It's Not About Race
Why Americans Misunderstand the Nordic Model
The question comes like clockwork. Every time someone mentions the Nordic Model in America. Every time someone points to Denmark's happiness rankings. Or Sweden's parental leave. Or Norway's sovereign wealth fund. The same tired refrain rises from the crowd.
Those countries are different. They're small. They're homogenous. It wouldn't work here.
And with that simple dismissal, Americans turn away from studying some of the most successful societies on Earth. They retreat to familiar waters. They choose the known dysfunction over the unknown possibility.
But here's what I've seen from walking between these worlds. The Nordic Model doesn't work because everyone looks the same. It works because they built systems that reward cooperation over competition. They created structures that harness human nature instead of fighting it. They understood something fundamental about how societies thrive. They rejected Roman Patriarchal structures.
Americans see hierarchy and race where they should see structure. This is the great misunderstanding. And it keeps us trapped in old patterns while the world moves forward. American Capitalism in the form of Neoliberalism trapped in an 18th century patriarchal institutional structure is maladaptive. Our structure produces stagnation and unless we learn and adapt, we will face eventual social collapse.
The Myth of Homogeneity
I've watched Americans visit Sweden and Norway for the first time. They see blonde hair and blue eyes. They hear Swedish and Norwegian being spoken. And they think they understand. This is why it works here, they say. Everyone is the same.
But they don't see what I see. They don't see the Sámi herders in the north who've kept their own language for thousands of years. They don’t see the tribal languages and dialects and cultures of my people in the fjords and the many others that today have largely assimilated into the major cities. They don't see the class divisions that once split Sweden as sharply as any American city. They don't see the regional differences that made a patriarchal Scanian farmer and a Bohuslän fjord fisherman foreigners to each other just two generations ago and continue to produce conflicts between two cultures that are as different from each other as that of a Chinese rice farmer and an Italian Fashion designer. My father’s family line has black hair. Their line goes back to immigration from northern Russia thousands of years ago. My great grandmother was short. Great grandfather was tall. Different tribes. Blended cultures.
Scandinavia was never homogenous. Denmark had its own deep divisions between continental Roman Patriarchy and its tribal extralegal structure. What changed wasn't the people. What changed was the structure. Scandinavians in Stockholm and Copenhagen and Oslo and Helsinki are not homogenous. They are Westernized.
Look at Sicily. More culturally uniform than any Nordic country. Same language. Same religion. Same traditions passed down for centuries. But does Sicily have Scandinavia's freedom and prosperity and equality? Does it have high trust levels? Does it have institutional competence?
Or look at rural Japan. As homogenous as any place on Earth. Yet their inequality grows. Their young people flee to cities. Their social cohesion fractures despite everyone sharing the same ancestry.
The pattern is clear once you learn to see it. Homogeneity doesn't produce fitness. Structure does. And adaptive structure can be built anywhere.
Reading the Waters of Culture
Americans have been conditioned to read the waters wrong. For generations, our institutions have reinforced rigid racial categories. Our census asks about the deeply flawed concept of race. Our schools track by race. Our politics divide by race. White Men created a lens that sees race in everything.
This isn't surprising. American history is what it is. Slavery required racial categories. Segregation needed racial boundaries. Immigration quotas depended on racial hierarchies. These systems shaped how Americans see the world. They created mental models and behaviors that persist long after the laws changed.
But the Nordic peoples read different waters. They see actions, not race. They see citizen and non-citizen. They see labor and capital. They build their policies around these divisions. And slowly, over time, they've learned to narrow these gaps too.
The difference matters. When you see race as the primary division, you create policies that reinforce racial thinking. When you see actions and citizenship as the primary division, you create policies that can actually bridge those divides. One approach locks you in place. The other offers a path forward.
And this changes everything about what's possible.
The Architecture of Trust
Trust is not inherited. Trust is not earned or caused. Trust is built. Like a longship assembled plank by plank. Like a stone church rising from foundation to spire. Trust requires architecture.
The Nordic Model is fundamentally an architecture of trust. But Americans mistake the outcome for the input. They see high trust levels in Nordic societies and assume this must be cultural. Something in the blood. Something in the history. Something that can't be replicated.
But I've watched trust being built. I've seen how it works. The formula is simpler than most imagine.
Start with transparency. Make information public. Let people see how decisions are made. Let them track where money goes. Corruption thrives in darkness. Trust grows in light.
Add input processes. Add the ledger of complaints. Create systems where everyone plays by the same rules. Where the wealthy can't buy different justice. Where connections don't override competence. Where merit has meaning.
Include everyone in the benefits. When public schools are excellent, everyone uses public schools. When public healthcare is quality, everyone uses public healthcare. Segregation kills trust. Integration builds it.
Build accountability into every level. From the local council to the prime minister's office. Create mechanisms for people to challenge power. Make it normal to question authority. Make it expected. Make complaining about poor governance easy and normal and recorded.
And here's the key insight. These aren't Nordic values. These are design principles that work anywhere humans gather. They worked in medieval merchant guilds. They work in modern cooperatives. They work because they align with how humans actually build trust. Not through similarity. Through reciprocity. It’s evolutionary biology.
The Whale Road to Prosperity
Every successful society finds its whale road. Its path across treacherous waters to abundance. The Nordic countries found theirs in the early 20th century. And it wasn't the path most expected.
They were poor countries then. Norway was one of Europe's poorest. Finland struggled under Russian rule. Denmark had lost its patriarchal empire. Sweden faced massive emigration to America. By any measure, these were societies in crisis.
But crisis creates opportunity for those who can read the tides.
The labor movements rose first. Not just unions, but entire parallel societies. Worker education. Worker newspapers. Worker housing cooperatives. Worker cultural organizations. They built a complete ecosystem outside the control of capital.
Then came the critical moment. The moment when these movements could have turned revolutionary. Could have followed Russia's path. Could have chosen violence and upheaval.
But the Nordic labor movements chose differently. They chose to capture the state through democracy. To reform rather than revolt. To build rather than burn.
And this made all the difference.
Building the Machinery of Equality
The Americans had their New Deal moment too. For a brief time, they seemed to understand. They built Social Security. They created jobs programs. They regulated capital. They taxed the wealthy. They began constructing their own machinery of equality.
Roosevelt understood what the Nordic reformers understood. That capitalism without constraints becomes predation. That markets without management become manipulation. That wealth without redistribution becomes tyranny.
But where the Nordic countries kept building, America stopped. Where they deepened their reforms, America reversed course. Where they learned and adapted, America forgot and retreated.
The Reagan revolution wasn't just about policy. It was about mythology. It told Americans that their New Deal had been an aberration. That their natural state was rugged individualism. That cooperation was foreign to their nature.
The story of this transformation is not merely one of political philosophy but of deliberate social engineering no different than what Fascists and Communists did in the early 20th century. The rise of libertarianism as a dominant force in American life was neither organic nor accidental. It was the product of a deliberate, well-funded campaign orchestrated by some of the wealthiest families in America. The Koch brothers, the Olin family, the Scaife foundations, and others poured billions of dollars into creating an intellectual and political infrastructure designed to promote libertarian ideas and policies.
This mythology persists. It tells Americans they're too different to cooperate. Too diverse to share. Too independent to build collective solutions. But mythology is not destiny. Stories can be rewritten. Paths can be changed.
The Season of Unlearning
We are entering a season of unlearning. The old stories no longer serve. Libertarianism and Neoliberalism have failed to deliver equal opportunity and brought authoritarianism. It was no accident that Thatcher and Reagan and Friedman et al were pals with murderous Fascists.
The myths that sustained the American system are breaking down. And in this breakdown lies opportunity.
Young Americans already sense this. They look at Nordic models with fresh eyes. They see universal healthcare not as socialism but as common sense. They see free education not as radicalism but as investment. They see labor rights not as impediment but as necessity.
But the old patriarchal guard resists. They reach for familiar excuses. It's about size, they say. It's about homogeneity. It's about culture. It's about race. Always, eventually, it comes back to race and sex and gender. It’s about patriarchy. It’s about hierarchy. It’s about violence. it’s about coercion and manipulation.
So let me be clear as northern starlight. The Nordic Model has nothing to do with size or racial homogeneity. It has everything to do with institutional design. It has everything to do with structure. With power structures. With the courage to constrain capital and empower labor. With the wisdom to see public goods as investments rather than costs.
These are choices. Not destiny. Choices any society can make.
Diversity as Strength, Not Obstacle
Here's what Americans miss when they fixate on homogeneity. Diversity is a source of strength when properly structured. Different perspectives. Different solutions. Different strengths combining.
The Nordic structures continue to adapt. Immigration has changed their demographics dramatically. Stockholm is now one of Europe's most diverse capitals. Oslo neighborhoods speak dozens of languages. Copenhagen schools teach children from across the globe.
And yes, this creates challenges. Assimilation is hard work. Building trust across difference takes time. But the fundamental structures adapt. The machinery of equality still functions. The architecture of trust still evolves.
Because these systems were never about everyone being the same. They were about everyone having the same opportunities. The same rights. The same access to the tools of prosperity.
America actually has advantages here. Diverse from the beginning. Two centuries to learn about building across difference. Developed technological capacities Nordic countries have only recently acquired. But we've applied these capacities to maintaining hierarchy rather than building functional structures.
Imagine if we in America redirected that expertise. Imagine if we used our hard-won knowledge about diversity to build inclusive institutions. Imagine if we realized the Idea of America!
The Technology of Cooperation
Money is technology. We learned this from watching the tide mills. The tide comes in. The tide goes out. But the mill wheel turns. Money flows like tides. In and out. But wealth builds like the mill wheel turning.
The tide is not the power. The wheel is the power. Money is not wealth. The structure that harnesses money is wealth.
The Nordic Model is fundamentally a technology for harnessing human cooperation. Like any technology, it can be studied. Understood. Adapted. Improved. Transferred.
Americans excel at technology transfer in other domains. We study Japanese manufacturing. We adopt Korean education methods. We import German engineering standards. But when it comes to social technology, we claim exceptionalism. We insist our society is too unique to learn from others.
This is choosing ignorance. And ignorance in the modern world is choosing decline.
The Pattern of Successful Societies
New research in evolutionary science reveals patterns. Successful societies share common traits. Not genetic traits. Not racial traits. But organizational traits. Structural patterns that emerge again and again wherever humans thrive.
These patterns include mechanisms for suppressing selfishness. For rewarding cooperation. For sharing information. For distributing resources. For making collective decisions. For adapting to change.
The Nordic Model embodies these patterns. But it didn't invent them. They appear in successful indigenous communities. In medieval merchant cities. In modern cooperatives. In any human group that solves collective action problems.
Race has nothing to do with it. Scale has little to do with it. What matters is whether you build the structures. Whether you maintain them. Whether you adapt them as conditions change.
The Harbor We're Building
Every ship needs a harbor. Every journey needs a destination. The Nordic Model offers one vision of that harbor. A place where no one falls through the cracks. Where everyone has enough. Where prosperity is shared rather than hoarded.
But Americans need not copy the Nordic harbor exactly. We can build our own. We can design it for our waters. Our weather. Our fleet. Our children. What matters is that we build it. That we stop pretending the open ocean ruled by pirates is our only option.
The young understand this. They're already sketching plans. Universal healthcare. Free education. Public housing cooperatives. Universal public banking. Green infrastructure. They're designing a harbor for the 21st century. One that learns from Nordic successes but adapts to American conditions.
The resistance comes from those who profit from the current chaos. Who've built their wealth on others' precarity. Who mistake their temporary advantage for permanent superiority. They're the ones insisting it can't be done. That Americans are too different. Too diverse. Too individualistic.
But tides turn. Seasons change. And the young have time on their side.
The Returning Tide
We return now to the beginning. To the reflexive dismissal. To the racial explanation. To the comfortable myth that lets Americans avoid uncomfortable questions.
But comfort and truth rarely share the same harbor.
The truth is this. The Nordic Model works because it's built on universal evolutionary principles of human cooperation. Principles that function regardless of what people look like. Principles that actually work better with diversity when properly structured.
The truth is America once understood this. Once built systems based on these principles. Once began constructing its own version of shared prosperity.
The truth is we can do it again. But first we must stop using race as an excuse. Stop pretending our diversity is a weakness rather than a strength. Stop believing myths that serve only those who profit from your division.
The whale road is open. The tools exist. The examples surround us. Other societies have shown the way. Not because they're racially homogenous. But because they chose cooperation over competition. Structure over chaos. Inclusion over exclusion. Altruism over selfishness.
These are choices. Available to any society. At any moment. Including this one.
And now we see clearly. It was never about race. It was always about courage. The courage to constrain capital. To empower labor. To build public goods. To share prosperity. To trust each other enough to try. Courage.
The Nordic countries found that courage in their moment of crisis. They transformed themselves from Europe's poorest to its most prosperous. From its most unequal to its most egalitarian. From societies of emigration to societies of immigration.
America faces its own moment of crisis. Growing inequality. Declining trust. Crumbling infrastructure. Political dysfunction. Violent extrajudicial authoritarianism. All the signals of a society that needs transformation.
The question is not whether Americans are capable of change. History shows that we are. The question is whether we'll stop using diversity as an excuse for inaction. Whether we'll learn from global examples. Whether we'll build the structures that make cooperation possible.
Has the Libertarian virus destroyed our social structures beyond repair? I don’t think so. I see an energized American youth that is ready to exclude antisocial people and ready to build adaptive structures.
The moon pulls the tides whether we understand it or not. But only those who understand can build the mills. Only those who see the patterns can harness the power. Only those who abandon comfortable myths can create new realities.
So we end where we began. With a simple truth that changes everything. The Nordic Model isn't about race. It never was. It's about building systems that reward our better angels. That constrain our worse impulses. That create abundance through cooperation rather than scarcity through competition.
Any society can build these systems. Any people can choose this path. Even Americans. Especially Americans. If you can just stop seeing race where you should see structure. Stop seeing difference where you should see possibility. Stop seeing obstacles where you should see opportunities.
The tide is turning. The season is changing. The old myths are dying. And in their place, something new is growing. Something that honors diversity while building unity. Something that harnesses difference for collective strength. Something that proves, once and for all, that human cooperation transcends the boundaries we imagine.
The harbor can be built. The whale road can be found. The journey can begin. But first, we must see clearly. It's not about race. It never was. It's about choosing the future we want to build.
And that choice is always ours to make. We just have to be willing to suffer and sacrifice for something more meaningful than self-interest.
Next week: how a group of men used planning to promote the idea that planning is bad.