The reports are endless on bomb attacks, shootings and violence in Sweden. How could it be that the perhaps most well-functioning country in the world has turned into a mudbath of murders? With 14-year-old contract killers?
Sweden used to be a quiet country. The la-la land of IKEA, ABBA and Volvo. Inhabited by well-behaved Swedes living in industrialised towns looking much the same, with people doing much the same things. Surrounded by endless forests and tranquil lakes.
What happened? Reckless immigration is what happened. More than 20% of the country’s population is born abroad. Immigrants or children of immigrants are hugely overrepresented when it comes to violent crime. It took decades for Sweden to acknowledge that fact.
Furthermore, it is not any kind of immigrants who commit all this violence. It is mostly immigrants from certain parts of the world. That is still hard to swallow for many Swedes.
The around 40 criminal tribes in Sweden come from The Balkans, the Middle East, Turkey and Africa.
F*ck the rest, Sweden Is Best
What has never worked in any country – ever – would work in Sweden.
Bringing in swarm after swarm of people with values alien to the original population would work in the self-proclaimed “humanitarian superpower.”
Particularly, if you put little demands on the newcomers to learn the language or provide for themselves. It may take Father Hassan a decade or two to get a job, depending on his education. For Mother Hassan, it will take even longer. The risk is high, though, that the Hassan children will end up with parents who will never know what a typical Swedish coffee break sounds like. Anna complaining about her new boyfriend. Sven chattering about his latest mountain hike. Maria chuckling at her attempt to repair the washing machine.
The Hassan family will also most likely be surrounded by other families with Arabic surnames, who know equally less about the Swedish way of life.
“Of course, people should be allowed to live where they want to!” has been the politically correct message.
As a result, immigrants from tribal societies can maintain and strengthen their macho culture in enclaves where dominance is key. Conflicts are resolved through violence. Your loyalty stays with your tribe, not with wishy-washy Sweden. And women’s role is to uphold the honour of the tribe.
That is as distinct from modern-day Sweden as you could possibly come. If you go back to the age of the Vikings, you could find a milder version of a tribal society in Sweden, where honour was key.
Reckless immigration happened mostly under social-democratic governments, but even during eight years of liberal-conservative rule. Hubris in Sweden has not been a left versus right thing. “Our Europe does not build any walls” and “open your hearts” sounded the slogans from both sides of the political spectrum. Instead of heeding the warnings. Especially, those coming from other immigrants. People who live in suburbs, and walk home every night with hearts in their throats and look over their shoulders when taking out the garbage. “Will they burn cars again tonight?”
But Swedish hubris is not just about believing in the impossible.
There Is No Way Like the Swedish Way
Swedes take for granted that the Swedish way of doing things is the norm. Hence, they assumed that immigrants would want to be like them. Immigrants would keep some harmless parts of their own culture, like food, music and celebrations. Otherwise, immigrants would become law-abiding tax-payers sitting around the kitchen table eating their muesli with cultured milk before heading off to work.
Swedes do not openly admit or are even aware of their own norm-setting. If you ask “Do you believe Sweden to be the norm?” Most would answer in some self-deprecating way: “Well, we always believe we are world-best don’t we?” What they don’t realise is how shallow that self-deprecation is.
It usually does not take long before Swedes reveal themselves. They have strong opinions about how others are supposed to act: “But why don’t they just… “(do things the Swedish way). Or being shocked to find out that gender equality is not as advanced in other countries as it is in Sweden. 480 days of paid parental leave is not common. Many countries do not even have a gay parade! But Swedes are convinced everybody would want one. It is just other countries’ evil leaders who come in the way.
"We are the Goodest in the World."
Talking about evil: another aspect of Swedish hubris is the urge to be good. Not necessarily doing good, but Swedes do not want to confront that discrepancy.
Immigrants coming from afar are the perfect objects to impose goodness on. Since all immigrants are either poor or have experienced horrible things (many of them have). Hence, they are objects of pity. For all eternity.
As an immigrant, you are supposed to live up to that image. You should be quiet, wearing a “Thank you, Sweden!” badge and eager to fit in.
You should behave as though you believe in democracy and gender equality. You just needed to come to Sweden to be able to express those values. As soon as you land in Sweden you understand that physical punishment of children is bad. Dad will immediately begin to read bedtime stories. Mum will explain things to the little ones instead of giving orders. As an immigrant, you may exercise your religion, but it is completely natural to you that most Swedes don’t believe in a god. “Of course!”
When story after story comes in about the fact that a large number of immigrants do not live up to the required image, a wall of denial slams down.
Warnings from other immigrants have been ignored. They are not the right kind of immigrant voices. Some of them even vote for the right-wing Sweden Democrats!
“No. No. No. Immigrants are what we wish them to be.”
The inflated self-image of elevated goodness is so strong, that Swedes have been clinging on to it until the tsunami of violent crime has washed over them.
5 years ago, you could be labelled a racist for pointing out a linkage between immigration and crime. 2 years ago, it was still suspect to suggest some underlying cultural reasons for the high crime rate. A few years ago, at work, I said that this huge number of immigrants from the Muslim world would cause secular Sweden massive problems. I was told not to mention that again.
Goodness-driven wishful thinking are linked to another aspect of Swedish hubris: a resistance to learning.
Nothing To learn Here
Sweden has consistently refused to learn from its own mistakes or other countries.
They go to great lengths to keep unpleasantness at bay.
School results in Sweden have gradually declined and are below most countries Sweden likes to compare itself with.
Hence, it came as a big surprise when the results of the PISA-tests* in 2018 showed a significant improvement. The caveat was that it wasn’t true. It turned out that 25% of the students had not taken the tests. And that many of them had been excluded on incorrect grounds. Related to disabilities or language skills. No country excluded more students than Sweden did.
Numerous politicians and civil servants participated in that shamble.
And this is just one example. Self-deception and denial permeate society. Nothing to see here. Don’t look any further.
And when that does not work, let’s try deflection. Sweden must be a world- champion in focusing on the unimportant to avoid the unpleasant.
When the police and others started to highlight tribes as the major force behind violent crime, the debate in mainstream media focused on the term “tribe”. “What is meant by that? Don’t we all belong to a tribe? What is wrong with big families?”
And all this resistance to learning goes beyond Swedish borders.
The Nordic countries have deeply established relationships. We tease and compete, but mainly support and learn from each other. Small countries quickly learn the importance of camaraderie. However, it has dawned on me, that Sweden has never seen themselves as students in the Nordic community. They are nothing but teachers.
I cannot remember a single time I have heard in Sweden. “We copied this from Denmark.” “This is actually a Finnish invention.” “Norway seems to have second thoughts, so that gave us some pause for thought, too.” Never. Most countries dislike learning from outsiders but still realise it is a smart thing to do.
Instead, Sweden has put in much effort to resist even simple facts: Denmark, Finland and Norway have received far fewer immigrants than Sweden. And have far less violent crime.
Denmark, in particular, has been an object of outrage in Sweden for its much stricter immigration policies and tougher sentences. “The racist and cruel Danes.”
Gradually, though, the penny is dropping. But it is dropping one small step at a time. Along an endless staircase.
*PISA: The Programme for International Student Assessment.
The Penny is Dropping
In September, Ulf Kristersson, the prime minister held a speech to the nation due to the current crisis. He admitted that the crisis was the result of irresponsible immigration politics, empowered by political naivety and cluelessness. He even mentioned “child soldiers” where the criminal gangs are now hiring children as young as 14 to commit murders. I give him credit for an honest and mature speech. Such frankness from any politician, in any country, is exceptional.
A large segment of society does not commit to the prime ministers’ introspection, but the cracks in the national self-image are evident.
“Could it be that a huge number of immigrants don’t want to integrate?
“Not to be like us boring Sweden of course, but still… “( more false self-deprecation).
“Could it be that they don’t care about an open and tolerant society? Or, even refute gender equality?”
The few voices who have been warning for decades about the consequences of reckless immigration, goodness hysteria and wishful thinking only to be silenced, lynched or ostracised are now given some lamplight.
Even more disturbing and hard to take in is what dysfunctional cultures look like. When “tribal society” and “honour culture” can no longer be dealt with as abstractions. When Sven and Anna have to face what the world of Ali and Aisha looks like. It is a world of obedience and loyalty in place of independent thinking and reasoning. It is a world of cousin marriages and corporal punishment. A world of segregation of boys and girls. A world of eye-for-an-eye justice.
But Sweden is not yet ready for the most inconvenient truth.
“Could it be (swallow, swallow) that we are not the goodest in the world after all?”
A long walk to reality
It will be a long downhill reckoning for Sweden. To wake up and realise that what you have believed all your life is a castle in the air is hard enough. To realise that your world views have contributed to wrecking your peaceful and well-functioning country and that your children and even grandchildren will have to pay the price is a much tougher pill to swallow.
The rest of the world should watch carefully. To make the decline of Sweden a lesson to be learned. An object of research.
It is an example of what happens,
when you become convinced that you are better than anyone else,
when you believe that what has never worked anywhere, will work here,
when you wrap your inflated self-image into a veneer of humbleness.
It is an example of what happens,
when your wishful thinking makes you immune to learning,
when you do your best to bully and silence those who disagree with you.
We all need something to be proud of. Our family, local community or country. But pride does not and should never imply “above.”
And just to be clear. When I use Sweden or the Swedes in this article I refer to what is or has been the dominant attitudes and opinions in the country. Not embraced by every citizen, but from my experience, by the majority. Including the bystanders who never protested or took a stand against the mainstream mantra. In other words: the passive enablers.
