Aslaug's Axe Shed

I never thought I’d do this. I’m the kind of Dane who thinks the only time soccer is interesting is when we beat Sweden. I’m the kind of Dane who (very much in jest) insist that Sweden hand back the “occupied territory” in Scania, which they conquered three hundred and fifty some years ago. I’m the kind of Dane who thinks young, Swedish males are men with uniformly bad hair and a tendency to spend every weekend in Denmark, either in Copenhagen or Elsinore, getting roaringly drunk because it’s practically impossible to get proper beer on their side of the water.

I am, in short, a normal Dane, because deep down, I love Swedes dearly. They are my excuse to be a prejudiced little git once in a while, albeit in a goodnatured kind of way and besides, they do the same to us in return. In Sweden, Danes are generally seen as na??ve, slightly backwards folk who seem to think too much of ourselves.

Hmm … you know, they’re probably right.

Despite this, we actually rather like each other. We do like beating each other at sports, but when there are no Danes participating in an event, but there are Swedes … we tend to root for the blue-and-yellow. And vice versa. Personally, I tend to root for the Norwegians first but since I have family in Norway, I think that’s allowed. The thing is … I like Swedes. I like Sweden too.

It’s a beautiful country. Truly beautiful, and very, very diverse. The whole place is populated by these amazingly warm, kind-hearted people (there are exceptions of course, but I’m speaking in general terms here), and you know … a lot of them look pretty good too.

In fact, I think Sweden would be just about the most amazing place on Earth if it wasn’t for the fact that someone invented Swedish. While I understand the language I do usually have to actively work to keep a straight face when I hear it … it just sounds funny. I’m sure they feel the same way about Danish. However, because of the one faux pas of their language, they do drop down the list behind Norway and England. However, I’d still rather live in Sweden than in Denmark … that’s how nice a place it is. And anyone who knows me knows I love my country, but Sweden is still nicer.

There’s more room for one thing.

However, the main reason for me liking Sweden so much was actually summed up by one of my university lecturers five years ago, when he, in a moment of exasperation, stated that if the Ultra Nationalists of the Danish People’s Party ever actually got into government, he’d emmigrate to Sweden … “The last Scandinavian country with a moral backbone.”

In Norway, the ultranationalists are routinely polled as the largest political party … a position they seem to gain every so often … only to then lose it again to the social democrats. The Norwegian “Progress Party” is so horrid that even other right wing political parties have stated flatly that they would rather be in opposition to a social-democratic led government than be IN government with those people. In Denmark, the penchant is the Danish People’s Party, but here, the right wing has no qualms about cooperating with them to stay in power.

In Sweden, the party with a comparable agenda is called Sverigedemokraterna (Sweden Democrats). They are blithely xenophobic and openly describes themselves as a nationalist party.

Comparatively, in Norway, the Progress Party gets between 25 and 30 percent of the popular vote.

In Denmark, the Danish People’s Party got 13,8 percent of the vote at the last election.

In Sweden, Sverigedemokraterna are in serious danger of being ousted from parliament, as they have trouble garnering even 4 percent of the vote.

Why am I writing all this? Well, lately Bill O’Rilley and other Fox News … personalities … have spent a goodly amount of time painting Sweden as the new Soviet Union. A socialist hellhole where free initiative is crushed and where it is practically illegal to get rich. Mind you, they could just as well have pointed to either Norway or Denmark since we have comparable political histories (it’s a Scandinavian thing … no really, it is), but they chose to pounce on Sweden.

Apart from the fact that they align themselves with the morons at the Westboro Church of Hate in singling out Sweden as an example of everything they oppose, they are wrong.

Plain wrong.

Sweden is a fantastic nation. I can’t put it in simpler terms than that. Their health care is one of the best in the world, their social security net is outstanding, their openmindedness is practically legendary. And yes, there are exceptions to all this. People die in hospitals in Sweden as well. People do drop out the bottom of society in Sweden too. And yes, they have Neo Nazis to cope with as well. No country is perfect, and Sweden has its share of crosses to bear as well, but overall, it is a very, very good country to live in.

It has low unemployment, a solid surplus on the national budget (it is in fact one of the countries lending America money to keep the United States afloat) and it has some of the lowest poverty rates in the entire world.

But according to Fox News and other right-wing politicos in the United States … Sweden is the most horrible, terrible example of SOCIALISM one can think of.

Let’s try to analyse that for a while, shall we? It’s not difficult. Socialism, to many Americans, is a byword for Communism. There is no distinction made because to many Americans there IS no distinction. However, this is blatantly false. Communism is a repressive, dictatorial political system that is based on the tennets of Marxism in undiluted form. However, Marxism cannot be implemented, because human beings are inherently greedy. Human greed can be summed up in the following way:

I want my neighbors to be happy, wealthy and have a nice car. Just as long as they are not AS happy, AS wealthy or have AS nice a car as me.

It’s selfish and greedy and it’s very, very human. There are true altruists out there and truly selfless people, but if we look within ourselves, many of us will see that this sentence is true to some extent.

Because of this … Marxism is a beautiful thought where no people are needy and everyone live good and happy and full lives, but it is impossible to see through … PARTICULARLY through communism which takes away rights and choices from everyone.

Socialism on the other hand is inherently democratic. It is based in parliamentary debate and elections and it works from the principle that each person must have a say in how things are done. That we all have value and that we all have rights. Not just the right to freedom from oppression but also the right to freedom from starvation and poverty amongst other things.

However, to many Americans, Socialism means only one thing: taxation.

And to many of the same Americans, taxes is the same as legalized theft.

“I made this money, I should be allowed to keep every dime!”

Yeah well, buggo … try keeping the army you’re so damned fond of if you don’t pay taxes. Try keeping the schools running. Try keeping the courts open. And so on.

Fortunately, a good few Americans also realize this and therefore they don’t mind paying SOME amount of taxes. However, they generally seem to feel it should be kept at a minimum. I don’t think anyone can argue with that, but the question is WHAT constitutes the minimum.

In Sweden, they pay huge taxes compared to for instance the United States. So far, the Fox Crew are … in a way … on target. However, their idea of taxation being this big, black hole where money vanishes into never to be seen again or used for any purpose whatsoever, is way, way off target.

Bill O’Rilley, Sean Hannity and others like them live privileged lives. So does every single Republican senator or Congressman (and the reason for me singling out the GOP is because the democrats have not joined the anti-Sweden choir).

They have NEVER been in the position where they had to ask themselves, “hmm…i can’t afford medicine AND food for my family for the rest of the month, so do I want my daughter to get deaf from this middle ear infection or do I want to eat?”

They’ve NEVER been in a position where they had to sacrifice anything because they couldn’t get medical treatment. They believe insurance is the way to go because they, uniformly, can AFFORD insurance.

My good friend Kellan has been a hardworking man all his life. He’s salt-of-the-earth, a family man and a man of faith.

He’s also got a shot back, for which he needs treatment and he’s on prolonged sickleave from his job. Recently, he was told he may lose that job … and if he does, there goes his insurance. If his insurance goes … no more treatment, and Kellan, a bonafide American, will be unable to get better, probably for life.

But according to those who refuse to implement public health care, that’s because he’s lazy. If he wasn’t lazy, he’d have a job and then he’d be able to afford insurance.

The terrible, terrible thing is that this kind of all-or-nothing, black-or-white, good-or-bad, with-us-or-against-us thinking is increasingly commonplace amongst certain people. Mostly, you’ll find such people on the right side of the political spectrum. Now … I want to be fair here, and I will say that when we’re dealing with specific issues, that is indeed the way to go. There is only an all-or-nothing approach possible when we’re talking about things like Al Qaeda or the Taliban. But how the hell did the political stance against Osama bin Laden and his army of mindless cronies translate into denying American children the right to be healthy? How the HELL did the need for an uncompromising stance against Mullah Omar’s horrendous regime filter down into making American citizens live with daily pain?

I pay 40 percent tax here in Denmark. It’s the lowest tax-rate anyone CAN pay, and the moment I get a job it’ll rise to something like 45 percent. If I ever hit it big as an author (yeah right but one can dream), I can look forward to paying even more.

I pay it gladly. GLADLY. It’s the best damned money I spend every single month. No joke, no exaggeration. It’s the BEST money I ever spend. I can go to the doctor for free. Sure, I have to pay for medicine but the state subsidizes it, so that it’s affordable even to me. I pay for a visit to the dentist because for some reason it’s not part of the socialized medicine plan … but to return to the issue of Sweden … it is free for THEM.

Oh, and I got surgery for free. Surgery that saved my life, but which I could not possibly have afforded to actually pay for … surgery costing tens of thousands of Kroner … running into the hundreds of thousands if we count in the hospitalization and post-surgical follow-up treatment … I got for free. Because it was necessary. Because it was what it took to save my life.

Because I have value as an individual in this system.

Isn’t it ironic? The American right who claims to stand for the freedom of the individual and who claim to guard the value of individualism consistently ends up telling American individuals that they are not worth saving. They are not worth it, because they are not rich and they are not privileged. Because of their inability to pay thousands of dollars anually for insurance, these American citizens … Republicans as well as Democrats … have no value making them worth saving.

“If you can’t save yourself, you’re not worth saving.”

You know, that’s Ayn Rand talking. A woman who said that altruism was akin to high treason and that that helping others was the only true sin in existence.

Yet America claims to be ‘God’s own country’. An overwhelming majority of Americans claim to be Christian in some form or other.

It makes me wonder what Jesus of Nazareth would say, to be honest.

You know … I think I’ll stick with Sweden over America.

Any day of the week.