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Apologia pro sua vita

Throughout my time on that planet I have acquired a fairly rigid set of preconceptions which I simply call the Truth. There is nothing wrong calling my preconceptions the Truth, of course. I wouldn't hold the views I hold if they were not true. Who would like to believe in lies, or rosy untrue descriptions of the world?

Apart from the Truth that is within in me I also have opinions. Opinions are not as strong or certain as the Truth. I know that I haven't finished mulling over them yet, and thus i accept that I might change my mind. Often when arguing an opinion though, I get more animated just because I am not sure what I am saying. With the truth, I can be more blissful and calm.

For a writer to have an opinion, is a wonderful thing. The ability to form opinions is a sign of engagement with the world. I have opinions, I just wish I was a writer too. And, like Michael Kinsley, I believe that the process of thinking is immeasurably improved when writers are open about their opinions. And by the way, opinions do not amount to biases: biases are bad, opinions are good.

So let me start by making a few disclosures. You should know that in my early teens, I was very conservative politically. I didn’t have a picture of Carl Bildt on my wall at home. (I wasn’t that much of a dork). But he did come to our house for roast big lunch during one election campaign, in 1985 I believe it was.

Today, if I could vote in the US (of course I can't, because I'm Swedish) I would vote Democrat for all you out there. In the UK I would vote conservative, and that is despite their Europe-phobia, which I don’t like at all. But any democracy needs change in power with regular intervals, and although I am a big fan of Tony Blair, change is good. This is why there is a depressing, urgent, despairing need for a change in power in Sweden too.

I believe Ralf Dahrendorf, the former Director of LSE, is right when he says democracy needs a double-change test before it can fully mature: if a political system has managed a peaceful change of government twice in a row, both in fair elections, then it can be said to have matured into a fully-fledged democracy. This is a test the Swedish one-party state sadly is missing ; (see www.enpartistaten.se).

France is a tricky one, I don’t like the socialists, nor the RPR, both are conservative, insular, chauvinistic, and dare I say xenophobic. Le Pen is out of the question, and the Greens are weak. I don’t think I would vote in France. In India, incidentally I would vote for Congress, in Russia for Yabloko.

I profoundly believe in the need for a free press, and it pains to see that it is lacking in so many countries in the world. I feel utterly sick watching the TV programmes, or reading the newspapers in such semi-dictatorships as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Egypt, or Russia. In Russia, although there is a thriving newspaper scene, a vast majority of the population get their main news from only two government-run and thus pro-Putin channels : Russiya, and First Channel, which of course explains why Putin is so popular.

I am pro-choice as they would say in the US and in favor of gay marriage or any other form of marriage or non-marriage human mind can conjure up. I.e. I think, since any union between one, two or several persons would not hurt anyone else (except some “feelings” of various religious fundamentalists), it is up to the individuals involved to decide. The state has no business in regulating this human activity, or to take a moral stance.

I do not believe in anything called God although I would like to. I do believe in imagination though, and if God is a figment of imagination, then God can be said to exist.

I am against death-penalty but pro-abortion. Strange? As much as the Christian right in the US has the opposite view: pro-life (as they call it) and pro-death penalty, we both have views that are seemingly contradictory. First them: How can you profess to be pro-life (in regard to a featus) and claim that all life is holy, when in the next breath you think it is right to kill a felon? For me, any human being that has developed any self-reflective sense of just that "being" should not be killed. Thus, animals can be killed, for food for instance. And hard as it may seem to some, a featus, is not counted as a human being. But I admit the line is fuzzy. I know for sure a sperm or an egg cannot be considered a human being, (nor do the pro-lifers) but I also do not think that there is some magic event happening at the moment of inception, one egg becomes two cells while a tail disappears), then two cells become four etc. Nope, I do not see that those two cells should have recourse to a fundamentally different set of moral rules from that one egg existing a second earlier.

I think the war in Iraq is - on balance – hold your breath now (especially all those who know me)… a mistake. However, it can also turn out quite well. I do not believe that the sole governing motive behind US and UK action is oil. And further, I believe that the present state of Iraq (yes, with the terror-attacks, party-squabbling, lack of funding, rise in smuggling, and occasional soldier-abuse) is infinitely better than the tyrannical state under Saddam Hussein.

I think war sometimes is a justified and useful tool in international relations.

I am a big believer in free trade. But I believe that transport (whether air, sea, or road) has to account for its environmental costs through targeted taxes. It is not environmentally sustainable to buy an item manufactured in China, because it is marginally cheaper. Its transport's contribution to carbon-emissions should not be discounted.

I think, again on balance, taxes in America--particularly for rich people--ought to be higher, not lower. And I think taxes on rich people in Sweden should be lower not higher. I hold the latter opinion not because I am rich, I am not, but because the incentive for ‘making a buck’ must be there for a society to prosper.

I think smoking is a terrible problem and that cigarette manufacturers ought to be subjected to every possible social and political sanction. But I think that filing product liability lawsuits against cigarette manufacturers is absurd.

I hate SUVs, especially the hummer, Although I wouldn’t mind trying one for a day.

I think many CEOs are overpaid. Incidentally, I also think many footballers are overpaid, especially those who argue with the referee, dive, sulk, or lash out against the opposition fans.

I think there is too much sex, violence, and Anglo-Saxonism on television. In fact, I do not believe in television much, except when there is a program that can unify a family and when popcorn, tea or biscuits are prepared in conjunction.

I don’t believe in giving money to beggars on the street. Why I have this attitude bugs me sometimes. I don't have a proper defense for this opinion, but it has little to do with any stinginess on my part. I think I hold it because reject the idea of a “compassion of proximity”. I see it as being self-centered only caring for the people who are within a throw of a coin from me. There are greater sufferers in the world, and I prefer to direct my energies (and funds) towards trying to contribute to a more equitable world on a larger scale. It has also something to do with the fact that in many places beggars become discouraged to seek a proper job. If I was a beggar myself, I would probably hold the opposite view.

I think that more of the world should adopt a single-paying, government funded, universal health care system of the likes one can find in Canada or Sweden.

I think that immigration to the West is way too high. Not because of the usual arguments : that immigrants should "stay home", that the sheer numbers make it difficult to integrate people, that the West is loosing its soul and values in the process. No, the reason is that it is counter-productive, short-sighted, and simply causes more problems than it solves -- not in the West, but in the source countries. The high level of immigration causes a brain-drain of the politically active and competent. The impunity with which crooks are running many developing countries is proof of this. Despite some claims to the contrary, it has never been as easy as it is now to enter the rich world. For the health of the world, especially the developing world, it shouldn't be.

When it comes to cartoons and religions I fundamentally believe that one not only has the right but the duty to ridicule religions – and their political manifestations. This even means the right to stereotyping. When there are so many suicide bombers acting in the name of Allah, a caricature to this effect forces a response, and a political discussion. I believe that the freedom everyone enjoys in so called liberal western societies, must be defended, so that the Muslims who live there can continue practice their religion. The muslims, as all else, must realise that they benefit from this freedom and that this freedom comes with a caveat : others might use that very freedom in different ways, in ways incompatible with one’s own beliefs. One has to decide wheter we want a society which is built on one religion and in which other manifestations are not allowed, (such as in Saudi Arabia or Iran), or a society in which all opinions are noticed even those that hurt my ‘feelings’ and ‘convictions’ (such as in the west). One cannot have one – one’s own freedom to practice anything – without the other—the freedom of others to do as they please. This is fundamentally what the muslim imams protesting in Europe against the cartoons are not realising.

Do any of these opinions rise to the level of bias? I don't think so. They don't cohere in a single identifiable ideology. And they aren't predictive, in the sense that they lead me inexorably towards writing in a pro-God, pro-Democratic, pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, pro-free trade, pro-higher taxes, anti-Iraq war kind of way, should i write.

I should also say that, by the time you read this, any number of the opinions I've stated above may well have changed. That's another important difference between biases and opinions. Biases are pretty stable. Opinions come and go.