This is a very meaty book, and I\u2019ve been meaning to write about it for quite a while. \u00a0Quick bottom line: \u00a0a British author and Danish transplant writes about the five Nordic countries\/cultures: \u00a0Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden.<\/p>\n
Of Denmark: \u00a0a cultural prefernce for hygge<\/em>, or, loosely translated, coziness. \u00a0Jante Law \u2013 a cultural pressure not to believe you\u2019re better than anyone else, or to act in ways that lead others to think that you think so. \u00a0It\u2019s more than a sense of modesty, but a squelching of ambition.<\/p>\n Of\u00a0Norway: \u00a0they have a self-image of being environmentally-aware, frugal, hard workers, but oil wealth had changed the country: \u00a0they fail to notice the irony of preaching environmentalism while enjoying their wealth, to begin with, but also<\/p>\n Perhaps the most troubling aspect of Norway\u2019s social structure is the fact that about a third of all Norwegians of working age do nothing at all. \u00a0More than a million of them live on money from the state, the majority of them pensioners, but also a sizable number (340,000) on disability, unemployment, or sickness benefits \u2014 proportionally the largest number in Europe. \u00a0The picture is equally worrying for Norwegian children, who rank below the European average in terms of literacy, mathematics, and sciences, with the trend worsening over the last then years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Of Finland: \u00a0an image, and self-image of heavy drinkers, though in fact the actual per capita alcohol consumption is middle-of-the-road compared to Europe generally \u2014 though the drinking occurs more often in binges than elsewhere. \u00a0Their homogenity makes them a \u201chigh-context\u201d society, characterized by bluntness, a preference for solitude, and, when in the company of others, not all too much conversation.<\/p>\n And of Sweden:<\/p>\n well, you know Sweden. \u00a0Bernie Sanders\u2019 paradise. \u00a0Free childcare, free tuition, though the cradle-to-grave-ness has been pared back since the 80s. \u00a0Of note is that the entire transformation to the prototypical Welfare State occured under single-party rule, from 1920 to 2010 (with a brief exception), and with the unions and the employer federations working hand-in-hand. \u00a0The driving force behind secularization and the control the state exerted was a belief in modernism as the primary objective of government and society. \u00a0(Booth also addresses the issue of integration of immigrants, but cites \u201cexperts\u201d who assure him that they all will be integrated in another generation, so, eh, no worries.)<\/p>\n Sanders and others point longingly to the very low cost of childcare in Sweden \u2014 and, in fact, 82% of Swedish toddlers are in daycare, the highest ratio the world. \u00a0What impact does this have on children? \u00a0Booth points to concerns about the impact on children of institutionalized care from such a young age, and a cultural norm that pushes children to independence, and separation from family very early on \u2014 but then turns to studies citing Swedish children as doing particularly well in terms of overall well-being (e.g., a UNICEF study) so figures maybe this isn\u2019t a problem.<\/p>\n But here\u2019s the most interesting bit in the book: \u00a0Booth floats the idea that Sweden is, in its own way, totalitarian, with the state exerting control over its people, even if by social control rather than force. \u00a0Not a new idea \u2014 and he mentions an old book, The New Totalitarians<\/em>, with exactly that thesis, and which I am pretty sure I read many, many years ago, though not when it was published in 1971. \u00a0He discusses it in an interview with Henrik Berggren, a Swedish historian, who has this to say:<\/p>\n We are talking about autonomy in terms of not being dependent on other people. . . .<\/p>\n The Swedish system\u2019s logic is that it is dangerous to be dependent on other people, to be beholden to other people. \u00a0Even to your family. . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Berggren uses the example that university students are dependent on their families to pay for their college tuition, where Swedish students are not. \u00a0Booth continues:<\/p>\n Sweden\u2019s \u201cstatist individualism,\u201d as he terms it, enables the very purest form of wholly independent love to blossom between two people. \u00a0Wives don\u2019t stick around because their husband keeps the joint bank account PIN code in a locked drawer in his desk, and husbands don\u2019t hold their tongues because their wife\u2019s father owns the mill. \u00a0Authentic love and friendship is possible only between individuals who are independent and equal,\u201d he and Tragardh write. (p. 341-342)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Fundamentally, to the Swedes, dependence on the State is about being independent of other people \u2014 and, that includes spouses, to the degree that the divorce rate is especially high in the country (and the marriage rate low), though I can\u2019t find the page reference any longer.<\/p>\n So: talk among yourselves. \u00a0Quite apart from the question of whether this manner of organizing society is healthy for the long-term economic and social vitality and stability of the country, what do you think of this as a value, to strive for independence even of children from their parents, and between spouses, rather than interdependence?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is a very meaty book, and I\u2019ve been meaning to write about it for quite a while. \u00a0Quick bottom line: \u00a0a British author and Danish transplant writes about the five Nordic countries\/cultures: \u00a0Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden. Of Denmark: \u00a0a cultural prefernce for hygge, or, loosely translated, coziness. \u00a0Jante Law \u2013 a cultural pressure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":1386,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n