠—had, in fact, led to marriage; while the philosophy could lead to nothing, unless it were perhaps to another evening of the same kind" -Henry Adams, *Xdemocracy*

@sz_duras I think this could happen here as well. It sounds to me like it is in a grey zone between what is illegal and what is ethical

@sz_duras By the way, there is another Norwegian TV series from a couple of years back called Exit based on interviews with rich people that looks at their tax evasion and decadent habits. It is well worth seeing if you can find it. It made a stir her. At the moment there is a series called Makta that looks at the power struggle of the Norwegian Labour party in the 70s and 80s. It is more about the dirty side of politics rather than corruption, though

@sz_duras There is very little tolerance for it in Norwegian media and politics. There have been several scandals in the last year where ministers have changed because of problems with impartiality. The spouses of politicians buying weapon shares while the politicians themselves are handling issues about whether the government should buy weapons for Ukraine, for example. Norwegian politics are assumed to be quite clean, but because of this intolerance rather than innate honesty. I guess we believe politicians in other regimes to be more corrupt than our own, in particular third-world and autocratic regimes. I guess the power of the oil lobby and so on is underestimated, though.

@sz_duras It is about a big corporation trying to achieve a seed monopoly. In the process, they bribe EU politicians. They are designing the seed that makes the farmers forever dependent on them. They also try to destroy a seed that would free them and solve the food crisis. Some of the backstory has real-life parallels.

@sz_duras The Norwegian national broadcaster is running an interesting one called "The seed" at the moment: https://tv.nrk.no/serie/the-seed - not sure if it is viewable anywhere else.

@leighms @randahl Sounds like a pretty decent scout hut

@alicemcalicepants Elevate it and see the others become insecure about their normality. We are cyclic creatures. Social and then not. Weird and then not. Awkward and then not.

@mrundkvist It is laboriously established only if you agree with it, I believe? When you disagree, it is traditional.

@RustyBertrand I think this is about books?

@angusm Too true

@SimonRoyHughes Da er navnet dyrebart og ikke et dyrenavn, tror jeg

@SimonRoyHughes Du tenker på salmen av Petter Dass?

@SimonRoyHughes A fine point is that "havsens" would not really mean Ocean but something like "Far out in the ocean". Which also points towards the "saviour" interpretation. Not sure what to make of the Christ connotations of that term, though. It is probably either very appropriate or very inappropriate in this context

@SimonRoyHughes But as the plot shows, being saved by a troll may be a blessing with caveats