Author: Bruce Bawer
Publication: The New York Sun
Date: December 8, 2006
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/44831
The approach of the New Year and departure
of the old inevitably brings a flurry of "year's best" lists. This
even applies to nations, which some organizations make it their business annually
to rank in order of wealth, quality of life, and what-have-you.
Surprisingly often, the Nordic countries come out on top. This placement is
usually a reflection less of objective reality, however, than of the list-makers'
enthusiasm for the Nordic welfare-state model. The criteria, in other words,
are formulated in such a way that the Nordic countries will inevitably end
up on top. Hence Norway, for example, is repeatedly named by the United Nations
as the world's richest country - forget that prices and taxes are so high
that even business executives lunch on dry sandwiches brought from home in
aluminum foil.
Now it's Sweden's turn. The Economist Intelligence
Unit, associated with the Economist magazine, has awarded the title of world's
most democratic country to Sweden. For many observers, this is not only wrong
- it's staggeringly, outrageously misinformed.
Sweden is, after all, a country in which the
people are fed by their political, press, and intellectual establishment an
unvarying diet of propaganda promoting the socialist welfare state, demonizing
Israel, and whitewashing Islam. As for America, the official view was neatly
captured in a post-September 11 editorial in the nation's largest newspaper,
Aftonbladet, which assured readers that the terrorists who attacked New York
and Washington weren't Sweden's enemies but simply hated " U.S. imperialism,"
a reasonable position given that "the U.S. is the greatest mass murderer
of our time." Such views, taught in Sweden's classrooms and enshrined
in Sweden's state-approved schoolbooks, are reiterated daily by Sweden's mainstream
press organizations, all of which are either government-owned or government-subsidized.
Dissent is powerfully discouraged. In Sweden,
whose murder rate is currently twice that of America and where Muslims now
constitute over 10% of the population and are disproportionately unemployed
and prone to violence, the Swedish press routinely depicts America as crime-ridden.
Polls show that the majority of Swedes are deeply disturbed by their country's
dramatic social changes and highly critical of the policies that brought them
about. Yet the crime and violence generally go unreported, so only rarely
does any of the criticism seep into the press. Though two-thirds of Swedes
question whether Islam is compatible with Western society, this issue is simply
not open for public discussion.
To quote Jonathan Friedman, a New Yorker who
teaches social anthropology at the University of Lund, "no debate about
immigration policies is possible" because Sweden's "political class,"
which controls public debate, simply avoids the topic. Recently, the city
of Stockholm carried out a survey of ninth-grade boys in the predominantly
Muslim suburb of Rinkeby. The survey showed that in the last year, 17% of
the boys had forced someone to have sex, 31% had hurt someone so badly that
the victim required medical care, and 24% had committed burglary or broken
into a car. Sensational statistics - but in all of Sweden, they appear to
have been published only in a daily newssheet that is distributed free on
the subways.
Instead of reporting on such worrisome findings,
politicians and the press alike focus on the evils of America and Israel.
Last year, for instance, Sweden's state-owned TV network ran a series of "documentaries"
about America that included Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine."
Viewers were protected from the fact that it had been shown to contain lies
and fabrications. The series also included a sympathetic account of Stalin's
atomic spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, whom Swedish TV described as having
been executed not for history's most colossal act of treason but "for
their Communist sympathies," and something called "Why We Fight,"
which explained America's military actions as motivated by the avarice of
military contractors.
Swedish book publishing is similarly unbalanced.
Recently Michael Moynihan, an American writer based in Stockholm, toted up
the English-language political books that had been translated into Swedish
since September 11. His long list included several works apiece by Noam Chomsky
and Michael Moore, plus volumes by the communist historian Eric Hobsbawm,
the anti-American journalist John Pilger, and the "Holocaust industry"
critic Norman Finkelstein. On the entire list, only one author was not a leftist.
When voices of dissent do break through in
Sweden, they're often punished. During the runup to the Iraq war, the Swedish
government censured the independent TV channel TV4 for running an "Oprah"
episode that presented both pro- and anti-war arguments. TV4 was charged with
violating press-balance guidelines when in fact its offense was being too
balanced - it had exposed Swedish viewers to ideas from which journalists
had otherwise shielded them.
Only one sizable party in the country, the
Sweden Democrats, articulates most Swedes' concerns about their country's
immigration and integration policies. Again and again, it has been the object
of breathtakingly undemocratic treatment by the political establishment. Earlier
this year, for example, the government closed down the Sweden Democrats' Web
site because it had published a cartoon of Muhammad. Stig Fredriksson, head
of the free-speech organization Publicistklubben, complained bitterly. But
the incident was hardly reported in Sweden - and, of course, barely caused
a ripple abroad. If the Bush administration had closed down a Democratic Party
Web site¸ there would be scare headlines and editorials thundering about
dictatorship - and rightly so. But when Sweden's rulers did it, it was apparently
acceptable - because they did it in the name of political correctness.
Sweden Democrats have been the targets of
events that recall China's Cultural Revolution. Staged "people's protests"
by members of the "youth divisions" of other parties have led to
the firing of Sweden Democrats from their jobs. A few weeks ago, a junior
diplomat was dismissed when it became known that he was a member of the party
and had criticized his country's immigration policy. On several occasions,
thugs loyal to the ruling parties have broken up Sweden Democratic meetings
and beaten up party leaders. And this is a nation in which a party led by
an admitted communist was, in recent memory, part of the ruling coalition.
The Sweden Democrats enjoy considerable public
sympathy. But given Sweden's oppressively conformist political climate, that
sympathy is of necessity largely sub rosa. Mr. Friedman has suggested that
one reason why the party has no seats in Parliament is that Swedish elections
aren't really secret - other people at the polling place can look at your
ballot and see which party you support. The stigma attached to voting for
the Sweden Democrats is just that strong. Another reason is that the major
parties have worked together vigorously to keep the Sweden Democrats out of
the public square. The success of this collaborative effort is reflected in
the fact that Sweden is the only major Western European country whose legislature
contains not a single representative of a party critical of its immigration
policies.
In 1972, the British historian Roland Huntford
titled his book about Sweden "The New Totalitarians." He is echoed
by a number of observers today who describe Sweden as an example of "soft
totalitarianism." Are they right? That's a matter for debate - though
it's a debate that won't take place in Sweden.
Mr. Bawer is the author of "While Europe
Slept" and lives in Oslo, Norway.