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Det sovande folket

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The Sleeping People
AuthorFredrik Reinfeldt
Original titleDet sovande folket
LanguageSwedish
SubjectPolitics
Published1993
PublisherModerate Youth League
Publication placeSweden
Pages124
ISBN91-86194-10-0

Det sovande folket[a] (transl. The Sleeping People) is a book published in 1993 by Fredrik Reinfeldt, later Prime Minister of Sweden, when he was chairman of the Moderate Youth League, a youth organization for the Moderate Party (M). The book was edited by Per Schlingmann and Christer Söderberg (later ombudsman for M[1]), and published by the Moderate Youth League.

Written when the early 1990s banking crisis was deepest, the book argues for abandoning the general welfare state in Sweden, for sharp tax cuts, and for the rollback of the state's involvement in education, law, culture, and the media.[2][3][4][5]

Background

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The Swedish Social Democratic Party (S) was, after World War II, a dominant force in Swedish politics. S led the government from 1948, until 1976 when the Moderates (M) formed a government with the Liberals (L) and the Centre Party (C). M was then part of the government until 1982 when S once again formed a government. In the 1991 general election, M – under the leadership of Carl Bildt – once again formed a government and Reinfeldt was elected to the Riksdag, representing Stockholm county.

Sweden was at the time facing a banking crisis.

Reinfeldt had been active in the Moderate Youth League since 1983, and represented a conservative faction in the organization. In 1992 he became the chairman of the organization, beating the incumbent Ulf Kristersson – who represented a more liberal faction – in what has been called the Battle of Lycksele.

Content

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The book is a compilation of five chapters. The first chapter ("The Sleepy brains") describes a dystopian world where there exists two types of people: "fools", who work for the government, and "the sleepy brains", who live on government welfare. The story is told from the perspective of a "fool" who finds out his son has died from an illness called "the welfare death" (välfärdsdöden). The son was 28 years old and a "sleepy brain", who had no motivation or purpose in life and just watched TV all day, with a remote glued to his hand.[5]

The second chapter ("How is the civil society woken up?") describes how the Moderates should convince people of their ideology. Reinfeldt accuses the Social Democrats of suppressing civil society and brainwashing people to support them. The chapter also disparages the Left Party, the Liberal People's Party and parts of the Centre Party. The chapter advocates for a reduction in government influence and contains the infamous quote: "The Swedes are mentally handicapped and indoctrinated to believe that politicians can create and guarantee welfare".[5][6]

Chapter three ("Diary in an awake human's life") is a fictional diary entry by Johanna – a young Swedish woman – describing a day in her life. She is motivated, plans for the future, talks to older generations, supports Djurgården IF[b] and thinks about international events.[5]

In Chapter four ("Responsibility, morality and own norms"), Reinfeldt reflects on the Ten Commandments and their relevancy in the modern world. The chapter ends with a call to action for Moderate Party politicians, to be more daring in their actions. It also contains the infamous quote: "We don't want to see a society where people starve, but other than that no standard rights should be financed by taxes".[5][8]

Chapter five ("Of course it's possible to affect") is a non-fiction story, about how Reinfeldt fund-raised money for a famine in Ethiopia in 1985. At the time, Reinfeldt was part of a committee representing conscripted soldiers in Sweden (Värnpliktsrådet [sv]). The story describes how he helped organize a country wide campaign to convince conscripts to voluntarily donate their money, and raise c. SEK 250,000 (equivalent to SEK 656,500 in 2023).[5]

Reception

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After Reinfeldt became the leader of the Moderate Party in 2003, and Prime Minister in 2006, the book was often referred to by his political opponents.

At the 2009 Social Democratic Party congress, the party leader Mona Sahlin recommended reading the book, not for inspiration, but to understand the bourgeois ideology.[9]

In 2014, Folkbladet published an article criticizing Reinfeldt for having denied authorship of the book,[10] and Alliansfritt Sverige has accused Reinfeldt of falsifying history by hiding his authorship.[8] The pan-Nordic neo-Nazi movement Nordfront criticized Reinfeldt for his "svenskfientlighet" (swede-phobia) in the book.[11]

Theater Adaption

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In 2013 a theater group adapted Det sovande folket to the stage, which renewed discussion of the book.[2][3][12][13][14][4][15][16] The play is a direct adaption of the book, with the addition of two homeless people talking about their experiences.[17][18]

See also

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Wikiquote has quotations related to Fredrik Reinfeldt#Det sovande folket.

Notes

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  1. ^ Swedish pronunciation: [deː ˈsôːvandɛ ˈfɔ̌lːkɛt]
  2. ^ Fredrik Reinfeldt is a longtime supporter of Djurgården IF.[7]

References

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  1. ^ Schori, Martin (30 September 2009). "Utsikt får statligt uppdrag - trots slarv med skatten" [Utsikt receives state contract - despite tax problems]. Dagens Media (in Swedish). Retrieved 16 September 2024.
  2. ^ a b "Premiär för Fredrik Reinfeldts dystopi" [Premiere for Fredrik Reinfeldt's dystopia]. SVT Nyheter (in Swedish). 8 August 2013.
  3. ^ a b Pettersson, Karin (12 August 2013). "Den zzzovande Fredrik Reinfeldt" [The zzzleeping Fredrik Reinfeldt]. Aftonbladet (in Swedish).
  4. ^ a b Emanuelsson, Johanna; Almerén Persson, Amanda; Möller, Jonathan (16 August 2013). "Reinfeldt, prata med oss om 'Det sovande folket'" [Reinfeldt, talk to us about "The sleeping people"]. Aftonbladet (in Swedish).
  5. ^ a b c d e f Reinfeldt, Fredrik (1993). Det sovande folket [The sleeping people]. Stockholm: Moderata ungdomsförbundet. ISBN 978-91-86194-10-9.
  6. ^ Mattsson, Kristina (19 March 2012). "Är svenskarna mentalt handikappade?" [Are the Swedes mentally handicapped?]. Arbetet (in Swedish). Retrieved 16 September 2024.
  7. ^ Karlsson, Pär (30 June 2015). "Här är Fredrik Reinfeldts nya liv - så lever han efter avgången" [Here is Fredrik Reinfeldt's new life - that's how he lives after leaving]. Aftonbladet (in Swedish).
  8. ^ a b "Boken Reinfeldt vill glömma – nu allmän handling" [The book Reinfeldt wants to forget – now a public record]. SVT Nyheter (in Swedish). 19 June 2014. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  9. ^ "Mona Sahlin: Öppningsanförande på Socialdemokraternas kongress 2009" [Mona Sahlin: Opening speech of the Social Democrats' congress 2009]. Svenska Tal (in Swedish). 28 October 2009. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
  10. ^ Westerlind, Linda (3 July 2014). "Reinfeldts dubbelmoral" [Reinfeldt's double standard] (in Swedish). Folkbladet. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  11. ^ "Reinfeldt: Svenskarna äger inte Sverige" [Reinfeldt: The Swedes do not own Sweden]. Nordfront (in Swedish). 25 December 2014. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  12. ^ Karlsson, Lena S. (16 August 2013). "Pjäsen klär av Reinfeldt" [The play unveils Reinfeldt]. Dala-Demokraten (in Swedish).
  13. ^ Persson, Ingvar (12 August 2013). "Ekon från 90-talet" [Echoes from the 90's]. Aftonbladet (in Swedish).
  14. ^ Lifvendahl, Tove (11 August 2013). "Bättre än sitt rykte" [Better than its reputation]. Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish).
  15. ^ O'Nils, Katarina (9 August 2013). "Vänstervalkampanj på teaterscenen" [Left's election campaign on the theater] (in Swedish). Svensk Tidskrift [sv].
  16. ^ "'Det sovande folket' spelas fram till valdagen" ["The sleeping people" is performed until election day]. SVT Nyheter (in Swedish). 16 August 2013.
  17. ^ Törnkvist, Ann (13 September 2013). "PM's sci-fi book becomes surprise stage success". The Local. Archived from the original on 14 September 2013.
  18. ^ Lifvendahl, Tove (11 August 2013). "Kommentar och svar angående Det sovande folket" [Comments and answers about The sleeping people]. Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish).
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