DEBATE

What is it typically Swedish? This is a question that I, as a social studies teacher, have asked my new students for the past 25 years.

In the late ’90s, students used to bring up things like midsummer, the sauces, villa-doggy-Volvo, meatballs, welfare, the king, dance bands, democracy, rags, rich country, security, the right of public access, just right, ice hockey and Pripps blue.

I was born in 1971 and could relate.

When I ask the same question today, the answers will not be the same. Of course, Christmas and Midsummer are highlighted. Like (tuned) EPA tractors, Ikea, riding horses, shootings, caravan holidays, trips to Thailand, stress, online shopping, Jimmie Åkesson, influencers, riots, and Spotify.

The result is striking. What was highlighted 25 years ago were often quite positive symbols of a collective national identity. What is highlighted today is very much about violence, gadgets, and prestige. The references to a collective identity are fewer, on the way away like Tamagotchi.

Is my annual span relevant? Well, of course, science is under the ankles, but in the small, the big lives.

In the book “Is the Swede human?” written by Lars Trägårdh and Henrik Berggren which came out a few years ago, it is claimed that the Swedish left has become post-national and the Swedish right neoliberal.

Well said! Swedish nationalism is dead and the view of Sweden as a country with its own identity is almost gone.

Older people in power, such as Jan Eliasson and Pierre Schori, are now publicly tormented when Sweden rushes into NATO. Neutrality is easily abandoned when our national identity is more about Spotify than about the conscience of the third world.

The left’s focus seems to remain in Bai Bang when needed in Skäggetorp. The right, on the other hand, burrows into the individual’s freedom without duty.

The neoliberal slogan is “Buy yourself joy” and is trumpeted by Dubai-traveling influencers. SD, which claims to be nationalist, hates most other nationalities and talks about “Christmas Eve and ancient monuments” at the same time as they sold themselves to the venture capitalists and Dagens Industry.

Where is the modern Swedish identity? I refuse to believe that consumerism and internationalist nationalist nostalgia are a way forward.

Feminist foreign policy is dead and replaced with armor shots. Our national self-confidence is as low as the aptitude test results of the newly hired police. When we now run into NATO and shop for security on credit, it somehow becomes the nail in the coffin.

We must find a new national identity. Shootings, tuned EPA tractors, and online shopping are not enough.

Is it too much to ask our politicians to take their responsibility together and start to file a little on Sweden’s identity? Today’s bread (root deduction) and spectacle (shootings) make no one happy.

Instead of relying on the magical power of individual selfishness (the right) or solving problems in other countries (the left), utility maximization could be a way forward. Pure and simple utilitarianism.

Simplified a bit, the theory can be summarized with the greatest possible happiness for the greatest possible number. Utilitarianism does not take into account religion and special interests and is a principle that everyone should be able to stand on.

A first measure could be to raise the salaries of police officers and improve their working conditions so that we avoid unintelligent police officers. It would be very useful, they would solve a lot of crimes and strengthen the Swedish identity. Because no one wants stupid police as a national symbol, right?

The idea of maximum benefit instead of consumerism is infinitely radical, I understand that, but surely it would be good to be able to get out of this limbo consisting of riots and acquired media-trained political talk mills?