Sunday, March 19th, 2006:
Rumours and gossip in Helsingborg
What I think:
There seems to be an overwhelming need here to discuss other people's business. This, in itself, is obviously not a uniquely Swedish trait; harmless gossip is a perfectly natural, probably even healthy, aspect of most cultures. But here, there's sometimes a certain venomous maliciousness involved.
Exaggeration and speculation is often accepted and believed, and the line is crossed between enjoying harmless chatter and fabricating nasty rumours.
Many people are not happy with their own lives unless they're doing their bit to make those of other people more unpleasant, or at least make other people appear eccentric, undesirable, slightly weird, or just generally abnormal.
I know this to be absolutely true; all of this information comes from some very reliable sources.
While I do my very best - my utmost - to be eccentric, undesirable, slightly weird, and generally abnormal, nobody bothers to make up horrible stories about me. It's unfair treatment for a hard-working, tax-paying immigrant, and it's time that the Swedish government did something about it. That's what I think.
There seems to be an overwhelming need here to discuss other people's business. This, in itself, is obviously not a uniquely Swedish trait; harmless gossip is a perfectly natural, probably even healthy, aspect of most cultures. But here, there's sometimes a certain venomous maliciousness involved.
Exaggeration and speculation is often accepted and believed, and the line is crossed between enjoying harmless chatter and fabricating nasty rumours.
Many people are not happy with their own lives unless they're doing their bit to make those of other people more unpleasant, or at least make other people appear eccentric, undesirable, slightly weird, or just generally abnormal.
I know this to be absolutely true; all of this information comes from some very reliable sources.
While I do my very best - my utmost - to be eccentric, undesirable, slightly weird, and generally abnormal, nobody bothers to make up horrible stories about me. It's unfair treatment for a hard-working, tax-paying immigrant, and it's time that the Swedish government did something about it. That's what I think.
posted by Mark Base at 5:42 pm
3 Comments:
I can definitely see that part of the Swedish culture here in ND. Though (blasphemy though it be to say it aloud -- or type it in public) I still cannot tell you the difference in character between a Norwegian and a Swede.
Don't shoot! I'm Irish and don't know any better!
But then, at the end of the day, there's always POTREZEBIE.
Okay, so I'm noticing a Swedish Government theme.
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