Horrible, sick, mean little people, that kill our faith in the goodness of Mankind.

But exactly what is the Swedish model, and where is it heading? Rarely have I see an article that echoes so perfectly my personal experience as well as some disappointment with things Swedish as this one written by Johan Norberg on the Sumer 2006 issue of The National Interest. And as if it wasn’t enough, The Economist just came up with a very even article on the subject, entitled The Swedish model: Admire the best, forget the rest.

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I’ve been in this country for over seven years now. I was apologetic for the government from the very start and whenever I was called to vote, I voted their way. True, there were always things to be critical about, and I know few as critical about everything as me. But in the whole, I was satisfied.

Pan to this last year events. By now I’ve witnessed first hand on how easy it to defraud the state and, consequently, those who work hard and pay their taxes. In this country, as long as you are wiling to lie here and there, you are set up for life. There are no bounds and checks within the system. You can pretend you are studying while staying at home and procrastinating, that you will still receive all the perks that come with the territory. You can have houses and stock outside this country and still qualify for thousands of crowns of monthly benefits. You can live with a partner in your house and still qualify for help with your rent as if you were single. Even in my original country this would be called a scandal. Here it is called living la vida loca.

Now, you would think that these people would keep a low profile wouldn’t you? Wrong. That demands shame. But shame is the first casualty of inebriation as soon as you find out that here, in Sweden, you can get away with mostly anything. And if you dare to point it out you are insulted and even threatened.

But you know what is the greatest insult of all when one works hard, sometimes for more than twelve hours a day like I did just last week? It is when one of these persons turns to you and tells you that while we are appreciated for working a lot, you would even be more appreciated if you didn’t work as much. If there is a tale that reflects what is in the head of so many people on this country, this one is it.

Before, stories like these were not uncommon. We would hear about them from many different sources. They were part of the local folklore. But one thing is ear say, the other is witnessing it ourselves. And because of it, this time, I am vouching for change.

And what does vouching for change mean? In my view, it means to revolutionize the status quo.

• Stop using the public sector as a reward for loyalty in election time. It destroys productivity and breeds incompetence. The public sector is fat enough as it is, thank you very much.
• Rain down on benefit cheaters. By creating a culture of cheating you are hurting everybody in the long run and failing the people that are this country’s engine of success.
• A government can’t be held hostage to fringe parties with lunatic ideas on the path to take, specially when history showed many times over that they are a recipe for disaster.
• Bet on creating new jobs instead of keeping unemployed happily unemployed and making it even better to stay home and not move a finger.
• Help those who really need help. Invest money on tracking and helping the faceless and voiceless on our society.
• We need a real meritocracy, not a free for all merry’go’round that rewards incompetence, laziness and cheating.
• Give us some respect.

This sounds like a joke, a cruel joke on our account. On our account and on millions of faceless and voiceless people condemned to be oppressed by these and other criminal regimes. Incredibly, the Human Rights Council replaces the Human Rights Commission, in itself long considered to be a bad joke due to the awful rights record of its members. Yes, they were trying to improve the Commission, I kid you not.

Somehow the word nauseating keeps springing to mind.

To those who didn’t see the movie, the plot consists in the idea of machines from the future using a giant computer (the Matrix) to feed false sensory information to humans who live in vats. By “farming” humans, these machines can use them as power sources, or, in a nutshell, plain old batteries. The false sensory information allows the humans to believe they have normal lives, whatever that is. Neo is the central character of the movie, and is searching for a mysterious fellow called Morpheus (the Greek god of dreams). Neo also wants to know what is the Matrix. Of course that things aren’t that simple, and the machines try to keep Neo from getting his answers.

One single sequence defines the direction of the movie. After Neo finds Morpheus, he is given two pills to choose from, a red and a blue one. By selecting the red pill Neo will know exactly what the Matrix is by removing him from it. If he picks the blue pill things will simply be as before. This very compelling, yet seemingly innocent scene, actually illustrates one of the old age questions of philosophy: what is best, to live in ignorance (and bliss) or the pursuit of Truth, to lead what was called by Aristotle’s the “examined life”. As if to make a point, as Neo reaches for the red pill, Morpheus warns him – “Remember, all I’m offering is the truth. Nothing more.”.

This choice is faced by us in our daily lives. On one hand we have everything we love, gathered and built our life upon. On the other hand, a promise of truth. Consider also old habits vs. unknown. What we believe we know and are comfortable with vs. risk and doubt. And last, but not least, ignorance vs. knowledge. All painful decisions that touches us all more than once in our lifetimes.

A thematic the movie also touches is another philosophy classic – what constitutes reality? Is it just wiring in our brain? Chemical or electrical signals? And even if we can settle on what defines reality, who tells us the status quo is not reality? The scene in the movie where Mouse tastes chicken and proclaims “Now how did the machines know what Tasty Wheat tasted like, huh? Maybe they got it wrong. Maybe what I think Tasty Wheat tasted like actually tasted like, uh…Oatmeal or Tuna fish.” is in its own way paradigmatic.

Mouse is one movie character who went for the blue pill (and betrayed Neo and company). In this outcome we come cross one other interrogation. Is there a purpose in an ignorant existence? Isn’t ignorant existence merely existing? And if so, what is point? Because if we merely exist we are not more than mere objects, with utility and purpose, but no meaning. Existence without meaning is not living life, simply experiencing it. It is being a human in a vat.

In the end The Matrix puts forward many interesting questions that are not apparent to the casual viewer. Acknowledging that what guides mankind is truth and knowledge, we should be thankful that there are people who choose the red pill. Truth and knowledge is to our civilization what the carrot is to the stubborn donkey.

We, common folks, shouldn’t worry though. Even if the word Judas stops having the same unambiguity and we can’t use it anymore to name the guilty of betraying with kisses in our midst, there are other candidates.

Mind the last canto of Dante’s The Divine Comedy: The Inferno, canto 34. Dante and Virgil meet Lucifer, the great Satan himself. In the mouths of his three monstrous heads lie three people, three souls:

“That soul up there which has the greatest pain,”
The Master said, ” is Judas Iscariot;
With head inside, he plies his legs without.

Of the two others, who head downward are,
The one who hangs from the black jowl is Brutus;
See how he writhes himself, and speaks no word.

And the other, who so stalwart seems, is Cassius.
But night is reascending, and ’tis time
That we depart, for we have seen the whole.”

So, we can still count with good ol’ Brutus and Cassius, two of the most influential sinners in the history of man. Not bad. Not bad at all.

This message is brought to you in collaboration with your friendly “weather complaints” department.

The equality minister Jens Orback got in the International Women’s Day bandwagon this 8th of March, and as he has been accustoming us, managed to keep the undivided attention of his anal retentive crowd while making the rest of us frown and laugh. Accompanied by lovely Margareta Winberg, a well known apparatchik nominated for life for the Razzie like award of the most dubious remarks about women men and equality, Jens came up with an amazing idea. Sweden, apparently, needs a gender equality agency. Brilliant Jens, you are the man. Because it is not as if there isn’t another equality agency already, like, say, the one slammed for being unequal. But this is a minor nitpick, as, after all, what are our taxes for if not to create agencies and populate them with fat, Aftonbladet armed lazy cats sharing the same political body odor?

But Jens is rarely happy with himself. No doubt inspired by Margareta and the by now ubiquitous roars of the crowd, he had to add with a serious face that, oh, well “Sweden is uncivilized”. And he continues – “Women are abused, get salaries based on their gender and become ill from the double work of home and job”. Newsflash to you Jens, women do not get salaries based on their gender, they get them mostly because they make the wrong choices for their careers and settle on a downward spiral of part time jobs when they have children. Don’t believe me? I can do the homework for you.

A firm believer you must be on the “no personal responsibility, always blame someone, preferably a man” rule must have difficulties accepting this, but people can’t simply go about their lives making bad decisions and then expect no consequence of it. Sounds unfair doesn’t it? Quite bothersome indeed. By the way Jens, isn’t your party still running the show in Sweden? Then with so many women working for the state – you are after all the biggest employer in this country, and of women in particular – why but oh why don’t you just fix that?

A last point, Jens. I take exception in your comment that one of the biggest problems facing Swedish women is their dependence upon men. Geee, is this our fault too? I don’t know where you live, but the country where I live is everything but uncivilized. It is a democratic country where no one forces anything on anyone. On the other hand I do see pretty desperate women dreaming sordid ways to be dependent on men, disregarding dignity and common sense for the warm lure of “comfort”. But now that you mention it, where can one find a real independent woman? This is an honest question, as I would kill for one. Maybe at the FI parade, old and new? Surely not, as even Susanne Linde, one of its founders, brazenly remarked when caught dabbling with benefit fraud: “No, my husband deals with the tax declaration”.

Jens, I can summarize everything I just said in two words: get real. Please learn when to stop blowing hot air. I am having the feeling that you are part of the Swedish plan to be completely oil free by 2020. In a lab somewhere in this country (Kiruna would be my first guess) scientists must be laboring day and night in ways to use all the hot air you and your Social Democrat ilk blow. But as environmentally safe blowing hot air is, it is an insult to people’s intelligence nevertheless.

Want to commemorate the International Women’s Day in style? The trick is to help women achieve their full potential, and make the right decisions. Every time you go around using those same stale excuses for women and perpetuating the same old myth of a patriarchal society bent on putting women on their place, whatever that place is, women geniuses are being lost to a life of indifference. And you know who is the biggest loser? Not women, but the entire world.