The Tyranny of Tradition

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Swede Revenge!!!

This was in my inbox about a half an hour ago.   In case you missed how this whole thing started, here’s a link to the original article.  I’m really not sure what to think about anything anymore.  Things have gotten simply too weird.

Anyway, here’s Sarah…

Keith,

I want to clear up some misconceptions that came up in my review of Ghost’s “Opus Eponymous”.  I have received a good amount of angry emails from people who felt that I made remarks that were demeaning towards Swedish people.  I even received an angry message from the Swedish embassy.  I want to go on the record as saying I have nothing but respect and admiration for the Swedish people.  Some of the most significant Americans of the last 100 years have been Swedes. John W. Nordstrom, founder of the Nordstrom’s retail chain, was born in Sweden. Astronaut and American hero Buzz Aldrin is part Swedish.  Even wonderful entertainers like Julia Roberts and Tippi Hedren claim Sweden part of their great ancestry.

Just so you know, I was one of the first shoppers at IKEA when it opened in Anchorage.  They have all of those sturdy pieces of furniture with the silly names.  I think we bought a Flarn for Piper’s room that day.  Every Sunday, Todd and I drive an hour to treat the family to breakfast at the closest IHOP over in the town of Chuloonawick.  Every week without fail I order the Swedish pancakes.  Surprisingly enough, both my and Todd’s favorite candy are Swedish fish.  I ask you, do I sound like someone who hates Swedish people?

The point I was trying to make was not that we should hate all Swedes or the country of Sweden.  Sweden is clearly an up and coming country.  They have their own embassy, which tells you a lot about them. IKEA has a business model all Americans can be proud of.   Once they grow out of their socialist phase like Russia did, they could easily rejoin the great nations that have refuted socialism and embraced values we can all stand for.  The point I was trying to make in the article really had nothing to do with Swedes.  It was more the idea that we should naturally be aware that some foreigners are against what we stand for and are dangerous.  Since we can never be quite sure which ones are the bad ones, we must naturally be aware of all of them and treat them with appropriate caution.  There is nothing wrong with a little bit of vigilance when our safety and well-being is at stake.  When we are dealing from refuges from a socialist country like Sweden we must be even more prepared for the threat of potential anti-Americanism or worse.  Even a writer and poet as great as Shakespeare understood this.  He put it brilliantly when he wrote those now famous words “something is rotten in the state of Sweden.”  I am clearly not the only one with these sorts of concerns.

I was very upset by your comments last night on MSNBC.  After reading your article about the Beatles, I was sure you were someone I had a good deal in common with.  How wrong I was!  The statement you made about “condoning my metalheadedness but not my blockheadedness” was simply unfair.  First of all, metalheadedness is not a word. Secondly, it upset me to no end to hear you give ammunition to an arm of the liberal media empire like MSNBC.  They are clearly out to destroy me. In a week where I’ve experienced such awful attacks and personal suffering I would think you could have been a bit nicer.  I simply will not write anything else for your stupid little blog.

Sarah