opinions
Arne O. Holm comments:
Greetings From a Broken Shit House
Commentary: From their respective ivory towers, they pass judgement on their surroundings. “Shit house” is Donald Trump’s description of Norway. “A broken country”, counters investor Øystein Stray Spetalen about his former homeland.
Published
Modified
This is a comment written by a member of the editorial staff. All views expressed are the writer's own.
And, to general cheers, simultaneously promises never to move back to Norway after taking his fortune and relocating to Switzerland about a year ago.
Although, do not rejoice too soon. A few years before becoming a tax exile, he regarded such tax planning as entirely out of the question.
“I am not going to sit in a field … to save a bit of money on wealth tax,” he told Dagens Næringsliv in 2021.
Out in a field
Well. Now he is sitting, quite literally, in a field, but that is not really my point. As far as I am concerned, he can sit anywhere, as long as he talks about things he understands. He does not, and that is more serious than a gentle jibe at his claim that Norway is ruined.
So what does a ruined shit house actually look like?
Strong economic and political support for Ukraine.
Well, it is, among other things, right at the top of the rankings measuring freedom of expression, press freedom and democracy.
It scores highly on welfare, education and unemployment.
Corruption exists, but it is not widespread. The electoral system ensures a broadly representative parliament without an extreme degree of destructive polarisation.
Even in a ruined country, the richest are the richest, but the healthcare system is designed to care for everyone, not just those with wealth.
Society in harmony
And, not least, the broken shit house is concerned with international solidarity and strong, sustained economic and political support for Ukraine's defensive struggle against Russia.
Stray Spetalen and Trump dislike most of these values so intensely that it cannot be interpreted otherwise than that they delve into the darkest recesses of language to find descriptions encompassing the sum of the aversion they feel towards well-functioning societies in reasonable harmony.
While Trump and Stray Spetalen revelled in linguistic nuances (sic), France took to the streets. Ninety-five per cent of the uprising in France is a response to a state disconnected from people's everyday lives. There are bandits exploiting the situation, but it is, and remains, a continuation of the French Revolution. The result of the gap between power and powerlessness becoming too great.
A necessary uprising. An uprising from the bottom up.
The opposite of Stray Spetalen and Trump's attempt to start the revolution in the innermost part of the ballroom, hoping that it will eventually move from there into the education system, healthcare system and industry.
Taking the bait
From the top of the social pyramid, they light torches and throw them to people who can barely afford a holiday to Gran Canaria, let alone move to Switzerland. The hope is that someone will catch the torches in mid-air and swallow the story of a broken country.
Starts the revolution in the heart of the ballroom.
Trump succeeds to a considerable extent. Not least when he directed the mob against Congress in January 2021, only to later pardon those who tried to crush what remained of American democracy.
Trump’s knowledge of Norway is limited to the fact that a committee (not the Norwegian state, as Trump insists) awards a peace prize he will never receive. The absence of a peace prize is the only criterion when shit house prizes are handed out.
It outweighs all the country’s other characteristics.
Øystein Stray Spetalen’s yardstick is, above all, wealth tax. Discussing tax levels is sensible, but a country is not destroyed by a few tenths of a per cent in wealth tax.
Preparedness week
Right now, we are in the midst of what is known as preparedness week. We are filling water containers and stocking our pantries.
That is important, as Norway’s new tax haven, Switzerland, has understood in particular.
But preparedness is just as much about values.
If we weaken democracy, freedom of expression and press freedom, we do not merely weaken our preparedness.
Above all, we weaken what preparedness is intended to protect.
Believing the story of a destroyed country is a step in that direction.
A step we should be very careful not to take.
