Sweden. The proclaimed “Happiest Place to Live” according to, well everyone except those from Sweden. Why? Sweden is a Socialist society. In Sweden, standing out or drawing attention to yourself is offensive. After all, socialists value equality, oneness, collectivism and that no individual is more or less important than anyone else. Notice the identical, equally unimpressive living quarters above.
In Sweden, there is a name for this. It is called Lagom.
Lagom (pronounced [ˈlɑ̀ːɡɔm]) is a Swedish word meaning “just the right amount”
This word has no English or other language equivalent as it is unique to Swedish…ahem…socialist culture. Basically, Lagom goes back to the days of vikings.
Vikings all had equal status on the ships, sharing sleeping spaces, food and milk evenly with one another. They passed the milk bowl around and one was expected to drink just the right amount so that they did not drink too much milk (making them more important and more deserving than the vikings next to them) nor were they to drink too little milk (having the hubris to highlight their self-sacrifice for fellow vikings draws attention to them, like having self-righteousness). Tricky right? Couldn’t win either way.
This concept of Lagom has continued through the ages with children often trying to blend in and not draw attention to themselves. Don’t try to be better than the other kids at school, sports, art, etc. and don’t try to be worse either. Just strive to be exactly equal in all aspects to everyone else and you will have found Lagom and will grow into the ideal, invisible socialist. So how do kids aspire to become Olympic Champions? Tricky right?
Test: Name one Swedish Olympic Champion in an individual event?
Hmmm.
I guess they had that Björn Borg guy, but he wasn’t an Olympian and he doesn’t even reside in Sweden. He lives in Monte Carlo, Monaco, where it’s cool and valued to be rich, famous and pretentiously narcissistic.
In fact, nearly all individual elite athletes from Sweden leave to train in the other countries who promote and value individual accomplishment, especially in athletics, like the USA.
Yes, the USA…the anti-socialists. The evil Capitalists who happen to win more Olympic medals than any other country in nearly every Summer and Winter Olympics since, well the fall of Communist Russia. Emphasis on fall intended.
So is the “Happiest Place to Live” truly happy or just complacent to be mediocre, well as long as nobody else is more or less mediocre than they are? Or is it since nobody is “above” anyone else, they don’t feel inadequate or unhappy with themselves…thus happy?
Hard to say, one this I do know is that in Evil America, we are constantly striving to improve, compete, accept and address our inadequacies. Prime example, our American athletes and Olympians constantly striving to improve, to win, to set high goals and achieve them…and they often do.
So, in socialist athletics, if you set the bar low, everyone is a winner. Yay! Unfortunately, the Olympic Games doesn’t subscribe to awarding participation medals, rather they award only 3 medals to the Best, Second Best and Third Best. There is a winner or Champion and that implies that they were “better” than everyone else at that event, meaning with a winner there were losers too, and that’s OK…that’s what keeps you striving to improve yourself. Unless, of course, you are from a society that fundamentally disagrees with having winners and losers.
Socialism and Lagom. Why Sweden sucks at the Olympic Games.
*Key Note. Since this socialism thing apparently works so well in a world based on competition, maybe we should become more like Sweden and adopt Socialistic policies in America! … see post: Liberal Fascism & the American Socialist
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