ABOUT A NEW LAW OF JANTE


MAY 29:
Yesterday I wrote about the so-called LAW OF JANTE. It was made I 1933 by the Danish-Norwegian author Aksel Sandemose about life in a small Danish provincial town at the time.

These are ten rules on how Danes and other Scandinavians think about others. They are all sort of negative rules, which many would recognize in their daily life.
You can read more about them on Wikipedia here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Jante



In the meantime many years have passed. Many things have changed – or have they?  And not necessarily changed for the better, on the contrary.
To make a point and to attract attention you often have to exaggerate a bit. 
I have tried to do that with this new version of :



LAW OF JANTE – OF TODAY:
  1. You have to be scared.  People are getting at you all the time. It is dangerous for you. Life, society, food, hospitals, traffic, people from other countries – all is dangerous
  2. You have to be envious. Others have a better life than you. And probably they haven’t deserved it. It is likely they have been cheating
  3. You have to be convinced that other people are odd.  Especially those from other countries than your own
  4. You must know that the Danes are the best in all repects. World champions in everything. And if anybody is in the slightest doubt about it you have the right to be very insulted
  5. You always must buy things with a huge discount. And when you realize that you haven’t bought the best you are outraged – and make a complaint
  6. You have to be stubborn and have a “I know better” attitude. Nobody is going to teach you anything
  7. You should never say Thank You, when somebody opens the door for you or lets you pass by in a queue.
  8. You should never say Good Morning or Hello to anybody you don’t know personally. And if somebody says it to you, of course, you have the right  to look very astonished saying: Don’t disturb me. I haven’t done anything wrong!
  9. You must expect that everybody agrees about everything. Consensus is the law in this country.  And if anybody does not agree he or she is just no longer of the good company
  10. You should never be interested in other people and what they are doing. And especially not if they come from other places than you or are doing different things than you do.

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