Counter-Currents
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,331 words
Until a few years ago, like most Americans, I knew very little about Sweden, apart from what I picked up through Strindberg and Ingmar Bergman films.
However, since I began working for Arktos, where most of my colleagues are Swedish, they will often regale me with tales about the multicultural, ethnomasochistic nightmare that their country has become. Their latest story, however, which has been receiving quite a bit of attention on the Internet, takes the cake – literally.
Last Sunday, April 15, the Swedish Minister of Culture, Lena Liljeroth, was invited to cut a cake to honor the 75th anniversary of the Swedish Artists’ Federation at the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm. That in itself sounds innocuous, until one sees the cake.
The cake itself was designed in the shape of an African tribal woman. In the “head” of the cake was an “Afro-Swedish” “performance artist” – I apologize for using so many quotation marks, but the irony is thick here – by the name of Makode Aj Linde, who would scream in mock pain whenever someone would cut into the cake. It turns out that this cake was intended to make Swedes more aware of the evils of female circumcision in Africa. The first piece was cut by the Minister herself, who proceeded to cut out a piece from the cake’s “naughty bits” (Linde himself referred to it as the cake’s “vagaga”) and feed it to Linde, apparently whispering, “Your life will be better after this,” to him as she did so.
Photos of the “performance” can be found on Facebook (under World Art Day), and a short video of it can be seen here:
Needless to say, as soon as the story reached the Swedish media, many began accusing the Minister of racism, with some calling for her to resign, including the African Swedish National Association. It seems unlikely that she will, however, since, after all, the event was for a “good cause,” and the artist who came up with the idea is himself African, effectively neutralizing any possible objection which might arise, under the logic of multiculturalism. This didn’t stop the Museum from getting closed down on Tuesday when an English-speaking caller who contacted the institution said that he had planted a bomb in their building, in retaliation for their racism.
The bizarreness of this incident only proves how far the ideas of multiculturalism have infected our civilization. I say our civilization, since I could well imagine this same event happening, with the same result, in America. What immediately struck me about it is how closely it comes to what many liberals imagine those of us on the “radical Right” do in our spare time. (Recall the scene where a group of Whites hunt a Black man for sport in the 1988 film, Betrayed.) Yet here we have the supposed guardians of multiculturalism among the Swedish political and artistic elite indulging in the worst racial stereotypes imaginable (an African “tribal” woman, lying helpless while a crowd of rich White people torture her, cannibalize her and giggle), apparently contradicting the worldview they claim to uphold.
There are strong neo-colonialist overtones to this event which mark it as merely a continuation of the arrogance inherent in the ideology of multiculturalism as a whole. As Alain de Benoist eloquently explains in his book Beyond Human Rights, Western nations have made it their task in recent decades to rid the world of all injustice and evil, not just at home but throughout the world. This is why we bomb and invade countries these days in the name of protecting other peoples from their own governments. However, the very standards of Western liberalism arose from the very specific historical and cultural conditions of the West – therefore, is not the idea of enforcing an abstract set of Western “values” through military and economic force upon non-Western nations itself an imperialistic act? Certainly it is.
In the history of Western empires, the Romans and British, among others, conquered and ruled other peoples with the goal of exploiting them. But the fact is, they made little attempt to impose their values on these peoples – that wasn’t their primary goal. Today, however, liberals — I use that term in the broadest sense, to include both Republicans and Democrats, since in foreign policy there is little difference between them — want to reshape all the nations of the world to fit their idea of how they ought to be. Therefore, imperialism in the guise of multiculturalism and international law today, both military and commercial, is far more insidious and destructive than anything ever imagined in earlier times.
It is the essentially imperialistic nature of multiculturalism that causes these Swedish politicians and artists to appreciate the quaintness of a cake in the form of a stereotypical African woman. How nice those tribal women will be when they’re dancing for us, demonstrating their traditions to us vacuous European culture vultures! Let’s just get rid of that nasty genital mutilation, which we don’t like, and then everything will be fine, and they’ll look nice when we can watch them on the National Geographic channel, free from guilt. That is the ultimate goal of multiculturalism: to turn the world into a theme park, where we can “appreciate” the culture of others, as well as our own cultural past, like museum pieces, with anything in them that might threaten the prevailing ideology safely removed.
Guilt is an additional key to what is going on here. This event demands the question: why is it the duty of Swedes to worry about the fate of African genitalia at all? Unfortunately, it is perfectly consistent with the insane logic of Swedish multiculturalism as it has been explained to me by Swedes. Whether one agrees with its rationale or not, at least multiculturalism in the United States has some basis in reality, given its history of slavery and the treatment of the Native Americans. But Sweden is a country which never had any colonies and never had slavery. They haven’t even been involved in a war since Napoleon, unless one counts loaning some soldiers once in a while to join United Nations expeditions.
So what do Swedes have to feel guilty about? That’s a good question. As it’s been explained to me, apparently the very fact that Sweden is part of “the West,” and therefore part of the civilization which is responsible for all the evils of the world, is enough to make liberal Swedes loathe their own culture enough to feel the need to make things right for Africans – who are pouring in at the rate of 100,000 per year, into a country which only has a population of 9 million, approximately 2 million of which are already of non-Swedish origin. After all, how better to atone for the sins of one’s people than to welcome the tempest-tossed in with open arms? There’s nothing worth saving at home, anyway, right?
I could also comment on how a stunt such as this could be termed “art” in the first place, but most “modern art” ceased to be anything of value long ago, and that’s a theme for another essay. Most people accept it as an axiom these days, anyway.
How anyone who planned this event, including the Minister, could have thought it was a wise idea is beyond comprehension, and proves that they are either incredibly stupid, or else completely out of touch with reality, much like our own liberal elites. Apparently, the mere fact that a piece of art flatters one’s ideological preconceptions (anything done in the name of helping African women is good) makes it all right, no matter how ridiculous. The one thing that gives me some hope is the fact that everyone witnessing the “performance” in the video is laughing. On some level, perhaps they recognized how absurd this nightmarish dream of multiculturalism really is. If they did, then there might still be hope yet that they could wake up and return to sanity.
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16 comments
Sweden’s guilt seems to be particularly acute from my American vantage point. It’s really not easy to comprehend at all. There are so few of them and they seem to be teetering on the brink. Though all Europeans suffer from this guilt, I wonder why they (seem to) have such a hard time with any self-assertion in relation to say…Poles or Croats or even Germans (of all people)? (Again, this is how it seems from my vantage point.)
It’s really maddening to watch Europeans of any variety acting in such a deluded or cowardly way. As Morgan hinted at, American history gives our opponents a bit more firepower and given the proposition nature of our country’s history, it makes racial appeals seem like they’re more out of left field even in the eyes of someone that can quote Adams or Madison. I mean, it’s strange to say that blacks are not as American as whites (even if they arguably aren’t in a very particular sense of the word “American.”) But even pretending that a North African is just as French as a *real* French person seems absurd. And yet, the Swedes, who had no colonies, one up them!
Obviously, free speech is more of an issue over there than it is here. But all the same, Swedes are a distinct people with a distinct country and they’re not even comfortable admitting that that’s a good thing. Hell, unlike Anglo world, they even have a distinct language that should act as an insulator that makes the “us and them” nature less easy to ignore. Their history gives them have a clear line in the sand that should make identity affirmation much more simple and easy compared to the avalanche of non-sequiturs American whites have to face. I want the Swedes to pull through but circumstances do reach a point where one has to begin to wonder whether they even DESERVE to exist if they all so eagerly want to go gently into that good night. And I’m not trying to pick on Swedes as I wonder about this absurdity with respect to all whites; but at the same time Sweden is one of those cases where I truly think “loony bin” when a headline from their country appears.
Swedish ethnomasochism is even more grotesque than the thing pictured above and even more perverse and unnecessary than the practice it is supposed to condemn.
I don’t know where Sweden stands in the “league table” of decadence, for mental AIDS and ethnomasochism are rampant throughout the West, and it’s hard to accurately determine whether one nation is more decadent than another. When you think that one country is at the top of the chart, something happens in another country which appears to place it at the top, then something else happens in another country which appears to place it at the top.
The insanity we witness today is a matter of intense international competition as well as a perverted sense of principle and national identity. The scale of values observed by “proposition nations” are oriented towards serving the sickly ideals of liberalism rather than serving the objective interests of a particular people. According to this view, to reject the former and uphold the latter is to be a bad citizen of whatever country one belongs. It thereby becomes “anti-Swedish” to oppose African immigration, “anti-French” to oppose egalitarianism, “anti-American” to oppose the Jews, and so on.
It’s completely sick, but I can’t help laughing when watching the video.
By the way, there is really something the Swedes feel guilty about. It has to do with eugenics. Eugenics was very much a project of the progressive elite in the USA and also in Sweden. Then Hitler gave eugenics a bad name, so eugenic movements like Planned Parenthood tried their best to dissimulate their roots. Practices like forced sterilisations and abortions for eugenic reasons got outlawed, but not in Sweden. There this was practiced still in the 1960s. Then a new generation of progressives found this practices abhorrent but found it also abhorrent to harm the legacy of their movement. So the whole thing got under the carpet. This multiculi crazyness in Sweden is somehow a result of a twisted hidden guilt by the progressive elite who want to forget that they not long ago felt and acted like a Herrenrasse.
Every single Swedish person I have ever spoken to, once a few drinks are in them, speaks in desperation about the perils of immigration in their home country. These are not like-minded fellows, mind you, but people at bars, friends of friends, etc. They are absolutely terrified.
I like to drive the point that as an American, if things get out of hand, I could move to similar countries, such as Australia, Canada, and England….I always ask them. If you lose Sweden, is there another Swedish speaking country you can move to?
Great piece, John. Yes, the liberal White elite ARE out of touch with reality and act accordingly. More importantly, however, many simply can’t help but betray their own deep-seated racism-the very thing they pretend to condemn! Their particular brand of racism is the most vulgar kind.
Wolfgang Star:
“there is really something the Swedes feel guilty about. It has to do with eugenics”
True, but strangely enough this fact is not exploited as much as one might imagine, probably because the strongest proponents of eugenics i politics came from the left (social democrat) so to harp on this is not very common in Swedish political discourse. What is brought up more frequently (although still rarely) are the very few and short lived colonies (mostly which where private enterprises) and Saint Barthélemy in particular as proof of our collective guilt in suppressing the peoples of the world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_overseas_colonies
The main source of guilt is the usual suspects in these matters and has to do with PC as a tool for framing the political discourse in quasi religious terms and of course WW2, because we had strong ties with Germany in our aristocracy and stood outside the conflict makes Sweden co-responsible for the Holocaust is basically the gist of it. And thats something the famous Swedish white buses cant change… apparently.
John Morgan:
“In the history of Western empires, the Romans and British, among others, conquered and ruled other peoples with the goal of exploiting them. But the fact is, they made little attempt to impose their values on these peoples – that wasn’t their primary goal.”
Up until Christianity conquered Europe yes, after that wasn’t one of the main goals the spreading of Christianity throughout the globe?
White Republican is right. Just when you when think the outward expressions of White pathology can’t get any more lurid, something like this comes along. I don’t know how much influence Jews have in Sweden, but I get the impression that Swedish elites are happy to do what they’re doing with or without Jewish support.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2Vq_e2Z1ug
You know, that You Tube video is referenced by everyone and their mother, yet it still has the same amount of views that it had when I watched it almost 6 months ago. Strange.
Dear Oxy,
Yes, you’re right, although I was speaking of Rome in its heyday (which the British were consciously imitating). By the time Rome became Christian, it was already well on the way to collapse. American imperialism has always had the tone of a “crusade” more than of colonialism as it was practiced by successful empires.
I would have stabbed that cake right in the heart.
If YOU had done it, it would have been a hate crime.
“So what do Swedes have to feel guilty about?” What do white americans have to be guilty about (except attacking NS-Germany and starting a lot of wars during the last 50 years)? So a very small numbers of their ancestors had slaves and they live on land former inhabited by savage indians. That’s hardly anything to feel guilt about. There don’t have to be any logic to anti-white guilt. Hitler seemed to like blond and blue eyed people, swedes are blonde and blue eyed, that’s enough to want to import a new people to Sweden. Actually the same arguments that was used to promote America as a proposition nation (all americans are immigrants, yada yada) have been used in the exactly same way in Sweden, more or less directly translated dispite the two nations very different backgrounds (all swedes are immigrants, meaning very limited immigration from nearby countries has taken place in the past). Even the Woody Guthrie song “This is your land” was directly translated by a swedish communist and used to promote multiculturalism (“This is your land” urged immigrants to view sweden as their country to).
By the way, the harpya that is cutting the piece is a hideous careerist, married to a jew (who also has been a minister) and very hostile to swedes.
Jews notice the suppressed character of the poor Scandinavians and try to show them the way in films:
Oscar winner Babette’s Feast (directed by Gabriel Axel) would have them feed, slowly, slowly on a voluptuously succulent meal — at the end of which these dull, silent, unfriendly grey folks are warmly embracing and making plans for future friendly interactions.
More recently, in As It Is in Heaven (directed by Kay Polak), musician “Daniel Dareus” returns fatigued from his extraordinary success in the cities of the world to his remote Swedish village, and through intuitive warmth, creativity, openness and uninhibitedness, choral coaches the dull, unfriendly natives of the village all the way to a regional competition, by which time they’re warmly embracing and making plans for future friendly interaction — defeating the town bully and Protestant pastor in the process. They win the choral competition, too.
More recently still, comes In a Better World (directed by Susanne Bier), in which the young sons of two dysfunctional Danish families (the real troublemaker is named Christian) engage in such acts of violence as to almost cause death, but their own tragedy brings chastisement, reunion and hope for a brighter future – the good father is a doctor who commutes from his pretty village each day to practice his trade in an African refugee camp.
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