CHAPTER SEVEN
THE LAND OF INFINITE
EXCUSES
I have traveled for many years and have been fortunate enough to visit more than thirty countries. Also I have lived in three countries for a length of time, which has given me the chance to truly observe, analyze, and understand these countries’ cultures and customs—finally with concrete knowledge for comparison—allowing me to observe my country from a completely foreign point of view.
Out of all the people of the more than thirty countries I have visited and observed in my lifetime, America’s individualistic populace undoubtedly rank number one in high emotional intelligence (EQ). Australia is undoubtedly one nation of which citizens most openly demonstrate obvious signs of entitlement/narcissistic rage. Severe narcissism is truly obvious in the fiercely aggressive, apathetic Australian driving culture. The sensation of security attained in the confinement of a vehicle frequently brings forth the true mental state of the driver. In Scandinavia, narcissists are harder to spot to the untrained eye because Scandinavian collectivists in general—being truly subjugated—are in awe of authority and, therefore, absolutely compliant—in large parts to the extent of appearing impassive—opposed to Australia’s rebellious Aussies. While both cultures demonstrate overwhelming behavioral and mental similarities, Scandinavian collectivists are undoubtedly among the world’s most deprived.
One would think that a country’s government benefits would have no sufficient importance when studying the psyche of a country’s inhabitants. On the contrary, my research showed when Danes are asked to identify specifically why a statistic ended up nominating the Danes as the world’s happiest, Danes in general refer instantly to the almost unlimited entitlement benefits. Though the majority of Danes plays the lottery on a weekly basis, curiously a common expression used among collectivists is: “Prosperity doesn’t make happy!”—thereby refuting the assertion that happiness cannot be purchased. In the case of the Danes, fictive happiness is purchased with entitlement benefits—conversely, a happiness facilitated by prosperity. This further demonstrates how easily government entitlements can replace actual happiness with falsified contentment, perfectly blinding all to the malignant collectivist oppression.
A few refer to feeling safe and secure—apprehensive as the general population is—as well as the inability and lack of personal rights to defend oneself or one’s property. These, however, quite clearly prove to be misapprehension.
The gap between being provided for and genuine happiness—found in emotional contentment—is truly immense. Denmark is a bearable place to live for as long as one does not actually have an opinion about reality. And I am not referring to collectivized city-mentality when I declare that these collectivists barely recognize each other’s existence. When observing these supposedly social people—the world’s supposedly happiest populace—in their personal comfort zone, the majority proves not to think an inch beyond their own ego. So except of course for the entitlement benefits, which creates the illusion of sympathy, empathy is scarce to nonexistent. Nearly no one voluntarily offers a seat to an elderly, pregnant, or disabled person on public transportation. The most deprived people smoke to calm their anxiety and have absolutely no qualms about smoking within a few feet of children. Collectivists rarely smile and are very reserved, to the point that one may even find them rude. Collectivists in general are very skeptical and suspicious, preferring to keep to themselves—to the extent that large parts of the citizenry act like hermits.
Recently, while on a run, I gently excused myself at a distance to pass a couple in their fifties blocking the narrow path on which I was jogging, when the male, who was walking a German Shepherd, literally jumped into a bush. Though I am an absolutely properly and nicely dressed male, when I kindly offer assistance or attempt to make a conversation (e.g., at the bus stop or in public transport), I unintentionally spook collectivists fairly easily—frequently resulting in a backlash caused by their inhibitions. Collectivists, deprived as they are, live in a comfort zone, severely inhibited as a result of their having a hard time declaring that one doesn’t want to confer. This comes as a result of self-intimidation (the inability to process shame in natural ways); this again aggravates them. Even the kindest remark is often instantly viewed from a negative approach. Greeting a neighbor or having a conversation with a stranger—even in a bar, a club, or in public—happens, but it is not necessarily very common. If so, the barrier of inhibitions is generally broken with alcohol or other intoxicants.
When passing each other in public (e.g., at the supermarket, on public transport, etc.), rather than excusing themselves, collectivists, self-absorbed as they are, will simply bump into people or squeeze their way through. Though the most evident and easily observable lack of empathy is seen in the way Danes will wait behind you or your children and expect to be noticed rather than showing common courtesy by pardoning themselves. The phrase “excuse me” is very rarely used.
To feel content, the truly neurotic people often need to walk on a specific side of the sidewalk or sit on the exact same chair (e.g., at the cafeteria, at work-gatherings, or every time one attends a lecture at an educational institution). When using public transport, one can observe people sitting on the outer seats or placing items (such as a handbag or jacket) in the seat next to them—subconsciously aware that most fellow collectivists are neurotic too, therefore, they don’t have the courage to ask for the vacant seat. So unless they feel it is their last option, they would rather find somewhere else to sit, or they will simply stand. Collectivists rarely ever sit down next to strangers in the public space. Thus, in parks, one can observe them sitting alone at park benches. And just like in parks, buses and trains will fill with people sitting in seats as far apart as possible.
Performances like these are easily observable anywhere in Denmark.
Anywhere in the world, in fact, these severities of collective subliminal suppression, and depending on radicalization, can be measured through the extent in which these easily observable inhibitions occur in the public space. Hence, cultural freedom and individual choice, individualism, will show as self-assuredness, curiosity, and openness; whereas collectivism shows as emotional distress (e.g., anxiety, neuroses, and reservedness), which in turn can be seen in physical distancing. In other words, freedom brings people together while collectivism pulls people apart.
AN EVERYDAY STORY
Ten months had I waited, unable to do any sports, when the day for my surgery finally arrived. Due to the free medical system, I had been waiting for about nine months since being diagnosed. The minor surgery in my knee went exceedingly well , and I was out of the hospital in less than half a day. Since I was armed to the teeth on painkillers, I chose public transport. Crippled as I was I got on the bus, as best I could, yet I was barely on before the bus driver closed the doors and took off. I clutched myself on to the nearest pole, and from there I fought my way to an area of the bus prioritized for wheelchairs and strollers and sat down on a fold-open seat. I could have sat in a seat nearer to the front if not for the fact that young people occupied the seats originally reserved for disabled, pregnant, and elderly people. The bus made two more stops before a woman with a stroller boarded and needed to occupy the area I was sitting. I therefore moved. Still not one person offered me a seat, and I stood the rest of the way. Finally, the bus came to my stop, but if enough were not enough, now whilst exiting the bus the driver literally closed the doors on me. And to end the tale perfectly, when passing the doors at the front of bus, the bus driver opened the doors and turned toward me and said, “I didn’t see you because you got out of the bus so slowly.”
Words are only relative and factually proven to mislead. Those who suffer from pathological narcissism alter reality and portray themselves as content. When persuaded by self-deception (magical thinking), collectivists can be truly convinced of their happiness—yet subconsciously, they feel the opposite. A statistic of happiness completed through surveys is therefore questionable, regardless how thorough the questionnaires.
When trying to analyze happiness, one would observe individual psyche—observations of people’s personal performance in their comfort zone: driving performance, signs of aggression, anxiety, openness, hospitality, courtesy, satisfaction, and dissatisfaction. This is especially the case if individual happiness, subconscious contentment, is based on materialized contentment, such as possessions and money, opposed to non— fictive emotional contentment.
Publicized statistics from 2006 (according to World Map of Happiness data), show that the Danes are the happiest people in the world, and I am quite convinced that the statistics are correct. That is, if they are to be established on the fact that the Danes truly believe they are the happiest people on earth. Nonetheless, when observing behavior, especially when comparing suicide rates, which are a scientifically undisputed symptom of suppression, a completely different reality emerges.
Alcohol consumption is over the top in Denmark. The Danish youth has for years been ranked as the largest consumers of alcohol in Europe. For the average Dane it takes a six-pack to find relief from inhibitions and get on the dance floor. Danish young people, who are often very insecure from resultant anxiety caused by severe inferiority complexes, need drugs even to attend an exam. According to the data (from European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs), Danish adolescents still rank as top consumers of drugs and alcohol.
Beyond doubt, to be deprived of one’s true individual self makes people mentally ill. The majority of Denmark’s citizenry ought to be in therapy— deprived emotionally by collectivism’s constant narcissistic tyranny (subliminal conditioning), which in most cases of truly deprived persons leads to clinical depression. As a result, prescriptions for antidepressants (happy pills) are overly common; in other words, those who begin to see and feel will use drugs or abuse substances to suppress their emotions. According to (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development data), Denmark factually rates the second highest consumer of antidepressants in Europe, only surpassed by Iceland. In reality, if it were not for the widespread use of antidepressant medication, which is tremendously diminished in price by government subsidization, Denmark’s suicide rate, last published in 2006, (according to World Health Organization data) of 11.9 per 100,000 would rank at least double, though likely triple, the level of today. Denmark’s suicide rate—with an average of 20.8 per 100,000 during the last five decades—reached its highest level of 32 in 1980 and has since slowly but steadily declined by 1 per thousand annually. This statistic is in relatively perfect harmony with the increase of antidepressant usage over the last two decades. Compare the Danish suicide rate to the rates for the individualistic cultures of the United Kingdom and the United States, whose small suicide rates have been nearly perfectly steady. United Kingdom’s suicide rate last published in 2009 by WHO of 6.9—with an average of 8.5 during the last five decades—has never exceeded 10.7. The American suicide rate last published in 2005 by WHO of 11.0, with an average of 11.1 during the last five decades, has never exceeded 12.7.
As evidence that collectivism thrives on oppressive narcissistic coercion, leftism always has its strongest iron grip in denser populated areas, as opposed to rural locations. Further evidence is the pattern of the high suicide rate that repeats itself in totalitarian collectivist societies, as well as suicide rates that frequently rise steadily all through life. This can be seen in contrast to more liberated nations, with comparable climates to Denmark’s and far less entitlement benefits, such as Denmark’s neighboring countries of Great Britain. In this individualistic culture with virtually the same climate, the suicide rate is relatively minor; the suicide rate reaches its peak in midlife and progressively drops.
Seasonal weather, more precisely lack of sufficient sunlight, can unquestionably contribute to depression. Weather can, however, only contribute as a trigger. Weather in no way causes depression without coercion or isolation. The isolated Danish island of Greenland has a suicide rate that is exceptionally high, but it still accounts for a mere fraction (approximately twenty-five annual suicides) of those that make up Denmark’s estimated seven hundred annual self-inflicted deaths. Greenland, the biggest island in the world, is populated by only 56,000 people.
In regard to depression, statistics from 2012 (according to the Danish State Serum Institute data) show that 455,000 people were prescribed antidepressants, a number that has nearly doubled since the statistics were first published in 1999. Today’s average represents more than 11 percent of just over 4 mil ion Danish adults—of the supposed happiest population on earth—factual y reported to be using prescribed antidepressants. One could make a joke: “Well of course Danes are happy; they are medicated to be.”
Suicide rates would unmistakably have been rapidly on the rise in the individualistic cultures of the United States and Great Britain if not for the invention of antidepressant medication. Consumption of suppressants in the United States according to US data (from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and from United Kingdom data (according to the London School of Economics and Political Science research) have increased excessively in perfect harmony with the progression of democratic socialism, that being the influence of the Democrat party in American politics and the Labour Party in British politics.
Denmark has truly become a Prozac nation, medicating its way out of malignant collectivist oppression. As the collectivist’s last resort, it has even been widely accepted to medicate children from early childhood. Often those medicated are in fact misdiagnosed children who rebel and do not know that they actually rebel against the undermining of their true individual selves, their right to express themselves naturally, and their basic right to individual liberty.
If accurate statistics were to be established for a country’s level of happiness, then one should compare rates of self-esteem, suicide rates, and statistics for usage of antidepressant medication, taking into consideration whether a country’s citizens can afford this medication. Most importantly, statistics would have to take into consideration that a liberated mentality not only permits criticism toward society but individualism embraces this tool, along with benign envy—confident self-encouragement and self-assurance—as absolute vital psychological dynamics. Collectivist mentality is the exact opposite. Therefore, instead of the title “the happiest people,” the Danes are more appropriately labeled “the most spoiled,” having been destroyed mentally by collectivism.
Should anyone seek a role model for a social society, radicalized collectivist societies would undoubtedly be the last place to look. The social consciousness that collectivists attempt to promote is nothing but severe pathological narcissism, and displaying bad boundaries is the exact opposite of social culture. On the surface, Marxists would seem content— like birds in a cage—yet beneath the surface, they are anything but social and are in truth far from happy. Of course, the exception is being social and happy in regard to sharing other people’s money.
By now I should have established that people, in fact, can have a blissful life in democratic socialism—until the government eventually, as always, runs out of other people’s money. One can argue that this utopian lifestyle exists for as long as one takes from life, without question, and without any kind of critical or realistic opinion. The only problem in collectivism is that individualists like me, who do not want to participate in the tyrannical system, are not given an equal choice. In fact, to this day, no higher form of discrimination exist than the notion that all people are and should be treated equally.
I do occasionally ask myself why I still live in Denmark. Quite frankly, no community offers a better environment for social observation and analysis. A genuine freedom enthusiast with insights, who is in pursuit of objective and subjective independence, and who can manage to rise above the injustice, ignorance, and collectivist coercion, can accomplish anything. Only a collectivist puts up with collectivists. Undoubtedly, no better self-control or anger management exists.
“Three things cannot be long hidden: the
sun, the moon, and the truth.”
—BUDDHA