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The Swedish Democrats made a brilliant choice in 2018, especially in southern Sweden. The crown of work was the victory in Hörby, an old market in central Skåne. Victoria Benedictsson’s husband was once the postmaster, Hörby was the basis for her writing, and now SD would make this place famous again.
But it hasn’t gone so well. The scandals have replaced each other. City employees have resigned on the assembly line. One of the heaviest, former social director Eva Klang Vänerklint, explains that Swedish Democratic politicians not only lack knowledge of how to run a municipality. His actions are also characterized by “contempt for knowledge and a stubborn view of the excellence of his own conclusions” (DN 15/10).
This is a feature that not only suits the municipal men of Hörby. That’s Donald Trump on point! There are also hordes of other far-right politicians around the world today.
Try the word: contempt for knowledge.
The scandals in SD-controlled Hörby have replaced each other.
Photo: Johan Nilsson / TT
Leading politicians feel Instead of solid knowledge and proven experience, they are free to put their own spontaneous, more or less prejudiced opinions at the center. Trump understands Covid-19 better than anyone. One day he rejects it, it is harmless. The second day, it is a Chinese conspiracy. On the third day, he himself suffers, survives, and comes out as his own hero.
Among the Swedish Democrats in Hörby, the professional knowledge of salaried employees is of no value. Everything that is important to govern a municipality is already known.
Contempt for knowledge is spreading across the board. The best-known example is, of course, distrust of theories about ongoing climate change and man’s role in it. Here, the denial of the obvious that the Earth’s atmosphere is warming is fatal. The men who control the destiny of the world praise fossil fuels, and the big companies that earn large sums from their emissions demonstrate in word and in fact that they do not believe one bit in the abundance of facts and lines of development that experts have pointed out .
This belief is also widespread among ordinary people, encouraged by politicians who prefer to believe in their own feelings than in dry facts. Sweden’s Democrats don’t want to know about any climate change, at least not in Sweden, and even if both moderates and Christian Democrats talk about the investigation, they are willing to emphasize that crime is our biggest problem. The question of fate diminishes, and prominent representatives of these parties constantly come forward and express their own opinion that the alleged climate change is a huge scam.
It’s no surprise This distrust of science is greatest among supporters of the three Swedish right-wing parties. The American media institute Pew Research Center recently conducted a survey on trust in researchers from different countries. It turns out that dislike is higher among supporters on the right or on the left. Polarization is relatively strong in Sweden.
But of course there are also skeptics on the left, this is just a question of trends. And wherever one finds mistrust in safe and scientifically based knowledge, it is due to the inability to distinguish between two important concepts, knowledge and opinion.
An opinion is your own, preferably personal, approach to something, be it moral questions, social problems, questions about what is beautiful or ugly, religious beliefs or worldviews. In a democracy, it is good that as many people as possible can develop their opinions in the most nuanced and thoughtful way possible. This is how opinions are formed, opinions that can influence political decisions about everything from schools and communities to urban landscape and landscape management.
But opinions, never so well developed, are not knowledge. A perception is based on knowledge of a specific area. In a society and a world where knowledge is extremely specialized, we have different degrees of understanding. We got some early, like the earth is round, 2 + 2 = 4, and Sweden, a country in northwestern Europe. Others came later, perhaps in vocational training or on the job. But in most areas, we need to seek specialists to get at least a basic idea of the facts.
Just think of the Nobel Prize in physics, chemistry and medicine. Those who really have the exclusive knowledge necessary to fully understand what hepatitis C, a genetic scissors, or a black hole is, can enlighten the rest of us. How much we really understand depends on what we have previously learned. With a little effort, you can wander a bit down the road.
It has been an ideal since the Enlightenment in the 18th century that as many people as possible should have at least basic knowledge in various fields of knowledge. That is why the academies of science were founded (also the one that now awards the Nobel Prize), why the school was open to everyone, and why folkbildning became such an important topic, especially in Scandinavia.
Fully developed democracy presupposes not only that we have all developed opinions, but also that we have at least a basic understanding of what is important to society and the world in which we live. It is essential for a healthy democracy.
Knowledge and opinions are not mutually exclusive; on the contrary, I certainly have strong opinions on what I have decent knowledge. The crucial thing is to be able to see the difference between one and the other. In 2020, I will become ignorant and stupid if I question man-made climate change. It would be ridiculous if, without professional medical knowledge, I believe that I can contribute my own opinion in the ongoing research process on SARS-CoV-2.
How to understand then that so many reject well-founded knowledge? Recently, the role of postmodernism has been discussed. It was introduced in the late 20th century and was characterized by deep skepticism towards accepted truths of various kinds. But how deep did its influence go? Wasn’t it in itself rather a symptom of an ongoing radical change?
I remember how the young students of the 90s and 2000s were characterized by a striking relativism. Someone “thought” like that, someone “thought” like that, regardless of the factual support he had for his opinion. Wasn’t this lax attitude driven by a school and a society where other things were more important than actual knowledge? Perhaps a society where it was easier to present flexible arguments?
Today, many professors also testify about students who can elegantly argue for something in an area, no matter what, where they are obviously the right rudis in knowledge. In short, they are as rich in opinions as they are poor in knowledge.
As schools become increasingly segregated and economic inequality grows, respect for knowledge is not promoted. Those born on the sunny side of society must learn to slide into a suitable career, while the most disadvantaged of fate must find their way to the precarious periphery of working life.
Photo: Jonas Ekströmer / TT
Is saying that they themselves growing inequality has now become the subject of debate on the right. One of the think tanks, Ratio, lets us know that the growing gaps in Sweden are fair. The nation’s growing billionaires have a fortune that matches their abilities. Contrary to this view, the new head of another better-known think tank, Timbro, Benjamin Dousa, states on Twitter: “Inequality in Sweden is, in principle, driven by asylum and relative immigration in combination with integration total failed “.
Ratio obviously expresses an opinion. There is no measure of the degree of “entrepreneurship” to which the smithy refers. Benjamin Dousa, instead, makes a claim on today’s society, a claim that is clearly false. Immigration has not helped the number of Swedish billionaires rise rapidly, and many with deep roots in Sweden, mainly in rural areas, have at the same time worsened.
Benjamin Dousa’s statement, on the other hand, is exactly in line with the vision of the Swedish Democrats for a long time, a vision that both Christian Democrats and moderates have grown closer and closer to.
It is a grim situation. At the same time, it shows that we, who still have respect for knowledge, must put up as much resistance to the ongoing stupidity as we can. Talk! To write! Protest!
It’s never too late.
