Death of a Swedish family

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Sweden is going through a crisis of the institution of the family. This is the result of the long-term policy of the Social Democratic Party's government, the goal of which was to gain complete control over society.

A wealthy society of dying alone

Sweden is known for its super concerns (Volvo, Erickson, Ikea, Saab) and large-scale social programs aimed at supporting vulnerable sectors of society. The share of gross domestic product spent, for example, on welfare for the elderly and the elderly is the highest in the world. There is free medical care. About 80% of income taxes go to financing health care.

But there are other statistics as well. In the Swedish capital Stockholm, 90% of the dead are cremated, 45% of the urns are not taken by relatives. The vast majority of funerals take place "without ceremony." The crematorium workers do not know whose remains are specifically burned, because on the urns there is only an identification number. For economic reasons, the energy from the burnt waste bins is optionally included in the heating of your own home or in the heating system of the city.

The lack of funeral ceremonies is only part of the general tendency to break off sensory and emotional ties in many Swedish families. The editor of the Swedish edition Nyliberalen Heinrich Beike, explaining the reasons for the phenomenon, notes: “The family became the target of the attacks of the socialists, since by its nature it acts as an organization that is an alternative to state institutions of guardianship. The family is called upon to protect the person. When he has problems, for example, lack of money or poor health, a person can always turn to relatives for help. The Swedish state has been striving for decades to break these family relationships and ties - helping each person directly, and thus making him dependent on himself."

The right course

It's hard to believe, but even before the early thirties of the last century, Sweden was a poor agrarian country, whose subjects massively emigrated in search of a better life. Sweden managed to get rich during the Second World War thanks to its cautious policy of "double standards". Despite its formal neutrality, it provided loans to fascist Germany, supplied its own weapons and was the largest supplier of iron ore for the needs of the German military industry. Under the leadership of social democracy, a series of reforms were implemented in the 1940s and 50s, which together laid the foundations for the Swedish welfare state. The long period of hegemony of the Social Democrats was interrupted by the economic crisis of the early 70s, and since 1976 cabinet changes have become more frequent.

Today, the opposition Social Democracy has a new leader, 55-year-old Stefan Leuven, head of the metalworkers' union who worked as a welder. Interestingly, in Sweden, famous for its high level of education and its accessibility (funding for universities is 80% from the state budget), Stefan Leuven became the fourth party leader without higher education. Göran Persson was even prime minister (1996-2006). Apparently, in Sweden, the educational level of politicians is not given much importance (according to research, it is the lowest in Europe). Here it is considered normal that the Minister of Agriculture is a farmer and the Minister of Health is a doctor. The government (and this is enshrined in the Constitution) only determines the directions, and central government agencies govern the country.

It becomes more and more difficult for them to do this. The general economic crisis and its own problems are also influencing. Sweden is getting old. The average life expectancy is 78.6 years for men and 83.2 years for women. The share of the population aged 80 and over reached the highest rate among the EU member states - 5.3%. Of the 9.3 million people in Sweden, 18% are people over 65. According to forecasts, by 2030 their share will increase to 23%.

“If we want our pension to be equivalent to the present in the future, we have to work longer,” said Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt at a Nordic forum on February 9, 2012 in Stockholm. "Taking into account the decline in the birth rate, you need to retire at the age of 75, otherwise we will repeat the Greek scenario."

Plastic parents

In Sweden, one in four children has roots outside of it (according to the official gazette (www.sweden.se). Most often they are from Iraq or the former Yugoslavia. A whole generation of such Swedes has already grown up. Therefore, a wide variety of nationalities and races are accustomed here.

Of the children born in Sweden, 60% are illegitimate. 20% are brought up by one parent. Young people are in no hurry to formalize relationships - they “grind” in civil marriages, called sambo - when couples live together, and serbo - when they live separately. By the number of people registered annually

38 thousand legalized relationships - 31 thousand divorces. On average, each of the spouses has three marriages, which means that the child has a huge number of relatives and several parents. They are called "plastic parents". The state even finances research that should prove the positive impact of this type of relationship on children: passing from one parent to another after the next divorce, children gain life experience and experience of social relations that will be useful to them in adulthood.

Since the addresses "stepmother" or "stepfather" are associated with not very pleasant associations (here they also know the story of Cinderella), the Swedes decided to use the substitute definitions "parent one" and "parent two". It is also established for reasons of gender equality. Breaking stereotypes about the roles of men and women in society is the main task of the nationwide preschool education program. The methods sometimes seem too radical to the rest of the world. So, a kindergarten opened in 2010 in Sodermalm, Stockholm district, became a sensation. Employees of the institution replaced “he” and “she” in Swedish, respectively, “han” and “hon”, with the asexual word “hen”, which is not in the classical language, but is used by homosexuals. Weaning off "gender stereotypes", instead of the usual fairy tales, children are read books in which, for example, two male giraffes were very worried that they could not have children until they found an abandoned crocodile egg.

Swedish family

According to the Swedish Association for Sexual Equality (RFSL), more than 40,000 children in Sweden have homosexual parents (or one parent). When in 1995 homosexual marriages were legalized in the country, the parliament approved that these would be purely civil marriages, and they would not be sanctified by the church. However, homosexuals also wanted to have this opportunity. The first concession was made: they were blessed, but without witnesses and refused to pray. But homosexuals wanted a complete ceremony and all "Mendelssohn". In 1998, a pan-European gay parade took place in Sweden. An exhibition by photographer Elizabeth Olson, who portrayed Christ and his apostles as homosexuals, also became a sensation. The exhibition was very popular, naturally, primarily among gays. One of the places where it took place was the pulpit of the Lutheran Church.

But real battles erupted in 2003-2004 after a speech by pastor Oke Green, who in his sermon condemned homosexual relationships, calling them sinful. He quoted Scripture passages claiming that the Bible very accurately defines homosexuality as a sin. To which the other camp responded: “The Bible did not descend to us from heaven, in itself is not a sign of God, does not answer all our questions. Questions that were relevant at the time of the writing of the Bible are not our questions. " For "disrespect for the sexual minority" the pastor was sentenced by the Court of First Instance to a month of imprisonment. The court of second instance acquitted him. In 2005, the case went to the Supreme Court, which found the pastor not guilty. This provoked a protest from gays, and threats against the pastor continue to be heard from them.

There will be more homosexual families, the RFSL organization predicts. This is facilitated by the adoption by the Swedish parliament of the law on the artificial insemination of lesbian couples. By law, lesbian women are entitled to in vitro fertilization at the expense of the state.

Interestingly, the RFSL report also informs that one in three cases of violence in Sweden occurs in a lesbian family. And although there is where to turn in such a situation, employees of institutions do not understand that women can beat each other, because it is believed that they are not aggressive by nature. The problem of violence also exists in male marriages.

“A huge change of mentality is taking place and a change of traditions is required. The traditional form of the family does not correspond to the realities of our time. New family relationships are needed, - from the interview of the activist of the youth branch of the Swedish Green Party Elina Aberg to the Polish edition of Wprost. "In our party, we talk, for example, about polygamous relationships as socially acceptable." The phenomenon is not new for Sweden. In the wake of the sexual revolution of the last century, there was already the experience of young people living in communes, which are called "collectives" in Swedish.

Untouchable

The Swedish state has assumed almost complete control over the upbringing of children. High taxes make it impossible to support a family on the same salary, and therefore, as a rule, both parents work, and the child is in school or other public care institutions during the day.

The Swedish government has created a special ombudsman institution to protect the rights and interests of children. There are a number of organizations: BRIS (Children's Rights in Society) - an emergency telephone and electronic line for children and adolescents; Friends ("Friends") - help if peers offend, etc.

Since 1979, there has been an absolute ban on corporal punishment of children. Parents cannot slap their child on the head with impunity, pull the ear or raise their voice to him. Beating a child faces 10 years in prison. Even from kindergarten, children have been informed in detail about their rights and the need to report such incidents to the police. And they use it. In the conflict between the interest of the child and the interest of the parent, the state takes the side of the child.

The story of a teenage girl who accused her stepfather of beating and sexual harassment received a lot of publicity. 12-year-old Agneta was simply angry with him for putting the kittens to sleep, and she wanted to leave them. She went to the police, instructing her three-year-old little sister what to say. Based on the testimony, the stepfather was detained and convicted. The mother, who did not believe her daughter, was deprived of parental custody. Agneta was transferred to a foster family. Three months later, the girl realized that she had done the wrong thing, tried to return her application and free her stepfather. But the legal machine is already spinning. In addition, no one took the girl's remorse seriously, because incest victims very often refuse their testimonies. It got to the point that the "victim" began to write to all sorts of instances, to the Attorney General in particular, where she described the whole story in detail, that her stepfather was innocent, that she had invented everything, and explained why. But the prosecutor did not intervene either.

Not only parents but also teachers have been denied the right to raise children. Until the eighth grade, students are not given grades, those who do not succeed are not left for the second year, and, of course, no one is kicked out of school. Students say “you” to the teacher, and they are not required to respond to the teacher's greetings. Teachers complain that classes are difficult to work with due to the chaos, noise and aggression in the classroom.

Social dictatorship

In Swedish law, there is no concept of parental authority in both the domestic and legal sense. There is no category of "parental right", there is "the right of custody and responsibility for the child", which, according to the law, are equally borne by the parents and the state. But the state believes that it is better able to take care of and educate, and therefore interferes in the family educational process. The main institution of this kind is the Central Council for Health and Social Welfare, which in Sweden is called "social". On average, 12,000 children are taken away from their parents every year. They do this with good intentions. The pretext can be "mistakes in upbringing", "mental underdevelopment of parents" and even "excessive custody."

So, Maryana Zigstroy was deprived of her parental rights, because she "took too much care" of her son Daniel, who was sick with epilepsy. The boy passed from family to family, his condition worsened. Daniel wrote to his mother about 40 letters asking for help, she turned to various social and government organizations, but to no avail. The son died, because during the attack, the next guardian simply did not know how to help him. Maryana Zigstroy has filed an accusation against the state. Lost in all instances. Moreover, the state obliged the woman to reimburse court costs in the amount of 1.5 million kroons.

In this regard, the famous Scandinavian writer and journalist of Polish origin Maciej Zaremba, imbued with the story of Maryana Zigstroy and unsuccessfully appealing for justice from the pages of Swedish publications, said in his hearts: “To call Sweden a state of law is a 'dark joke'. He also noted that the Swedish state, which took over the responsibilities of the family in the last century, is no longer able to perform these functions. Due to a lack of money, not only care centers are closed, but also schools and kindergartens. “And when the state model does not function, one has to rethink family values, willy-nilly: it is known that a mother threw herself under a train to save her child. But so far not a single social commission has done this.”