Don’t think that you are special… Posted by jennie on Feb 15, 2010 in Culture
…at least not if you are a Swede, that is.
(Alright, we are generalizing again, but it is after all a Swedish blog…)
With those words, I hereby declare the Swedish blog’s first theme week open. Every day and every word this week will be dedicated to an awful cloud that has been casting its shadow over Scandinavia (and yes, probably over all sorts of places all over the world) for centuries and is still in one way or another effecting us all. I’m talking about the Jante law – the law that in many ways is worse to break than the ones in the big thick law book. The law that simply tells you that you are no one, you will never be anyone and you will never get anywhere.
Horrible, isn’t it?
Swedes are, as we all know, very modest people. And to think highly of yourself, and even express these thoughts god forbid, is a big no no in Sweden. Instead, you should tone down success, not mention money what so ever and be humble about everyone and everything. It was the Norwegian author Aksel Sandemose who first wrote down this unwritten law in his book “A Fugitive Crosses Its Tracks” from 1933 (It got its name – Jante – from the town in the book) and since then it’s a well known word in all Swedes’ vocabulary.
So, as an introduction to this week forthcoming posts, I give you the Jante law in its full.
Please make sure to break it in every way you can!
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Comments:
monodo:
Very interesting blog.
http://www.mundivideo.com/localizador.php?tp=2&pais=192
Sophie:
Some of this sounds very similar to how I was raised in New Zealand! They really cut the heads off any ‘tall poppies’ – if you do well at anything, nobody is impressed and they will think you are an obnoxious braggart if you take credit for something.
I guess it keeps people more down-to-earth, perhaps, but it isn’t so great for self-esteem!
BM:
When it comes to Jantelagen, people often make the mistake of thinking this is something the particularly bitter people in society sat down and wrote up, but when Sandemose was writing his satire, he derived the laws from the general behaviour of people in Scandinavian society. By making it into a list of laws, he was attempting to show it’s starkness, but the trouble is, by turning them into laws, they loose their subtlety.
Jantelagen isn’t just about stopping others from getting a big head, but also about stopping making other people feel bad about their relative situation. For example, if you dropped your kids off at school in a jaguar, it would make the kids who get dropped off in a 1970s Volvo feel bad as much as it would make your own kids feel superior. These sorts of behaviours are often a method of “keeping the peace”, and are found all over. As noted above by Sophie, in the antipodes it’s tall poppy syndrome, in Scotland it’s “Ah kent yer faither” (I knew your father).
I live in Norway, and it took a year before I noticed Jantelov (as it is called there) in action, and like buses, two cases came along at once. At work, we were coming up with company values. The values we chose struck me as very “safe”, very “middle of the road”. I favoured bolder values, to make the company stand out, but the general consensus shied away from these. That’s a rather subtle case of jantelagen. The second case was the winner of Norwegian Eurovision contest was told that he needed to take an English course because his pronunciation was horrible, and it would hurt Norway’s chances. What was wrong about his pronunciation? He sang “hard” instead of “heart”. A rather more aggressive form of Jantelag, and one marked by clear ignorance, since most English speakers will voice their t’s between vowels when singing. Heck, Americans turn their t’s into r’s when speaking!
Minty:
What the hell? this is a very poor translation of the Jante Law…you just took this off english wikipedia and did no research at all, did you?
‘Jantelagen formulerar i ord den oskrivna lag, som säger att man inte får sticka upp och tro att man är bättre än andra på något sätt’
The essence of Jante Law is that you are nto supposed to stick out from the crowd, and if you do you definitely don’t brag about it. It is nothing like as negative as you have said.
I have to say I don’t agree even with the correct version of Jante law, but it is at least something that Swedes accept when growing up there….However your version is unimaginable…it sounds like a slave camp.
I read this to my Swedish boyfriend and he was horrified and offended at how this translation twisted Jante law.
Oh I just looked up that you are the Swedish one…OK well this is a bad translation.
Jennie:
@ Minty:
First of all, appoligies to you and your boyfriend if you are offended by what I wrote, but I must point out that it of course concists of some heavy exagerations and generalizations. I thought it was quite clear, but perhaps it wasn’t, I can see that now.
But, the Jante law itself – the original written version – is written down exactly as these 10 “commandments” (appologies again if my English translation was poor) and I have used those 10 in my text to give people a feel for what this week will evolve around.
The rest of the text is just my own exagerated thoughts about it and I’m more that happy to be challanged on those. But I wouldn’t want to call it bad research, perhaps just different opinoins? 🙂
I don’t think anyone anywhere agrees with any version of the Jante law and that is probably the main reason for us writing about this topic, to give the Jante law the finger,literally spoken.
Hope your happy with this explaination and thank you again for your comments!
/Jennie – the Swedish one!
Minty:
Well of course you are entitled to your opinion! If you are trying to get people to be annoyed at Jante law this way of describing it certainly will provoke interest.
I think that direct translation in this case misses a lot of the meaning behind the words. I think instead of ‘Don’t think you are …’ perhaps it should say ‘Don’t assume you are’ especially for ‘# Don’t think that anyone of us cares about you.
# Don’t think that you can teach us anything.’
Luke (Sydney):
hmmm…this post is about Jante law but it itself doesn’t abide to the law…hmmm
Luke (Sydney):
Tall poppy syndrome? What tall poppy syndrome!! I have never seen a tall poppy in Australia.
Jennie:
@ Minty: Agreed, asolutely, good thinking! When looking at it again, I can see that my English is rather bad… Thanks for pointing it out and I’ll be better next time! 🙂
@Luke: Just write it, don’t live it. 🙂 No tall poppys in Australia? Are you sure? Perhaps tall something else? Eucalyptus? God, I am generalizing again 🙂
Jennie:
@BM: Cheers for that valuable input! The “I know your father” made me think alot…
Luke (Sydney):
@Jennie: hehe, it’s because all tall poppies being chopped off here!