Socialist, not Collectivist

Okay, I think I'm going to get into some dangerous territory here, because I'm going to throw out some generalisations about Norwegian society. I know, I know - I'm clearly an expert, because I've been here all of 21 whole days, but I feel like some things are clicking into place. Please, don't be insulted - if I'm completely out to lunch, let me know.

The idea that Norwegian society is socialist is "common knowledge" - the pension plans, the free education, the high taxes, the subsidies... I mean, there was a case in 2004 where the courts here ordered the government to purchase a car for a man who was too short to ride public transit. ...Not because he couldn't physically use the transit, but because riding on public transit exposed him to traumatic memories of being ridiculed for his height on the school bus as a child. I'm not going to debate the merits of that case, but I think that it demonstrates the accomodations the state feels it must make to provide a social safety net. Another aspect of this is the pension system. This is the sort of sacred cow that the health care system is in Canada (only because there is no sense, here, of any threat or other option to their socialised medicine). Under the Norwegian pension framework, every worker expects to receive, when he/she retires, presuming he/she worked long enough, and at a full-time job, a significant salary from the government's pension funds. By "significant", I mean that the "pension salary" is enough to provide full necessities of life, at significantly above the poverty line.

Anyway, those features, among many others, confirm the label that many people apply to many European (but particularly Scandinavian) countries - "Socialist". However, there is another, seemingly contradictory, aspect here, as well.

That is the individualistic nature of life here. For example, while the government controls alcohol sales through their monopoly, and taxes it very highly, many, many people make their own. While the government subsidises public transit, almost everyone has a car. While the government encourages physical fitness, the sports of choice are individual ones (skiing, speed skating, ski jumping), rather than team ones (say, hockey, or even soccer - though they clearly follow soccer, and play it, it's not nearly the magnitude of many other European countries). I think that this is shown in many of the national heroes, who are often individualistic explorers, people who were the first to ski solo to the north pole, or first to do this or that - rather than people who do things like found movements, or even lead political parties. Norwegian society clearly respects entrepreneurship, and there are successful international businesses everywhere - far more than the population should be expected to generate.

...so Norway is an interesting study in contradictions. It seems to have found its own, successful answer to a number of problems - I don't mind voting for a socialist system, and high taxes in general - but don't get in the way of me going hiking, starting a business, clubbing a seal, or making wine in my bathroom.

Speaking of which, the wine production is complete, but the wine needs to be filtered now. Our supplier of winemaking equipment (the elderly gentleman in the store called "PartyMan") is inexplicably closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Therefore, filtration on Thursday. ...Unless we want to drink something that is currently about the consistency of tomato juice. Still, we tasted it. I hope the filtering improves it - Kes assures me that it will.

Cheers,

Ashley