Swedish Politics - the People of Reality

Last week the surprised Swedes heard about something very intriguing. The Minister of Social Welfare, Göran Hägglund Christian Democrat, started to talk about the “People of Reality”. He claimed that certain sinister cultural elitist people, presumably on the left side of the political specter were making fun of what the People of Reality really thinks and enjoys. He said that this kind of discrimination and ridicule of this yet not clearly defined majority of the Swedish people, now had had it; enough was enough!

The People of Reality did not want art where they did not see what it represents. They did not want books that they did not understand and they did not want to listen to an intellectual cultural elite telling them that they were ignorant and narrow minded.

The concept of the People of Reality is indeed interesting. Exactly who are these people? As they are a majority, according to Minister Hägglund, they would be fairly easy to identify. A majority would consist of about 5 million people! So they are many! Is it everybody except those who are homosexuals, bisexuals, transsexuals, intersexuals, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Feminists, Communists, environmentalists, anarchists, socialists, human rights activists, anti-globalists, writers, journalists, directors, actors, poets, songwriters, Chess-players, Go-players, Social Democrats, Bicyclists, pedestrians and so on? … and slowly we will come down to the less than 4 percent of the Swedish voters, who actually vote for the Christian Democrats. And that… is a very small majority! In fact, it is so small that it in practice is an insignificant minority.

Minister Hägglund seems to remember a Swedish society that used to exist in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, where everybody was watching the same TV channel (in the two first decades), because it was only one available. There were only three Top-lists (in the end of the period) which contained pretty much the same sort of music. But Swedish society is very different today. If you like opera, you go to the opera. If you like to watch football, you go to a soccer-game. It is your choice! It is up to you! As Hägglund has been helpful in implementing these policies you would expect that he understand them as a concept...

But Minister Hägglund has sadly enough missed this important point. He seems to identify the cultural elite with the Swedish authorities in the 1950s and 1970s, who actually could tell people, from time to time, to do this and that. The cultural elite of today don’t have that ability. And he has also missed the evident fact that he, as a Minister in the Swedish Government is the ELITE. So who is telling who what to do?

An interesting observation in this context is that the mostly sold fiction writers in Sweden today is largely consisting of leftist cultural elite intelectuals. So how come Swedes buy their books? Is there a conspiracy going on that threatens to brain-wash the poor Swedish people? Is this why Minister Hägglund's voters seems to look for other political parties to vote for in the up-coming election next year? They are being indoctrinated, bullied and ridiculed. so now is the time for retaliation...