Interesting article but I think it makes several fatal flaws. What is it that allows people in Sweden to live the way they’re living? Could it be that the reason why they’re able to live the way they live is because they’re surrounded by so many systems which don’t have a “simple life” view of things? Maybe countries like the United States and its constant striving for more allows Sweden to be less concerned with constant striving. If America or other Western countries adopted the Swedish way of thinking, maybe Sweden would have to change and become more like the system it contrasts with.
You also assume that people who are striving for more can’t possibly be happy in the state they’re in. Which is a fairly broad generalization about what makes people happy and what doesn’t.
Finally, you assert that external parameters are driving people’s interest in money or the need to constantly strive for more. You don’t consider that there are internal motivations people have which don’t necessarily have anything to do with other people and what they have. Wanting something is not driven by an external force requiring you to want things. People want food because it allows them to continue to function and they don’t like it when they don’t have it because it causes them to die.
That’s not external. Neither is the drive to acquire money so that you can continue to get food. People can’t grow their own food and live completely autonomously from everyone else. They need other people to do it for them. So it’s not driven by an external parameter.
I think the problem is deeper than just the ambition of making money. The problem is in credits, loans and mortgages. The only way to wed people to the financial control of the institutions is by giving them what they don’t have and then make them slave to repay in interest. This is the elaborate mechanism of modern slavery. Thanks for writing this piece Rufat and also for your kind words for Berkana.
Interesting article but I think it makes several fatal flaws. What is it that allows people in Sweden to live the way they’re living? Could it be that the reason why they’re able to live the way they live is because they’re surrounded by so many systems which don’t have a “simple life” view of things? Maybe countries like the United States and its constant striving for more allows Sweden to be less concerned with constant striving. If America or other Western countries adopted the Swedish way of thinking, maybe Sweden would have to change and become more like the system it contrasts with.
You also assume that people who are striving for more can’t possibly be happy in the state they’re in. Which is a fairly broad generalization about what makes people happy and what doesn’t.
Finally, you assert that external parameters are driving people’s interest in money or the need to constantly strive for more. You don’t consider that there are internal motivations people have which don’t necessarily have anything to do with other people and what they have. Wanting something is not driven by an external force requiring you to want things. People want food because it allows them to continue to function and they don’t like it when they don’t have it because it causes them to die.
That’s not external. Neither is the drive to acquire money so that you can continue to get food. People can’t grow their own food and live completely autonomously from everyone else. They need other people to do it for them. So it’s not driven by an external parameter.
I think the problem is deeper than just the ambition of making money. The problem is in credits, loans and mortgages. The only way to wed people to the financial control of the institutions is by giving them what they don’t have and then make them slave to repay in interest. This is the elaborate mechanism of modern slavery. Thanks for writing this piece Rufat and also for your kind words for Berkana.