By RM
monday, june 23, 2025 at 11:42:00 p.m. edt
“Trouble in Paradise” (documentary about sweden)
I posted this some time ago to the usual non-response, so here it is again:
In the early 1960s, the CBS documentary series The 20th Century aired an episode titled “Trouble in Paradise,” raising the question “Are Sweden’s SOCIAL WELFARE programs to blame for the country’s alarming rates of juvenile delinquency, alcoholism, divorce and suicide?” (As goes sweden, the other scandinavian countries follow.) People did notice these trends, long before social media and that brilliant exemplar of modern social discourse, “WTF?”
There was a followup to the story: when the show was screened for the Swedish press, some of the members got up and walked out. But, of course!
-RM
N.S.: Thanks for the reminder, RM. As you have surely noticed, I am forever playing catch-up.
No examinations of Sweden's problems these days by cbs,I'll go out on a limb.
ReplyDelete--GRA
Too bad episodes of that series are hard to find; the few I've seen are very good. There was one called "The Man Who Spied On Pearl Harbor" which uncovered a Jap who did exactly that in 1941, proving that Jap saboteurs WERE a real threat, and indirectly justifying the notorious "internment" camps. (Though of course Hawaii was not part of the mainland U.S. at that time, there would be no reason not to think similar spying was going on in the States.) When the locals saw this guy being interviewed on the show, they were outraged and wanted him in prison for treason- today they'd make him a hero!
ReplyDelete-RM