Published August 24, 2021 at 08.09
Column. The Swede is not afraid to live alone, but all the more he fears intellectual loneliness. Jan Tullberg writes in this column about being excluded from the opinion community Sweden.
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“The Swedish loneliness” became an unexpectedly successful novel in Poland. Katarzyna Tuboylewicz seems to have written an insightful book. Strangely enough, it managed to arouse a lot of sympathy in Poland. It seems that the Poles go somewhat unexpectedly and when a solitary dream that was suspected that only a few antisocial Swedes thought about on solitary walks.
Loneliness is not only a vulnerability and a feeling of being abandoned but also a need , in Sweden is perhaps most often described as “own time”. Even in Poland, there is apparently a demand for solitary forest walks.
Human sociality is not always so social, but often more of a background noise. You can be alone without this feeling painful. No less than Kant has noted that “man is characterized by his unsociable sociability”
Many Swedes, 40 percent, live in single households but do not see it as a problematic loneliness. I think Fredrik Lindström summed this up as the Swede's self-description: “he/she lives by himself”.
The weak point for the Swede is if he has an opinion that deviates from consensus, because then he feels lonely and weak. The Polish call this “intellectual loneliness” and it is a weakness that Poles are completely unfamiliar with. They believe more in the rule: two Poles become at least three opinions.
The Swedish professor David Thurfjell has written a good supplement to the book “Granskogsfolk”. The Swede does not seek contact through close approach, but shows respect by keeping his distance.
The Swede shows evidence of good secluded Swedish sociality by not pushing himself. Two people can then gently tread towards a community, without strange assumptions about existing closeness.
This seems reasonable. But loneliness also evokes an image that the lonely is strong in its independence and this runs counter to the wise objection that the Swede fears intellectual loneliness.
The attitude should not be confused with a conservative approach. The Swede is rather the world's most modern people when it comes to new products and new destinations. The Swede is probably more of an “early adopter” than any other people. But this only applies to modern products that most people are interested in, you have only received a few different queues in the store.
The difficulty is when many are not involved or critical. An old, but not necessarily good, rule is to avoid religion and politics if the goal is to have a nice evening together. The Swede avoids expressing his opinions on others, but is also just as reluctant to be impressed by others. At the same time, it is precisely joint decisions that should be discussed.
A not uncommon way of discussing in Sweden is to report on a discussion, perhaps on TV. You only comment on the debate, and if your interlocutor falls into a different opinion, you can retreat to the fact that both think some aspects of the issue have been overshadowed and deserve attention. The Swede does not want to lose friends on his own opinions, or on the opinions of others. You try yourself.
Many discussions are more consensus efforts than discussions. Moderates and social democrats can work in groups to create a bold atmosphere that becomes quite radical. As long as the consensus is maintained, the group's consensus can be a good distance from the prevailing opinion among the people in the country.
Everyone has a fairly good picture of the prevailing public opinion and how much it deviates from popular opinion. Abroad, the Swede becomes something of an ambassador: “In Sweden we have a system”.
However, this type of PR nationalism has become more difficult. The positive image of Sweden abroad has eroded. The Swedes have been replaced by the Danes as the happiest people in the world. And Sweden is increasingly becoming an example of a nation with bad decisions and growing problems. But the Swedish attraction to consensus means that we are drawn to an agreement with the government, although we disapprove of it on many concrete issues.
U.N. After the war, Norway focused on the national project, but then came “The international breakthrough” around the year 2000. Terje Tvedt describes the Norwegian development in his book with that title.
Norway and Sweden have become so successful that the goodness-signaling middle class has shut down the national project and its reform policy and is now instead preaching a boundless idealism.
The “humanitarian policy complex” in Norway receives general support, despite great uncertainty about content and reasons. Multiculture becomes a state ideology; everything must be universalism, ie Norway is transformed into the expected universal. The Church of Norway's dialogue with Islam becomes an example; one believes so much in unity that one cannot discuss differences. The view of subsidies dominates the way we look at Africa, the continent must be poor and dependent on subsidies, not least be dependent on continued contributions from Norway. Sweden and Norway have chosen a similar policy.
Previously, Sweden and Denmark were the two most similar countries, but after the anti-Danish demonstrations that followed the Muhammad cartoons in Jyllands-Posten in 2005, Denmark has changed course.
Sweden and Norway have not been impressed by this, but continue with a thoughtless policy. One difference, however, is that in Norway a more open view dominates with a permissible criticism, while in Sweden they work hard to increase censorship. A recent example of this is when the government organization Delmi criticizes individuals and organizations for “being for racism”, when they oppose the neo-racism that the government recommends and pursues.
Sweden is rather like an American state with a great interest in de-platforming and cancel culture. We have not abandoned the liberal values of democracy, freedom of speech and freedom of opinion, but we have redefined them to the contrary. Democracy no longer stands for a pluralistic view that includes different opinions, but a sluggish agreement on the snow moss called the “values”.
Despite similarities with Norway, this nation feels a little more fearless of intellectual loneliness and ending up outside the strange consensus that is not based on the will of the people, but on the consensus of the government.
Politicians and the media close the trail to remain guardians of a population that growls, but does not throw the mangles out of the temple. Not even when politics fails do the blinders fall. The failures are only renamed challenges and so similar politics continue.
JAN TULLBERG
Jan Tullberg is a writer and associate professor of business administration. He is the author of the book & nbsp; Låsningen: An analysis of Swedish immigration policy & nbsp; which was published in 2014. More texts by Tullberg can be read on his website.