On Saturday I listened to a BBC Radio Four show called “From Our Own Correspondent”. In one item a BBC lady in Sweden talked about the Swedish Welfare State. As the lady said, the British government is interested in the Swedish Welfare State. What the British government is interested in is choice in providers (health providers and other such) and recent cost saving measures – but that is not what the BBC person talked about. To her the “Swedish model” is the envy of the British government (and of her), for rather different reasons…..

Some of what the lady said was about various supernatural stuff (that need not detain us – supposedly the post Christian population of Sweden leave offerings to various supernatural creatures, although they are not yet burning policemen in wicker cages), but the BBC person did make some statements that were of interest.

Swedish people (according to the lady from the BBC) rush to tell the government about any improvements they make to their homes – and thus pay higher tax. This is because the “state is us”. Very Rousseau (although the BBC lady did not mention his name) with the idea that a, democratic, state someone is all the people (the collective is all the individuals).

According to the BBC lady the Swedish people see the Welfare State (or “People’s Home”) as a the source of FREEDOM  – as it prevents them being dependent on anyone. Again very Rousseau – he hated being an employee of any flesh and blood individual, whereas being employed by the state was fine (as the collective was all the individuals that made up the collective – the state is you). It was wrong (evil) to treat a married couple as a couple – according to the BBC lady they would be treated as unrelated (atomised?) individuals in everything, even in the bill for a meal.

For one person to pay for another (for example the concept of the “family”) was wrong and evil (according to the BBC lady) – individuals must be treated as atomised individuals in all things, even gifts were evil as they put you in the (moral) debt of someone else. Any form of help (for your parents, or your wife, or your children) is evil – for it makes them “dependent”, not free individuals. “Love” (according the BBC lady’s account of Sweden) can only come when the state pays for everything – your wife (or…) can not really love you if she is financial dependent upon you (rather than on the state).

The idea that it if the state pays for your food (and so on) you become dependent ON THE STATE did not occur to the BBC lady – after all the state is you, The state is the source of all “freedom”.

Now I have no idea whether the BBC person was telling the truth about the Swedish people – perhaps a few Swedes are like this (i.e. space monsters) and most are just human beings no worse than people in other countries. But I am sure the BBC lady was telling the truth about her own opinions and those of her Comrades at the BBC and in the universities (and so on) that produced these Comrades.

Think about it. Leave aside the supernatural stuff (I am not suggesting the BBC, or the left generally, are about to conduct human sacrifice rituals outside their H.Q. in Salford), just the political stuff. According to this position the state (the collective) is YOU – there is no difference between the collective and individuals. All traditional cultural institutions (such as the family) are evil (at least in their financial aspects) and most be destroyed. Everyone must depend upon the state for all the basic things in life – private employment or even gifts are evil because they make people “dependent”, whereas the Welfare State (a total Welfare State that controls everything) is the source of true “freedom” and the precondition for “love”.

O.K. people – tell me again how we should “communicate” with the left (the establishment elite – the academic and media crowd).  And do not tell me that this person is not typical – because I assure you she is.

They (the establishment elite – both media and education system and ….) are totalitarians. Trying to reason with them is about as sensible as trying to reason with J.J. Rousseau.

I am sorry, but no long-term peaceful relationship between pro freedom (pro civil society – anti statist people) and types like this BBC person is possible. Certainly not while the BBC demands a special tax (the television “license fee”) to fund its hard-core collectivist propaganda.

The same hard-core collectivist propaganda the left establishment elite try to feed to the young in the schools, the universities and in the media and culture generally.