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Well said, even though I think Sweden is based on big government ideals rather than Socialism.

Capitalism today is flourishing in Sweden.

Sweden has always been a very centralized nation. For hundreds of years Sweden was one of the most militaristic, disciplined and also most bureaucratic among countries. If not the most.

We Swedes are well educated and innovative but I’m afraid we have developed a little too much of a mentality based on taking orders from Big Brother (read politicians and mainstream media) without reflection.

Regards and thank you for supporting Capitalism, Freedom and Civilization!

Thank you. I'm gratified to know that my appraisal is not completely crazy. The United States suffers from the same kind of delusion. In fact, Western Civilization does. Note tagline.

It is frightening to contemplate the extent to which delusion, denial, hubris, and decadence suffuse Western Civilization--and what can follow.

There are many contributing factors, but some of the most important are:

(1) The European wars, including the horrible religious wars, the wars of rival hegemony, and World Wars I and II.
(2) The Nazi regime.
(3) Segregation and racial discrimination, notably in the U.S.A.
(4) The theories of Karl Marx.
(5) The Information Age, which has made everyone in the world our close neighbors.

The people of the West are understandably horrified by the tragedies and by the inability of Western Civilization to solve the problems and rise above them. The West is committed to universal justice and equality but cannot seem to achieve it.

Unfortunately, millions seek it in all the wrong places.

It is not possible to assure it absolutely and perfectly, but the complete abnegation of Western Civilization is definitely not the answer--though millions seem to think it is.

Despite its inability to create the perfect world-wide civilization, Western Civilization has come closer to it that anything else ever devised.

I don't know whether the people of the world will ever wake up to this realization or not. Let's hope they will.

At post 19 I posted a book of Sowell's. It is the last in what is called his "Vision" series that starts the book The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy and includes A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles before coming to the one mentioned in the post.

I imagine that they are available in Sweden but I don't know if they have been translated in Swedish.

As the only conservative writer worthy of being termed a successor to Hayek, I would recommend them to anyone giving these issues serious study.