Sweden

An old cowboy once said "I came to the desert to change it and was changed by it."

We are not a product of our environment as much as we are a product of our thinking but our thinking is often a byproduct of how we live and react in our environment.

Folkhemmet is a Swedish term said to mean the people's home. It was a political movement that played an important role in the history of the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1932-1976.

It molded the Swedish welfare state altering the environment of the Swedish people and eventually their thinking. It operated during a long period when the Social democrats and their covetous practice slowly replaced the mind set of the people. Folkhemmet, a poetic name for the Swedish welfare state, was sometimes referred to as "the Swedish Middle Way" between capitalism and Marxism or at least socialism.

The ideology of the Folkhem vision was that society ought to be like a small family, where everybody contributes.... The Swedish people thought this was fine since they had been doing that for centuries. But Folkhemmet added a new ingredient to the scheme of society. You had to contribute whether you wanted to or not. Debt and pride would bind them to this system of social welfare until it was too late to alter the course of society.

When an economist "... attempted to ponder the angst of liberals in Sweden, a country that combines a vast public sector, and a style of life that looks hugely enviable to outsiders." They went on to say that "Sweden is a semi-socialist country that started to fail already in the mid 1970ies, and was hurled into a serious crisis in the early 1990:ies, which it has still not recovered from."

"The country is probably also one of the least democratic and most politically corrupt countries in the Western world.."

"The “Swedish model” was not replicable in most other societies, because it relied on a peculiarly Swedish set of cultural virtues: industriousness, thrift, honesty, intelligence, integrity, and a general trust in one’s fellow man."

Where did that "industriousness, thrift, honesty, intelligence, integrity, and a general trust in one’s fellow man" come from? Where does virtue come from in society? But possibly a more important question is how does a society or even a nation loose its virtue and its innocence?

"These virtues we acquire by first exercising them, as in the case of other arts. Whatever we learn to do, we learn by actually doing it: men come to be builders, for instance by building, and harp players by playing the harp. In the same way, by doing just acts we come to be just; by doing self-controlled acts, we come to be self-controlled; and by doing brave acts, we become brave..."

Plato thought that all democracies were flawed Marx thought they lead to socialism and then communism. These systems are able to alter the course of whole societies and nations because they alter the way we think or rather the way we are willing to think.

Plato thought that Democracy would produce leaders reluctant to ask for sacrifice but quick to force it and a systems more involved with image than substance which seems an accurate prophecy of modern politics. He also believed that there would be a rise in crime because of a separation of the generations and the members of the community with artificial values void of virtue. Before our politics molds our environment and then us our spirit makes a choice to go another way.

All the great teachers have dealt with the same problems facing mankind because man is the same. Therefor the solution is the same. All these teachers, philosopher or prophets by any other name were social reformers. Their desire was to improve the state, mindset and even the very nature of mankind. There teachings are regularly highjacked for the private self interests of people who are not motivated with the same spirit of the original teachers.

The German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, believed that moral virtue was found in doing the right thing for the right reason. Motive was paramount. It was not just doing but the individual choice to do, to sacrifice for others. Invisible bonds are created in other realms of our existence that may seem more subtle but are in the wholeness of our reality are in fact the root and foundation of our own being.

That subtle foundation is what we call spirit. It is our true self which exists at the core of our nature. It has its own pattern or character, its own spiritual DNA. Its character molds our thoughts before we think them, aids in the weighing of our perception of the reality around us.

The truth is a clear vision of reality. It can only be perceived if we are willing to see the whole truth. Few people are willing to see the whole truth so they construct imaginary realities that block our vision. To see the whole truth would mean that we have to see the truth about our own selves which is not always pretty and some times painful. We cannot or will not see beyond those constructed but imaginary realities.

The constructed imagery to replace the truth we are not willing to see but we want to believe is true reality is what the ancients called idolatry. Once we accept our projected image as the the truth we must give our undying allegiance to it. We often call that allegiance faith.

We will often enlist others or be enlisted by others to consummate this new constructed reality of our imagination. People will write and teach this constructed view, gather together to reaffirm it in emotional conclaves called religious denominations.

Their teaching will require a new vocabulary but more often they will use the old words like religion but ascribe a new or altered meaning. They will tell the old stories but alter their message or slightly navigate the thinking of their disciples around the truth they choose not to see nor have others see.

The modern Christian, believe that virtues was motivated by love for God.

But since God is both an idea and an entity how do we know if our love for God is not merely a love for the image of God which we have created or allowed to be created in our own minds. And if we are motivated to do what is right out of pride in our claimed faith in this image of God created through our doctrines and personal eschatology could it be that we do not actually love the righteousness of God?

If we do not actually love righteousness then it must be that although we sometimes do righteous things, God's righteousness is not actually written upon our hearts and upon our minds.

Could we love righteousness without the idea of an image of God in our mind?

It appears God has always befriended or been willing to bless those who sought righteousness naturally. and rejected the unrighteous who thought they believed in God.

The teachings of Christ clearly rejected those who said they believed but were not doers of the word, both before and after the crucifixtion.

So why do doctrines like all you have to do is believe or even just say you believe still promulgated society as the truth. If men like Jesus had a religion, although He never used the word, we might wonder what would He call False religion?

Virtue in Ancient Rome carried the connotations of valor, manliness, excellence, courage, character, and worth. These virtues or Virtus needed to be a part of society to prosper society as a nation. They needed to be practiced daily and if neglected society would begin to decay no different than the athlete who expends no energy in the pursuit of excellence.

Are the Swedish people being changed by their expanding Folkhemmet.

We are told that "In recent years the spotlessly clean stainless steel and glass cities [of Sweden] have been slowly transforming into shabby, crime-ridden third world hellholes surrounded by ghettoes where the police, fire brigade and ambulance services dare not go except in force." read one opinion why

The problem arises when the power of choice that once belonged to the individual is now held by the collective or by their elected rulers. Without the challenge of choice the breath of virtue begins to wither. Without the daily exercise of choice the individual looks to the state rather than neighbor for his salvation and hope. This has been corrupting the bonds and relationships that once held society together as a viable nation.

Within the social and economic environment of such systems the individual is changed through practices and lack of individual dependence upon one another through the love of one another and the honor and reciprocation of charity. Power of choice or what is called liberty to choose is inevitably centralized in the elected official of a bureaucracy and diminished in the individuals themselves.

Virtues that once made a society strong are lost through neglect. Since those virtues are the foundation of society their loss is not realized until the whole structure of this new Folkhem foundation within society begins to crumble.

And then there is denial.

Yet every generation has it prophets born into them who simply cannot conform the imagined truth of a deluded society. Something in them moans for the lost innocence and virtue like a babe crying for its mother. They struggle in their spirit against a dark and cold tied of the social norm that began before they were born.

They often do not fit in and frustrated in their conformity rebel with heart and hand with courage and the noble vigor of their ancestors but though they believe in a better way they can see through a glass dimly often need help with their unbelief.

This help may come in many forms but our willingness to receive it is more important than the help itself. It is our faith in that revealing spirit that brings light where there is darkness and the courage to look around the barriers of our own imagination as well as the imagination of the society that we love and may hate us for our courage and willing to know the truth that sets us free.

“...The erection of ...“Folk Hemmet,“ and what it was all about–the Utopian dream of the Social Democrats, to build a perfect country that would have everything going for it except the quality perhaps of being a country. [Identity, free will, destiny.]"

Ben Franklin advised that “A nation of well informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins.” Those rights depend upon us valuing our neighbors’ right to choose as much as we value our own, which is virtue.

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== Footnotes ==

About the author

• 

  Brother Gregory
  White Rock

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