In Scandinavian society – including the parts of it that transplanted themselves to Minnesota, the Dakotas and the U.P. – there’s an aggressive modesty about people; they don’t talk much about their accomplishments; they don’t set themselves out from the crowd much; they take some pains to conceal any gains they’ve had.

Scandinavian writers christened this idea Janteloven – “Jante’s Law“.  There are really ten parts to Janteloven:

1. Don’t think that you are special.
2. Don’t think that you are of the same standing as us.
3. Don’t think that you are smarter than us.
4. Don’t fancy yourself as being better than us.
5. Don’t think that you know more than us.
6. Don’t think that you are more important than us.
7. Don’t think that you are good at anything.
8. Don’t laugh at us.
9. Don’t think that anyone cares about you.
10. Don’t think that you can teach us anything.

It’s really 1 through 4 that you seem in small scandinavian towns around the region.  When I was a kid, people that you just knew had made it big – the town’s dentist, real estate agent, whatever – took great pains to live in modest houses and drive the same kinds of cars as everyone else.  The ones that didn’t – like one of the car dealers, as memory serves?  Well, there was gossip.

Which is why Garrison Keillor’s description of Lake Wobegon – a place where all the men are strong, the women are good looking, and the children are above average – is so subtly hilarious.  Of course all of them are strong, good looking and blow the curve up – because to single anyone out, or God forbid for anyone to do it themselves, would unleash a torrent of passive-aggressive retribution.  It’s easier just to say everyone is the same.

The side effect, of course, is that all “pride” gets displaced to the community.

Kim Crockett of the Center of the American Experiment (which I traditionally abbreviate as “CAX”, but Kim reminds me they prefer “CAE”, which I think is a huge mistake, but whatever) writes (and I’ll add emphasis):

Though we find it more than counterintuitive, there is a serious conversation out there that taxes and regulations do not matter — or that Minnesota does not spend enough on education and health care. I call it the “Lake Wobegon” argument; we are so special that people will keep paying more just to be here.

I’m not sure if anyone at the DFL, with all its Chicago-y ways, ever sat down and said “let’s exploit this state’s dominant culture’s passive-aggressive communitarianism to basically browbeat and shame people into thinking “the community” is always worth whatever it demands”…

…but if they didn’t, I’m not sure what’d be different if they had.

Kim echoes something I say myself:

I think there is something to that—that Minnesota is a special place and that we have more to offer than the average state but we’ve stretched that argument past the breaking point.

I like Minnesota.  Two of my grandparents were born here (Park Rapids and Middle River).  I’ve lived more than half my life here.  Saint Paul is a wonderful place, in a lot of ways.

But…

We demonstrated that the state spends much more on K-12 education, health care and higher education than its peer states in our report “Minnesota Spending 101: Smart Budgeting for an Era of Limits” . This will be accelerated, of course, as we feel the full effects of an Obamacare exchange and expanded Medicare spending—not to mention the massive tax hikes and spending increases headed for the governor’s desk.

…the state is acting like an alcoholic relative; demanding that you cave in to its demands or maybe you never really loved it at all.

And yes, I know, I’m switching pathologies, from peer pressure to addiction.

But they both apply, really; the DFL is like a pushy alcoholic brother in law from Joliet who pushes your scandihoovian buttons to get you to cave in.

“Don’t you love our schools anymore?  Or are you more important than the kids are?”

“It’s a beautiful state.  Do you think your retirement is worth more than our state parks?”

“We’ve always been progressive, bitch.  Don’t get uppity”.

Addiction? Janteloven?  It gets hard to keep abusive codependent pathologies straight, after a while.

This entry was posted by by Mitch Berg on Wednesday, May 1st, 2013 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Taxes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.