From Passion to Prosperity Newsletter

June 2009
Volume 1, Issue 4

Special of the Month

Breakin' the Law of Jante

This Newsletter I want to bring your attention to the Law of Jante. Who and what you can read in the paragraphs below. So why this focus, the Law of Jante is nothing we should boast of absolutely to the contrary. The problem is rather that we’re not aware of it, and I urge you to beware of it.

So unknown, and still so omnipresent across borders and cultures, and seemingly so widely accepted, even though confronted with the law, probably nobody will admit to it.

The Danish/Norwegian author Aksel Sandemose put it on paper in his novel A Fugitive Crosses His Tracks (Sandemose 1933).

It is a story about the crippling affect of social conditioning referred to in the novel as Jante Law. This work is very familiar to those who grew up in Scandinavia, as Sandemose hails from and lived in that area. The story focuses on the effect of a theory summed up in a series of proclamations, or rules, known as Jante Law, that are ingrained in the minds of residents of a small town. These rules seek to not just level the playing field for everyone but stifle any growth or prevent any break from the conventional wisdom and customs as they relate to this small community based on the author’s hometown. The Laws of Jante are as follows:

Do not believe you are something.

Do not believe you are as good as us.

Do not believe you are wiser than us.

Do not fancy yourself better than us.

Do not believe you know more than us.

Do not believe you are greater than us.

Do not believe you amount to anything.

Do not laugh at us.

Do not believe anyone cares about you.

Do not believe you can teach us anything.

This is an example of the type of mind-set that creeps into people’s subconscious and prevents them from charting their own course.

Why is it so? Why is it so important for family, society, and government to mold everybody into conformity? We come into this world as unique human beings. As soon as we are born, the molding process starts. Never mind the shape you come in, you’re destined to fit into the same hole. Parents, grandparents. Look at your brother, listen to your mom, this is how we do it around here, thank you very much. Don’t do this and don’t do that. Comply with social norms. Then society takes over through pre-school and the school system. Grow up; get yourself an education and a secure job. Government kicks in through laws, procedures, systems and taxes. Trying to keep everybody conform. Earl Nightingale says that the opposite of courage is not cowardness; it is conformity. So why is it so present when it is so dangerous. Even in the USA, the land of possibilities and individualisms it has been creeping in for quite a while.

Dictators of course love the idea, probably under the cover of being protective, which of course is just a hidden agenda, it is just a way of keeping everybody down.

So why all this sameness with little room for individuality? Is it an effort of over protectiveness; we don’t want anyone to loose, fall outside of society. Or are we afraid to see others win, looking in our own mirror only to see someone not daring to break out?

As it is, the Law of Jante syndrome has turned out to be a very present part of us, which is sad as it to a very large extent prohibits development. Think how much this world could have thrived if what is expressed through the Law of Jante was not allowed to have such an impact on society, on the life of the individual.

I also want to tie the Law of Jante to the first chapter of my book Unlock Your Future. This chapter is titled Conventional Wisdom. And this conventional wisdom and the Law of Jante is pretty much the same thing. Keeping things the way it has always been. It is safe, it is familiar, traditional: nobody’s standing out, probably none but the “us”. As a parallel in George Orwell’s Animal Farm the philosophy is that all Pigs are equal. However, as time goes by it dawns upon the “society” that all Pigs cannot be equal, and subsequently some Pigs become more equal than others. The ruling class. That is of benefit to none, not even the ruling class itself in the long run.

The only thing that will benefit us is to live out the uniqueness that each individual brings to this world.

Thank you,
Jan Peter
www.QuantumLeapsConsulting.com
mail@quantumleapsconsulting.com