What kind of country is Sweden?
To understand the true face, different aspects, and roots of some of the manifestations of this "ideal" country, it may be worth looking at the History of Private Life, edited by the world-renowned historian and scholar Philip Alees and George Dolby.
This article is excerpted from the Swedish part of the fifth volume of the History of Private Life published by the Northern Literature and Art Publishing House and translated by Song Weiwei and Liu Lin, with abridgements.
Sweden has long attracted the world's attention.
In the 1960s, an entire generation grew up in the clichés of white-skinned blonde hair and emancipation, in the illusion of a sexy golden empire filled with the perfectly shaped Eckberry and the seductive garbo— and of course, the painful heroines of Bergman's films.
Gradually, however, this dreamy country degenerated into a dark country inhabited by bored people, sick people, and people who had attempted suicide.
The country is full of "broken families," "rampant sexual desires," and "a country where indulgent lovers in search of love struggle to find true love" — in short, it's paradise lost.
The Ideals of the Swedes, once the object of acclaim and denigration, have now become a cold mirage.
Gone are the idyllic life.
The welfare society that was once a welfare society has now become a nuisanced public nuisance, no longer a model for other countries to emulate.
The former middle way (between socialism and capitalism) has become a utopian dream.
Today, it is fashionable for many to accuse the Swedish government of being a "moderate dictatorship" or "cautious totalitarianism."
……
The Swedish model is first and foremost a social ethical model, not a visible physical model.
Given that Sweden is undoubtedly a people, a people yearning for world unity (in the form of pacifism, assistance to the Third World, social solidarity and respect for human rights), a people with a coherent and transparent ideological basis, we can see it as a precursor to a new social order.
From this point of view, the distinction between public and private in Sweden is significant.
Hostility to privacy, de-privatization, public administration of the private sphere – all of which Sweden has dramatically shifted the line between public and private.
But the basic features of Swedish society, namely the climate of absolute transparency in social relations, and the thorough exchange of ideas, are seen in many parts of the world today as an invasion of individual privacy.
This anti-privacy model is increasingly seen as an intolerable form of imperialism.
(The author then uses several examples to point out the characteristics of this anti-privacy model and the shortcomings of Swedish society from various aspects of history and current situation, and finally summarizes.) ）
In the 1930s, Marquis Zelz pointed out that "Sweden is taking the middle way".
This generalization of his Swedish identity will affect his fellow Americans first and later others.
Sweden's material boom, which included "telephones in every hotel room, adequate electricity, model hospitals, and wide, clean streets" as early as 1928, injected credibility into the Swedish model in the 1930s, combined with nearly flawless social institutions.
The European nation suddenly became interested in the country, hoping to uncover the secret of its astonishing material success.
Sweden, fortunate enough to survive the disasters of World War II, has preserved its production tools intact. For most postwar European countries, it was like the embodiment of utopia, with swedes becoming "European Americans."
Sweden's model of social organization is considered more attractive in many ways than in the United States because inequality in Sweden is less pronounced.
As Kefereck put it in 1948, swedes "challenged all natural prosperity."
In addition, the country's "moral health" allows it to "avoid the terrible consequences of Americanization."
Meunier once happily recounted the comment of a Swedish observer who admired American civilization: "The Swedes actually value individualism more than the Americans. ”
In Western society in the 1940s and 1950s, Swedish women were considered "beautiful, lively and healthy".
While people take it for granted that "Scandinavian morality is as mythically free," "to tourists, these young people seem distant and less passionate." They also behaved properly when they both danced. (Action, September 1946)
Louis-Charles Royer wrote in The Arctic Light: "It is extremely difficult to court a woman in this country, because they always treat you like a good friend. ”
In 1954, François-Regis Bastide said in his book Sweden: "What should you say to a young Swedish woman?" ”
His response was: "Whatever you do, it is extremely dangerous to mention the well-known reputation of Swedish women ... That would definitely mess things up. ”
The reputation of Swedish women will undoubtedly be linked to the sex information movement, which has contributed greatly to breaking the sexual taboo since 1933.
Sweden has been offering sex education curricula in schools since 1942, when no other country dared to do so.
Westerners confuse sexual information with sexual freedom, which is why they imagine Sweden as a paradise for sex.
In 1964, French Prime Minister Georges Pompidou visited "this strange socialist monarchy" and summed it up in a famous phrase that his social and political ideal was "Sweden with a little more sunshine".
So there was a renewed focus on the Swedish ideal, which reached its glorious peak in the 1970s.
During this period, Sweden was the center of fashion; whenever Sweden was mentioned, it was used as a model.
Sweden is praised and worshipped everywhere. Some have the American dream, while others have ideals of the Soviet Union, China, or Cuba.
Now, the "Swedish model" has been reinforced by the sexual liberation of the 1960s.
In 1965, a cover story about "Free Love" appeared, and a French magazine published a Swedish magazine. Siggers published a new series of books called the Swedish Treatise, while Baron Publishing included a book on Scandinavia in its "World Sex" series.
Sweden was analyzed and dissected. At the same time, people began to ask questions.
In 1975, articles critical of Sweden had already begun to appear.
Headlines such as "Women are not yet fully free" and "The increasingly disintegrating family" have emerged.
Roland Huntford launched a fierce attack on social democracy in Sweden in his book The New Totalitarian (1972).
The defeat of the social democrats in power for 44 years raised the question of political stability in Sweden.
From "The Stain of the Swedish Model" (Le Monde, 1976) to Criminals and Blackheads (Lacroix, 1976), in France, Sweden is portrayed as a perverted model, a repressive society.
Comments say that this "exceptionally free" society has caused its own destruction. "Sweden: Sexually Liberated Lovers Cry for True Love" was hyped up in 1980.
In the same year, one can also see: "The Swedish magic mirror worshipped by foreign countries has been broken." The most different system in the world has gone wrong. Another headline reads: "Sweden – Paradise Lost?" ”
The Swedish model has not delivered on its promises. Racism, xenophobia, suicide and alcoholism are all here as well.
The pattern of the opposite is now like the day in the sky, although traces of the old heaven are still faintly visible.
In 1984, Problem magazine asked students at a well-known French institution of higher learning which country best matched their ideal society. Switzerland ranked first, the United States second, while Sweden ranked fifth after France.
If the Swedish model has lost its charm, it is because the country is in a deep recession.
Claude Sarot writes: "Tax and welfare investigations are endless, and people's lives are subject to unreasonable totalitarian interference. The government monitors individuals and incomes. The tentacles of the nosy welfare state are everywhere, even the way you raise your children. It even encourages children to denounce 'cheating parents'. ”
Most Westerners believe they don't need this "change in private life." While the Swedish model may still exist, the Swedish myth has been completely shattered.
ps：
Before turning this article, Nine Crows had read many people's self-statements about life in Sweden now, which basically fit the situation outlined in this paragraph.
Sweden is a very strange country that looks eclectic and very liberal on the surface, but it is extremely difficult to integrate. This may not be as simple as the traditional problem, but there are genes of racism and xenophobia.
At the same time, their welfare model does make the national tentacles ubiquitous, so that personal privacy is almost completely exposed to public supervision, and it is difficult to have private space.
This is even manifested in the private life of the family.
"For example, if an unmarried or divorced mother applies to the government for subsidies, or if the father of a newborn baby is unidentified, a thorough investigation is conducted to confirm the identity of the father. Based on clues provided by the woman or her friend, any man implicated in the mother could be summoned to assist in the investigation. ”
And it's all based on ethics, and the idea that children come first.
As the author puts it: "The reason for taking this measure is not so much economic as it is ethical, and every child has the right to know his biological father." ”
Of course, this reason seems very human and reasonable, but it is very funny because it is too extreme.
"It is clear, however, that the implementation of this system could lead to contradictory outcomes: a single mother who wants to have children and raises children independently loses social benefits if she refuses to cooperate in the investigation of paternity." Although the Abortion Act of 1975 gave women the right to control their own bodies, they had no right to 'give birth without giving their father's name'. The child's rights take precedence; even if the mother refuses to accept social assistance, the government will use all means (including the court) to force her to reveal the identity of the child's father. ”
This is simply anti-freedom and human rights in the name of freedom and human rights, and the use of state power to openly rape privacy claims, so totalitarianism, perverted models, high-pressure society, police states, imperialism, etc., such comments in the West later, are not too much.
Moving from one extreme to the other seems to be characteristic of the Swedish model, which obviously could have been an ideal model in the past, that could flourish, but not today.
This, however, is a kind of Swedish national character, for they have become accustomed to surviving in this contradiction of high freedom and transparency, rationalizing private life and social integrity, and accustomed to certain extremes.
If Swedes still have deep-seated racist and xenophobic tendencies in their bones, it is not surprising that Swedish television is now doing it.
Jokes are just a pretext, sincere apologies may not come up at all, and Sweden is far less good than we think.
end
The last paragraph is | Nine Crows
Figure | Internet