The Rational Humanitarians 79
Needless to say, the Svenssons owe much of their dominance to the Social Democrats. For forty-four years, from 1932 to 1976, the country was governed by the Svenssons
for the Svenssons. The only major deviations from the Svenssons’ credo that the Social Democrats stood for were international concerns, the liberal treatment of immigrants, and generous leaves to imprisoned criminals.
The Svenssons feel a strong loyalty to what they call ”the real Sweden” —
that is, the country populated by their own kind. They would defend the country vigorously by military means, every far-flung region of it, and in their view, the high defense costs of armed neutrality are worthwhile. They distrust the Russians very much. They feel warm towards the Americans, but they do now love America, except perhaps its technology. They do not consider themselves to Europeans, and do not wish their country to have full membership in the European Community.
Mikael Karlsson is a twenty-year-old sales engineer in Stockholm. He wears a three-piece corduroy suit to work. The mortgage on his semidetached house affords him a sizable income tax deduction. He does not smoke, but when he offered pot for the first time at a party recently, he decided to try it. He owns a new stereo, a long double-breasted leather coat, and an old boat that he is in the process of outfitting. He has a friend who is trying to run his motorboat on methane gas. Together they sometimes play with the idea of using bacteria to extract gas from the marsh close to the friend’s summer cottage. Mikael doesn’t mind the economic risks of the project, but he is reluctant to enter into such far-reaching and demanding enterprises.
Mikael no longer buys Aftonbladet, the Social-Democratic evening paper. Instead, he subscribes to a boating magazine. He questions the merits of his well-paid but high-pressure job. He has told his wife that he thinks two children are absolutely enough. His mother lives alone in an apartment a half-hour’s drive from Mikael’s house, but he visits her only once a month at most. Somehow he fells that by paying his taxes, he is absolved of responsibility to there generations and to the needy.
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