Nordicist Norms

In recent years, there has been a shift from the friendlier and warmer more traditionally American style intercourse in America to a Nordic style cold, unfriendly, and distanced intercourse. It is a trend I am deeply opposed to. Now, as a political person, I like Nordic social democracy, but I don’t like their culture and am, in some ways, morally against it. There is great virtue in talking to strangers, offering them food when they enter one’s abode, and generally being sweet, warm, and hosipitible with people. Most importantly, it makes people feel lived, valued, and appreciated. In addition to giving one a window into their lives with the extra communication.

I don’t engage with people coldly, ever. Now, I am generally easygoing, nice, and warm but with that comes the other side of my histrionics which can be terse, snappy, and frustrated. Since I live in a bourgeois culture of emotional weakness. They tend to ignore all my good days and never forgive me for the bad ones. On my friendlier days, which are most of them, I am less censored and while I am not the lower-functioning self I used to be who would talk, on occasion, about masturbating. The relatively mild topics that I venture into are often too much for the ballless suburban demographic I am usually in.

Suburbia lends itself to Nordicist norms for the same reason they evolved in the cold countries: atomization. Hotter climates are friendlier because people meet one another more often. In Sweden, one spent most of one’s time cooped up by a fireplace avoiding hypothermia. Whereas in Baghdad and Barcelona, people got out and met each other. Suburbia, infamously, is a place where neighbors don’t know each other so, like in Scandanavia, they are not friendly with each other. Yet, because of contact and expanding circle theories, that makes them less empathetic. The more worldly one is, the more empathy one gains.

Now, I grew up in the Deep South and one of the things that I can say is that while politically the colder areas were better, there was a strain of empathy than comes from greeting people on the street and engaging with strangers. It is why, in part, I support Jane Jacobs-style New Urbanism and TNDs. Synthesizing southern hospitality with Nordic social democratic politics is a Hegelian synthesis that makes me metaphorically orgasm. It is a teleology we should energetically seek.