The Law of Jante

Janet Carr

Jul 2

Sweden as a culture is not really about selling yourself. Swedes are terrible about using words like 'excellent' or 'ourstanding' on their resumés. People generally don't want to stand out or give the impression that they think they are something. Body language is minimal and colours tend to be neutral. Scandi minimalism applies to both design and colour. Jantelagen (the Law of Jante) permeates everything. People say it does not apply anymore and in a way that is true. It's less evident among younger people because they are part of the designer label/TikTok generation where you need to stand out, but it is still there.

I would say international equivalents are tall poppy syndrome and crab bucket syndrome.

From Wikipedia: The Law of Jante is a code of conduct created in fiction by the Danish-Norwegian author Aksel Sandemose and has been assumed by some to explain the egalitarian nature of Nordic countries.

It is used generally in colloquial speech in the Nordic countries as a sociological term to denote a social attitude of disapproval towards expressions of individuality and personal success.

There are ten rules in the law as defined by Sandemose, all expressive of variations on a single theme and usually referred to as a homogeneous unit: You are not to think you're anyone special, or that you're better than us.

The ten rules state:

You're not to think you are anything special.
You're not to think you are as good as we are.
You're not to think you are smarter than we are.
You're not to imagine yourself better than we are.
You're not to think you know more than we do.
You're not to think you are more important than we are.
You're not to think you are good at anything.
You're not to laugh at us.
You're not to think anyone cares about you.
You're not to think you can teach us anything.

One way I generally suggest people get around this way of thought and expression is removing the words only, just, and I think from their vocabularies.