The Nordic Theory of Everything, by Anu Partanen
Having become acquainted with Finland since 2006, though I've only paid occasional visits, and attended Finnish School, I'm naturally very interested to understand better the impressive social systems which I've previously only vaguely understood. Partanen is very methodical; her research and narrative is based on personal experience and interviews with friends and acquaintances both in the US and in the Nordic countries (ie. not only Finland); but above all on a vast array of academic surveys and studies. In fact although I've now finished the book, I was very far from the end. After the acknowledgements, there are substantial sections of footnotes, bibliography and index.
I'll spare you any more than a brief summary, because the thought of an in depth analysis of what is already in depth analysis is mind boggling. Her big, extremely well made point, is this: Americans have got it completely wrong about Nordic so-called 'socialism'. Finland in particular knows very well what socialism is, from the example next door. The intent of Finland's health, social and educational policies is to free the individual from unnecessary and unhealthy dependencies on family, employers and the state. Having been a teacher in the dim distant past, the section on education made me wince. In the UK we've been aping the US more and more, with absurd amounts of testing, and so much else, while taking more and more autonomy from teachers. One point she repeats from a certain expert is extremely pertinent, if anything even more in the UK than in the US. Finland doesn't have private schools, to any significant extent. The thing is, it's obviously much easier for Finland to create a fair and equal system than it is for us, in fact we have no chance. I'd better stop there: there's so much more and it's all highly thought provoking. Maybe especially in the section on health, where we in the UK can compare with Finland with the NHS.
I shouldn't have reduced her ideas to that 'big point' about socialism. She wants to be optimistic. In a way which she says is most un-Finn-like. She points out that if you think of the US as a collection of states, many of them compare quite well with Finland in size and population, and in fact already are trying to make progress in a quasi Nordic fashion.
Where I'm not so much on the same page is in her admiration for the 'American dream' and the 'land of opportunity'. It's not that I deprecate the idea of a place where one is free of all the traditional oppressions deriving from social status, money, race etc. But I have noticed this kind of dewy-eyed view of the US from Finns before, which you'd never really hear from a British person, even a Brit who was a fan of the US. We've got too much history with the US, and also too much cynicism about glib ideals. Partanen does herself mention a caveat about the ideals of the Founding Fathers, namely slavery and racism. And just once, refers to what I'd think was an even bigger caveat; as she puts it, the 'extermination' of the original inhabitants. Those two things aren't incidental; they're the things which enabled the prospects which America has enjoyed. Please don't read into what I'm saying as antagonism, only that America still seems to be struggling with those caveats. And maybe the time has come for a new constitution for the modern age. Furthermore, I'd freely admit that, faced with major social problems which needed solving, Americans would usually be much more likely to tackle them than us in our inertia-bound system. The author rightly admires Americans' 'can-do' spirit.
There's an interesting YouTube video here, of a book signing and speaking event in Oregon. She speaks very well, not that that's a surprise. Her audience is polite and receives her well but I guess it's self selecting. Before I watched this video, I'd been thinking I might write a post about the book, and mention some things Partanen leaves alone, like defence. Well, I don't mind that she doesn't discuss defence, it makes sense in the context of her thesis. I'd have referred to defence mainly as a factor in how much of the national budget goes on the basic services she examines. However, YouTube videos are adorned with comments underneath. The video doesn't have many, I suppose the usual toxic commentators have more glaring targets. But I note that most of the comments refer to defence, in order to express resentment that the US is in their view paying for Finland's (and other European countries') defence. I'm sure Finns would take great issue with that, not least because Finland (along with Sweden) isn't actually in NATO.
The talk, like this book, dates from 2016. I mention this because there's a massive elephant in the room. The name Donald Trump occurs nowhere, and certainly has no listing in that very comprehensive index. I can only imagine that she may now feel as if that year's election had produced a slap in the face of her optimism. Events in the US since would seem to demonstrate a rush in the very opposite direction to the one she must think of as hopeful and progressive. Does all that make The Nordic Theory of Everything redundant? No, not at all. Values and ideals can remain the same no matter what happens. Right now the US might seem further away than ever from being a land of true opportunity and equality, but change is always possible. I just wander if Anu Partanen has had any recent thoughts about escaping back home, along with husband Trevor who I bet by now has a much better grasp of Finnish than I do!
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