Scandinavian societies

[otolith]

To avoid derailing the "what car" topic any further;

XJ Flyer said:

Norway might have some 'issues',related to certain types of socialist tendencies like its attitude towards freedom related to car use.But having long ago decided to do what the Scottish didn't have the bottle to do and staying well out of the EU,collectivism/federalism obviously certainly isn't one of those 'issues'.

You misunderstand what I mean by collectivism - I mean it as the opposite of individualism, the belief that what is better for the community is more important than what better for the individualism. I don't think you can divorce that from a tendency towards societies with a high degree of socialisation of services and provision of social welfare. It's really nothing to do with European federalism except in so much that the European project has some similar ideals. Your views on the relationship between the individual and wider society are really incompatible with your view on the desirability of the Norwegian model.

[otolith]

The cultural difference that Jante highlights is the reason you can't impose Scandinavian politics on the UK any more than you can impose Western secular democracy on half the Middle East - the politics are the product of the culture, not vice-versa.