Swedish daily Expressen had a very interesting editorial today, written by an Isobel Hadley-Kamptz: “Refuse to give away your neighbour.” It contains truths that are viable in any country.
Soon our goldie-lock justice minister has information about all our petty crimes. Because most of us has some dirt in some parts of our concience. Money under the table, fixing benifits, some pooching, some undeclared liqour from abroad, some trading belong in a grey zone. An entire generation of youths file sharing and rather have a joint than drink alcohol on friday evening. [...] A general suspicious outlook is tearing on society more than petty crimes. But we don’t need to accept this. Everyone has a chance to resist. Refuse to inform about your neighbour.
She also staples a number of examples on how the Swedish society is not only marching towards a society of monitoring but also of informing. She tells about Lerum, a quaint little town of 15 000 or so inhabitants in western Sweden, where the municipality encourages it’s inhabitants to inform on each other anonymously using the internet.
If the neighbour is getting his wage under the table, if the neighbour’s kids are drinking medium beer, if someone tags the neighbour’s wall. Sure it can seem reasonable to step in if you see ghastly things happen. Solidarity is about caring. But tipping off the local authorities anonymously? A municipality that actively encourages us to spy on our neighbours?
She also reminds us that the People’s Party (that are actually allegedly liberals, even if most Swedes probably thinks about China when they hear the name), in their flirt with voters that call for tougher policies have suggested that the security police use informers on schools that can inform them of pupils with subversive opinions or behaviours. According to Isobel, the security police “just shrugged and implied that was already being done.”
