What is the “rim law”, whose 10 commandments make the Scandinavians joyful? | EUROtoday

Lhe Nordic nations – Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden and Norway – have been across the firmament of the world rankings for happiness for years. According to the United Nations 2024 prize checklist launched Thursday, March 20, Finland retains its most fulfilled nation crown, adopted intently by Denmark. The foundations of this collective bliss show to be a number of: restricted social disparities, beneficiant remuneration, generalized local weather of belief …

But past their strong social techniques and their countless winters, these nations share a cultural singularity more likely to make clear their presence among the many most serene havens on the planet: rim regulation, or Janteloven in Danish.

“Don’t think you are someone special”

The rim regulation embodies a philosophical precept of humility and modesty deeply anchored within the Northern soul. This ethical code was conceptualized by the Dano-Norwegian author Aksel Sandemose in his 1936 novel A fugitive cuts off his traces (In flyktning krysser sitt spor). In this work happening within the fictitious city of rim, every member of the neighborhood is known as upon to combine into the collective by observing the precepts of this “law”.

Read too Happy however pessimistic: the happiness of the French siftIt consists of ten commandments which refresh individualism and exalt collective modesty. This philosophy, instilled from an early age in Nordic societies, advocates that no particular person ought to take into account himself superior to others or search to tell apart himself, working akin to a collective ethical crucial which shapes social interactions.

Here are the ten commandments of the rim regulation:

• Do not assume you’re somebody particular.

• Do not assume you’re value as a lot as we do.

• Do not assume you’re smarter than us.

• Do not think about that you’re higher than us.

• Do not assume greater than us.

• Do not assume you’re extra vital than us.

• Do not assume you’re good at something.

• Don’t make enjoyable of us.

• Don’t assume somebody cares about you.

• Don’t assume you may educate us something.

Modest conduct to guard your self from jealousy

In essence, in keeping with rim regulation, the “we”, the collective entity, invariably prevails over the “you”, the singular being. As stipulates the nationwide encyclopedia of Denmark: “By a conduct imprinted with modesty, one protects ourselves against the jealousy of others. And therefore anger, hatred and misfortune. In these Northern countries, common bliss seems to be cultivated to the detriment of personal development, enabling in powerful societal values: valuation of confidence in the other, primacy of education, spirit of solidarity, ideal of equality, virtue of modesty, search for harmony between professional and family spheres, as well as parity between genres.

According to a study by the Danish daily Politiken In 2008, three quarters of the Danes, all social strata and generations combined, joined the rim law. “The rim law constitutes the very essence of our cultural heritage,” said the philosopher Arno Victor Nielsen in the columns of Politiken.

A debate on the support of contemporary populations

Nowadays, all the inhabitants of the Nordic regions no longer unanimously adhere to these principles, controversial in the era of hyperindividualization and the omnipresence of social networks, which each encourage self -promotion. Peter Nedergaard, eminent professor of political science at the University of Copenhagen, interviewed in 2023 by the Danish newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad, estimates that the [loi de Jante] has completely disappeared. A regrettable observation ”.

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Conversely, on this similar article, Kay Xander Melish, speaker and writer of the works Working with Danes And Working with Americanssays that “the rim regulation stays perennial in Danish tradition. For instance, when Elon Musk evokes, his recognition is extraordinarily weak in Denmark, as a result of he embodies absolutely the antithesis of the rim regulation, contemplating himself actually distinctive. In the United States, however, Elon Musk enjoys immense recognition due to his intelligence and his audacity to imagine in his capacities. »»

For or in opposition to, the rim regulation undoubtedly stays a pillar of the Scandinavian social philosophy of the XX^e century. Without forgetting the well-known hygge Danish and Norwegian, a lifestyle primarily based on cocooning, basic in happiness in Nordic. But that is one other story!