Swedes and Their Lack of Prurience

Over the years living in Калифорния, now and then I've heard the international equivalent of an "urban" legend that goes something like this:  The Swedes being largely free of religion and living out the sexual revolution from an early age, they don't have the weird hang-ups and Victorian prurience that we do in America.

If you've read or watched the sensational Girl With The Dragon Tattoo franchise, you've probably thought it was a little strange to see such rampant atrocity depicted in Sweden.  Surely, this is sensationalized.  The late author of the franchise was partly driven by a passion to call attention to the human trafficking problem in Sweden, partly by guilt of having in his teens stood by and let his buddies gang up on a girl.

In the movie Let The Right One In (the Swedish movie remade in America as Let Me In) it looks not quite the 'burbs, not quite the "projects" (unless you count most of the housing in Sweden as government-planned) an otherwise stable and orderly environment with kids not seeming deprived of much (other than stable families) regularly terrorize another kid to the point of posing a threat to his life simply because it's great fun.

One would expect with their eschewing of "conservative" classism, religious superstition (you can be jailed for preaching in church that the Bible does not favor homosexuality -- but who needs a First Amendment when progressives are in charge!), and outdated bourgeois mores for progressive egalitarianism that it would all be one big love-in in the cultural capital of  Europe.

Anyway, these thoughts come to mind as I read about another man jailed in Sweden, this time for something worthy of an arrest:  Apparently a school in the Philippines helped pay its bills by exploiting their charges for the jollies of a Swede watching from his home computer.  The internet voyeur was arrested by Swedish authorities for ordering these long-distance exploitations for his sick viewing pleasure.

Possibly, by recently banning prostitution and forcing the trafficking further underground, Sweden has exacerbated their nasty little problem.  But this will give the Swedish progressives an excuse to monitor their civilians' internet doings, and that will be one more way progressives here can wistfully wonder why we can't be more like the Swedes.

(Personally, the kind of "libertarianism" that I favor makes room for social mores, so I don't necessarily think Nevada's policy on prostitution is best for them, let alone best for the country.  I think Nevada has a right to set its own policy on that issue, but I;m very skeptical that it's a good thing for communities.)