By Jonathan Michael Feldman, October 15, 2024

Discussion between Timbro head PM Nilsson and Mikael Holmström on Swedish Television (SVT), October 15, 2024.

The Debate Over How to Waste Even More Resources

Today we saw a debate between two champions of Swedish militarism. One is at a right-wing think tank associated with policies hostile to a civilian industrial policy. The other is supposed to be a journalist but he sounds like a paid lobbyist of the military industrial complex. Their debate was about how fast we should increase the military budget and military forces in Sweden. Why? Because Swedish cities could be subject to missile attacks like Israel and Ukraine. Yes, the man in the middle implied that a Hamas or Russian force could attack Swedish cities or areas not covered by missile defense. The same forces who argued that Sweden needed to be in NATO because of a Russian threat, having gotten that NATO membership are–AS WAS TOTALLY PREDICTABLE–still are not satisfied. Why? Because military managerialism suggests that these people will want to grab more and more resources, power and self-referential power (see Seymour Melman, Pentagon Capitalism, McGraw Hill, 1970) or my analysis published here. The militarists and their ideologues will invent new threats and missions for the military when given the opportunity. These same forces have weakened Sweden’s military security and are supported by a small influence operation of militarists spread throughout the mass media, universities, and various other parts of society. They rob the civilian welfare state to pay for their absurd view of the world. And now the Swedish state helps finance pro-military think tanks to further circulate this influence operation, i.e. the Atlantic Council.

The Atlantic Council: A Global Fifth Column linking Ecocide, Militarism and Global Finance

The Atlantic Council joins some of the world’s leading banks, petroleum companies and the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs in an expression of the joint interests among globalization champions, militarist expansion via NATO, and ecocide. This major scandal is normalized by a code of silence which reflects a vast moral implosion. Facebook also joins this club interesting in speeding up our demise via militarism or ecocide. The list of sponsors can be found here. Interestingly, Facebook repeatedly blocked the circulation of this post on their page, underlining the Orwellian character of that space. I later received notice that they approved an advertisement promoting this article, showing us the reality of patchy censorship.

The major force acting against these people are actually far-right nationalists in the U.S. and Germany, wholly unsavory authoritarian democracy diluters who try to achieve the same goals as these people using different means. The situation is thoroughly pathetic and reflects an intellectual vacuum which is partially filled by peace forces, but not so well filled by what is called the “left.” The left has at various times been historically weak in opposing various varieties of militarism or prefers often to attack militarist symptoms. The left rarely does an intellectual frontal assault on militarists because it can’t bring itself often to go beyond banal abstractions.

Some Alternatives: Oppose the Sven Hedinism of Sweden

There are solutions but they require a new kind of mass movement, with alternative designs and legacies. The learning curve for current movements is weak and crippled by identitarian self-delusions. One solution is to recover the critical past. On February 15, 1914, an article entitled, “Swedish Militarism,” was published in The New York Times. As can be seen, the article showed how “The Executive of the Swedish Social Democratic Party” had “issued a manifesto against the militarist propaganda carried on under the leadership of Dr. Sven Hedin.” Hedin was a geographer and militarist advocate. One account says he not only opposed the move towards greater democracy, but he linked that to dangers coming from Czarist Russia. He then called for an alliance with Germany. In the contemporary period, Swedish militarists called for and gained an alliance with the United States and similarly repress democracy by defunding public media, museums, study circles, and other cultural and citizen enhancement mechanisms. Hedin supported military preparedness and a stronger military. He was opposed by August Strindberg. Sweden’s alliance with NATO has replicated its earlier cooperation with Germany (and to a certain extent, Nazi Germany).

The Social Democrats Oppose Sven Hedin

Source: “Swedish Militarism,” The New York Times, published February 15, 1914.

The Social Democrats linked Hedin’s campaign to a mobilization effort by militarists. They argued “that large sections of the nation are driven into a state of panic by the unscrupulous propaganda of the militarists, who predict that a war is on the point of breaking out unless an extension of the military forces of the nation be taken in hand at once.” Then as now, the militarists made their money grab, with militarists expanding demands for extending training time and a war budget of then $5 per person. The anti-militarist campaign called “upon the working class to work for a limitation of the military burdens” as well as “a resolute opposition to the provocative talk of the militarists.” While the militarists organized “a march of peasants from all parts of the country to the capital,” the left planned to organize counter protests involving “meetings” across the country where the Social Democratic Party had followers.

Today, Social Democrats are complicit with the modern day Sven Hedins. At one point, Hedin met with Adolph Hitler and other leading Nazis. Today, the Swedish Democrats (formed by Nazis) now cheerlead military budget expansionism. While Hedin made some efforts on behalf of Nazi victims, at one point he was awarded  the Grand Cross of the Order of the German Eagle, just like banker and industrialist Jacob Wallenberg, who was linked to support for German militarism in the Nazi era. A recent study notes that another winner of the German medal, “Commander-in-Chief of the Swedish armed forces, General Olof Thörnell, forcefully advocated an active Swedish intervention on the side of the Finns against the Soviet Union: that is, on the side of Nazi Germany.” Three leading Swedes in academia, finance and the military all given medals by Nazis. So a long tradition exists in which militarists and anti-democratic forces collaborate in order to defeat a country framed as a “threat.” Yet, Sweden has consistently helped aid various countries (like Russia) that its militarists have framed as threats. Sweden’s cooperation with the German war-machine prior to the rise of Nazi, Germany, is also well-documented.