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View Full Version : Some thoughts on warm and cold attitudes in societies, and elitism




GreenCardSeeker
09-04-2008, 05:39 AM
When I grew up, I was always taught how great care we provided for people here in Sweden, how our system provided for everyone's individual needs. As I've gained a deeper understanding of my society, I've rejected this picture. I've come to realize just how cold the attitudes are here in Sweden, how government employees feel the need to humiliate the people recieving their services, how little understanding and sympathy that's shown by the general population towards the people that recieve services of some kind. The different kinds of care that the government provide here isn't very humanitarian in nature, but rather mass-produced items that are supposed to fit everyone yet don't really address individual needs. If a person recieving them has other ideas on what services would be good for him or her, he's met with a hostile attitude and usually told he should be grateful for what he gets, and in mass media, the facade of this care is upheld. The public is given the impression that individuals recieving care of some kind are given the best kind that can be given, and that the people that are unhappy with the service are spiteful and litigious. Hence, they're met with no sympathy in society. Mass media has stereotyped them well enough for them to be confined to their place in society, the government can tread on people by providing services that really only serve the interest of the people getting paid for them, and still present it as the humanitarian effort of a benevolent state.

I've noticed that even though human beings aren't that very altruistic by nature, America seems to have a much warmer human climate than collectivist Europe. The individual is considered more when it comes to care, which comes naturally when he's in charge of his own money of course. The government doesn't seem to need to stereotype people either since it's not expected to provide for people, but through charity, care is provided for people that can't afford it themselves. Here in Sweden on the other hand, individuals whose needs aren't met at all and who try to explain to the government what they need, don't get any other help and no sympathy. Sweden has a sizable population of unemployed and pseudo-disabled(not really disabled, but coerced into accepting such a role) who fall into this category, imprisoned in a web of stereotypes and discrimination. No one stops the government from establishing negative stereotypes about groups of people, unless it's ethnic groups of course, where the hate laws ban it. In fact, the government routinely covers up for its own shortcomings by stereotyping its clients - the standard view it spreads is that nothing more can be done for the people in question.

I assume the USA doesn't have this feeling to it? I think Sweden has to be the coldest place on Earth, and not just speaking of the geological climate. The elitist attitudes are out of control, this country has a long and ghastly history of not treating people that don't fit in society as sub-humans. Forced institutions for poor people, concentration camps during WW2 for people that might endanger the country's neutrality through agitation or action, sterilizations and seizing of children specifically aimed at people in subcultures. In the 1960's, "raggare"(roughly corresponding to American greasers) were the subject of several state-produced movies showing them to be scoundrels and such, and women hanging out with them were targetted for sterilization. The last two decades, skinheads have faced the same attitudes - forced sterilizations aren't performed any more, but the state shows quite an interest for the children of this subculture, happily seizing them.

It got me thinking that this society's climate is still that of an old medieval monarchy, the welfare state seems to have extinguished any warmth the society could have built up. The high taxes cause stigmatization for the groups that are said to be needing them, even if the recipients don't feel the money is well spent. I read the old Swedish king Gustav Vasa had complained during the 1500's that people should be more grateful over the state apparatus he had built up, when he had transformed the country from what was an almost ungoverned country into a full-fledged monarchy, hence founding modern Sweden. Somehow, people here have never seem to make things right since, they've always been unhappy with how things have been run yet in the end have always called on the government to solve their problems. It's a very ingrown mentality here that the key to a successful life is taking charge of the state apparatus, being a part of the establishment that manages society. Then you can tread on people as you please, stereotype and threaten people that don't want to be led by you. Government here has never learned to respect its citizens, today ministers in government even refer to Swedes as barbaric and backwards, while the state remains the same old tyranny.

Over in the US, it seems politicans are called out over elitist attitudes that are routine over here.

Sweden is truly in a league of its own, and that's not meant in a good way..