Day 10: The Swedish Theory of Love

I went to see The Swedish Theory of Love, by film maker Erik Gandini tonight. It was so depressing! It really shows a lot of the aspects of the Swedish society that I dislike the most. Where the official policy have been to make people independent of each other through the state. But by doing this people have become lonely and disconnected from each other. Does it really have to be that way? Can't people be individualistic and still have close relations to each other? Can't we have independence without loneliness? I really hope so. 

The film reminded me a lot of Sagolandet by Jan Troell, which is also a critique of the efficient welfare state of Sweden. In Troell's film the American psychologist Rollo May is the outsider who sees a society where people's material needs are provided for, but where there is little room for creativity, hope, mysteries and real freedom. The state is a parent that is "too good". (Interview with Rollo May) In Gandini's film the polish sociologist Zygmunt Bauman has a similar role. His message is that the emphasis on independence have impaired our ability of socializing with other people and that we should instead stress interdependence. The state can't create relations with other people for us, we have to do it ourselves. I think this is important.