Secular liberal commentators often point to
Sweden as a country where their ideal of an equitable, modern, secular and tolerant
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actually works.
However, the flip side of Sweden’s
hyper-egalitarianism is that the State has made Swedish families extremely subservient to it.
And a recent case has highlighted just how illiberal this intervention can be.
This article [1],
from Crisis magazine, shows the extent to which the Swedish government is
prepared to go to enforce its vision of “tolerance” and “liberalism” on every
last citizen.
It refers to the case of the Johansson
family.
“Almost two years ago, following years of
harassment by the municipal social services, the Johansson family made plans to
leave Sweden for good. The government had been pestering the parents about
putting their young son, Domenic, into daycare. They refused.
Later, instead of enrolling the young boy in
government school, the parents decided to educate Domenic at home until they
left for India, the mother’s homeland. Homeschooling was — despite draconian
restrictions — still legal in Sweden, after all.
But as they were sitting on the plane, just
minutes before takeoff, armed police stormed onboard and seized the
then-seven-year-old boy. There was no warrant, no suspicion of physical abuse —
just an angry social-service bureaucracy that couldn’t stand the thought of the
Johansson family escaping its iron fist.
After the family was torn apart over the
education matter, the government also made an issue about the boy’s not having
received all of his optional vaccines. On top of that, a pair of baby-tooth
cavities the family had scheduled an appointment to treat in India were also
later included in the allegations against them.
Now, years and countless court hearings
later, the family is still separated. An appeal in Stockholm on May 11 drew
some protesters and countless letters of support from advocates around the
world, but the government won’t budge. The involvement of half-a-dozen
high-profile organizations in Scandinavia and elsewhere on behalf of the family
has not helped, either.
However, the case appears to be raising
awareness among the Swedes as to how their Government operates, despite what
the article describes as “a virtual media blackout”.
Jonas Himmelstrand, the president of the
Swedish Home Education Association and the founder of the family-policy think
tank Mireja Institute, who will be a guest speaker at our Women, Home and Work
conference next Thursday, has been traveling the world warning of the dangers
of Swedish family and education policies.
He says of the case that it has to be seen
“in the broader scope of the view of family in Sweden”.
The state daycare system in Sweden now cares
for more than 90 percent of children older than 18 months, he adds.
“Our government has basically taken on the
role of child-rearing to a certain extent.” He also noted that Swedish schools
are under heavy criticism for producing poor results, both socially and
academically — which may lead more parents to discover how successful homeschooling
actually is.
The whole article is well worth a read.