Jerome,

I wonder if it's actually true that today's Scandinavian countries are
more communal than the US. One thing is certain: they are much more
equal societies with a much better-developed welfare state and - as
you have pointed out - their populations are healthier than the
American one.

At the same time, it seems that many Swedes lead quite isolated lives
and this may largely explain why the number of deaths from Covid-19 in
Sweden is not much higher despite the lack of a lockdown. The
percentage of people who live on their own is allegedly the highest in
the world in Sweden - 52% of households in Sweden were single-person
households in 2017
(http://www.euronews.com/2017/09/05/people-living-alone-europe-solo-living).
And it seems that many of these people have no contact with their
family members and at the best only very superficial contact with
neighbours etc.

A few days ago I watched the 2015 documentary "The Swedish Theory of
Love" by Erik Gandini which addresses the problem of the extreme
social isolation of some Swedes. In the docu, we discover the stories
of two men who were living alone when they died. One of them had
accumulated a huge sum of money on his bank accounts, but had not been
in touch with his only child (his daughter) for many years and had no
friends. Another man was found dead in his apartment only when the
neighbours had noticed an unpleasant smell; he took his own life. And
again, he did not stay in touch with any family members and had no
friends.

The docu also suggested that many Swedish women actually prefer to use
sperm donors instead of getting involved in a relationship. Of course,
this is only a documentary and the image of Sweden it depicts may be
distorted. However, the very high percentage of Swedes who now live on
their own is an undeniable fact - and probably at least some of them
don't socialize with others or only to a very limited extent.

Joanna






On Sat, May 16, 2020 at 4:09 PM Jerome Krase <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Sorry for all the typos:
>
> RE: Sweden, as well as other national cultures that differ from out own. Allow me to overgeneralize, but many Scandinavian cultures are communal, meaning the feeling that individuals are part of of a whole. This 'herd' instinct will result in a higher death toll, but a lower total societal-wide impact. Not unlike people volunteering to fight in a war to defend their nation. Another important factor is that the population is more prosperous, healthy, and better-served from the central government. In the same edition of the NYT there are stories about the response of the 1% to recover vs the 'rest of us' and the attitude of our government and oligarchs about who shall be served in a time of not so collective crisis. Frankly-speaking, if I felt that increasing my exposure (not committing suicide) would enhance my children and grandchildren's likelihood of survival, I wouldn't wear a mask. Given that our country is an everyone for itself nation.... no thanks!
>
> Jerome Krase, Ph.D.
> Emeritus and Murray Koppelman Professor
> Brooklyn College
> The City University of New York
> Seeing Cities Change: http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781409428787
> Website:  http://brooklynsoc.tumblr.com/
> Co-Editor Urbanities: http://www.anthrojournal-urbanities.com
> Editorial Bd. Cidades: http://cidades.dinamiacet.iscte-iul.pt/index.php/CCT/index
> Academic.Edu: http://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/JeromeKrase
> Editorial Bd. Visual Studies: http://visualsociology.org/journal.html
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Now you can check us out on Facebook

please go to..

https://www.facebook.com/Humanrightsandsocialjusticenow/

and tell all our friends..


thanks..