One of the interesting things about having a "public" business — in our case, we had a small gallery and gift store — in a place that gets a lot of visitors is that you get to talking to all sorts of people with all sorts of beliefs... political, financial, religious, philosophical and whatever else you might conjure up.
I'm typically cool with listening to all sorts of different viewpoints, provided they are shared in the interest of learning and understanding, rather than as some from of proselytizing or trying to impose a belief system on someone.
And then there are the "armchair experts" who think they know everything there is to know... but the have no actual "field experience.
You're Just a SOCIALIST!
Being Danish by birth and having lived in northern Europe till my 20s — and still having lots of relatives back in Denmark — I often hear some very interesting things when people discover where I am from.
One of the more common ones... typically offered up by those of more "conservative" (or "Libertarian") persuasions is that I must be — by definition — a "Socialist" or even a "Communist" because I am Danish and happen to believe The Nordic Model of societal structure actually has a lot to offer.
And it definitely has its share of flaws, as well.
But I digress.
People ask me — outright — questions like "Why is Denmark so socialist?" and I just want to shake my head and ask the person back "Do you even KNOW what that word MEANS?" and "why do you look at it like it's a virulent disease?"
Reminds me of an incident shortly after I arrived in the US for college, and someone replied to a statement I made with "Well, that's a COMMUNIST thing to say!"
All I could think — in that moment — was "That was an IGNORANT thing to say!"
Yeah, but What Is a Socialist?
Semantics offer an interesting area of human communication.
After 35 years of living in the US, there seems to be some definition of "Socialism" here that I don't understand. And believe me, I have sincerely tried to!
One theory I have is that "if a place has higher taxes than the US, it is socialist!" That seems to cover a lot of people's issues.
Another idea is that "if a place has more public services and focuses more on the common good than the US, it is socialist!"
Some seem to lean more towards "if a place has a bigger government than the US, it is socialist!"
A few — a little more "on the fringe" — seem to think that "if a place has more firearms control than the US, it is socialist!"
All in all, though, nobody seems quite able to home in on what they mean other than a generalized "I think this represents something I don't like and makes me slightly afraid and I don't understand... so therefore it is Socialist and EVIL!"
Often the phrase "my RIGHTS!" is strongly peppered into the conversation.
The whole thing is rather baffling to me as I have often felt far more "constricted" in the US during the 30+ years I have lived here than I ever did in Denmark.
Of course, the elephant in the room is that Denmark isn't actually socialist, at all! It's a Social Democracy," and actually very pro-business and free market.
Of course, many of these biases came to life during the years I lived in Texas... and I did a lot of explaining!
All I know is that I came from a nice place and we were free to do pretty much what we wanted.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great remainder of your weekend!
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Created at 2024-03-24 02:36 PDT
1112/2370
Yes, when I’m teaching my students about socialism, I insist on clear definitions. We adhere to the strict definition of socialism as “state ownership and control over the means of production.”
Spending a large portion of GDP on social programs is welfarism, NOT socialism. The two often go hand in hand, but not necessarily.
The big difference between socialism and not-socialism is entrepreneurship. State ownership and control of the means of production is antithetical to entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial action. And where there is no entrepreneurship there is no innovation and no economic growth. That’s the truth about socialism our young people need to learn.
I do find it interesting that many U.S. politicians who call themselves “Democratic Socialists” point to the Nordic countries as their “socialist model” but then promote policies that truly are socialist (and that would likely never be supported by the citizens of Denmark or Sweden or Norway).
I lived in Texas for many years where one of the popular political saying was "Don't confuse me with FACTS when my mind is already made up."
I am not sure how you experience this from the perspective of teaching, but it seems to me that simple curiosity about your world and your surroundings is often frowned upon in the US of A. Maybe a rewriting of the above idea as "Don't confuse me with REALITY when my doctrine has already been burned into my brain!"
Maybe that's unkind, but sometimes I just end up rolling my eyes at what some people insist is factural/real.
Ha, i can relate to that, some how... being born and "educated" in Switzerland. All i ever heard on the road... ah, you're swiss, how rich are you? hmmm.
In some countries they even gave me special permissions because i had a swiss passport.
I get that, about the passport. Same with Danish passports. I can go to many places without visa or special permissions that most other people can't... one of the highest "mobility scores" on the planet.
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