The Jante Law

[Lupu]

Here are the ten rules of the Jante law:

1. Don't think you're anything special.
2. Don't think you're as good as we.
3. Don't think you're smarter than we.
4. Don't convince yourself that you're better than we.
5. Don't think you know more than we.
6. Don't think you are more important than we.
7. Don't think you are good at anything.
8. Don't laugh at us.
9. Don't think anyone cares about you.
10. Don't think you can teach us anything.

These rules aren't actual rules made for any purpose, but a list that represents a group mentality that has been(is?) common in scandinavian countries. The point being, the individual isn't really worth anything. If you stand out, you fall out.
Reading it the first time it seems like a set of rules made to weaken and demoralize the individual's worth. Something completely negative, like just plain writing out: "You are worthless". Are you worthless? There are so incedibly many people in the world that it's easy to think so. Look at the population clock, if you die, it isn't even worth noting because so many more get born. That's often the first kind of thought one gets from reading the Jante law. Looking at it that way, it's just a different form of the same negativity that is easily encountered today. "You won't reach anything, look at the statistics!"
That, I think isn't the real point of the Jante law, though. A better way to understand it is to look at the military(professional military here). People don't join the military to become heroes, they get assigned numbers and do their jobs. Everything is strictly under rules and standarized. Why? It's the most effective, and pity the ones who still have that great, adventurous and heroic feelings about the military. From professionals, the most common thing to hear is that it's a job. Anyone looking to join the military for personal glory, empowerment and ability to show off flashy medals and battle reports should wake up from their romantisized dream and find something better to do. If you try to stand out in the military, you're out.
That is of course only thinking in favour of the collective, and that's how society works. Most people end up doing normal jobs and mabe your neighbor earns a little more than you. If you stand out you break with this harmonic society, you don't fit in anymore. You're not a common worker, you're not what produces what society needs. True heroes stand in line, we cannot have a just society without people being on one level! Enough rambling, does this sound familiar? The few over the many, etc. We are on the way into a system that fights class division, but only because class division is artificial. We don't have to be communists to create a just society.
Who are the heroes of today? They aren't upperclass, they are classless, they are people. We don't look up to the blue blood knight anymore, we look up to people who have done great things. Those people don't stay in line, but they continue being people. And that's the good thing about remembering a little from the Jante law. As a rule for how society works, a ruleset that promotes standing out will create conflict and class division, creating extreme applications of things similar to the Jante law, like communism.
The leftovers we have of the Jante law is the belief in equality. One can do things better than others, but one cannot be better than others.

What I'm trying to say is that the rules of the Jante law are not artificial and still do and should aplly in different ways today.


Edit: Sorry if this reads like crazy rambling, make the best of it.

Edit 2: Does this even make sense? I don't remember what I was thinking when I started writing this. And no, I'm not high, I'm just half-asleep.

[SPECTREtm]

I hate it... Simply put.

[Logios]

You make sense Lupo, I just don't agree to the Jante Law as a valid concept. IMO it is just something ambitious but unsuccesful scandinavians whine about. I heard the cry for the wolf too many times.
There is a similar, recent thread about this in the travellers lodge section.

[Lupu]

I reread it now, being a little more awake. OK, It does make sense, but it's still just brainstorming out of control. The real thing I wanted to discuss is what we can learn from this.

And for the law not applying. It was written as part of a book to critisize culture in small communities in scandinavia. It was supposed to be something purely negative, resent for individual achievement, self confidence and all that. Eventually leading to murder in some way(I don't know, because I haven't read it, just about it). It is true that it doesn't work that way anymore, and I agree that blaming things on the jante law is stupid. Something less extreme is still part of scandinavian(at least Norwegian) culture, though. Many people don't accept talking about salaries or achievements. Being half German, I notice that it's much more difficult to not seem like boasting in Norway than in Germany(as boasting is a bad thing, supposedly). In Norway we also have this system where everyone can check what other people own in money, have earned and pay in taxes.

[Kjertesvein]

Lupu, your rant is full of , and don't think your better then any of us. (ahhh, the fresh smell of positive Norwegian spirit giving complimentsHa ha h). To the point. Let me talk about your writing as well as my concern for the

No, no, it's not that bad actually, but I can't find any consistency in your conclusions.You sort of jump from one subject to the other. You need to clearly define your point. Then focus on the problems over and over. Open the wound, and let us see the problems until we can see words that give us a metaphorical representation of your concern. Then sum it all up. A rant on the other hand is sort of like cherry picking things that pop into your head 3AM trivial time, and it's rearly any good.

My issue with the Jante Law is the current antonym trend. The Jante Law's self-dissolvement period were every one are better and there is no such word as quality.

~Wille

[Lupu]

As said, I don't really remember what I was thinking when I began writing it. If you want to discuss the opening post, there isn't any more to say than that. Reminds me of that Jon Fosse "stream of conciousness" writing that they made us read at school, only with punctuation.