David Eberhard

Working as a psychiatrist in Stockholm, David Eberhard began observing how people seeking psychiatric care after the 1980s were experiencing mental problems caused by petty everyday experiences like being dumped by a girl/boyfriend. When he finally presented his theory about the phenomenon in one of Sweden's largest newspapers, it became a popular but controversial cultural meme: the "national panic syndrome."

Sweden, Eberhard argues, has made its citizens neurotically dependent upon a welfare system where everything deemed possibly dangerous is banned. In his now classic book In the land of the safety narcomaniacs, Eberhard startlingly provides example after example of absurd laws and policies in Sweden made to prevent people from eating "dangerous" food, carrying babies in "dangerous" ways, smoking "life threatening" cigarettes, and playing football with "dangerous" soccer goals. The list eventually becomes a humorous depiction of a welfare society gone too far.

Eberhard's most important contribution to contemporary public debate about welfare-ism is the issue of what social consequences you get from living in an environment so safe you stop evaluating risks. How is a public affected by having a welfare State nannying them about every aspect of their lives? The result, he argues, is a culture of social impotence, so neurotically afraid of risks that it stops thinking rationally, actually increasing the de facto risk of danger. In his latest book, No one takes shit in the land of the easily offended, Eberhard additionally claims Sweden is suffering from a culture of victimization where people project their fears over everyday injustices unto other people through bureaucratic institutions.

Fredrik Lindström

Originally a linguist, popular historian, comedian and film director, Fredrik Lindström began entering mainstream media with a series of television shows humorously describing the nature of Swedish language, mentality and culture. Combining his academic knowledge of language together with stand-up comedy, Lindström quickly became a national icon, self-ironically symbolizing the classic figure of the inventive, socially incompetent, rationally thinking, absurdly considerate Swede.

Lindström, by analyzing the subtle linguistic diversity in Sweden, picks out centuries of historical and cultural evolution. Then studying the impact the welfare society has had upon Swedish sociocultural development, Lindström argues modern civilization combined with the "Swedish model" of society are slowly eroding important traditions and undermining the value of spoken language.

Perhaps most insightfully, Lindström's civilization-critical analysis exposes the actual reasons behind why Swedes are so famously afraid of being racist, barely celebrate their own national day, have problems communicating with their neighbouring Danes, and believe bureaucratic institutions should control everything. Everything presented in a form made to create public awareness by mocking the absurd.

Tanja Bergkvist

With a Ph.D. in mathematics, Tanja Bergkvist suddenly appeared in public media as a strong opponent of the politically correct agenda promoted by the current feminist establishment in Sweden. Accusing kindergartens and schools of adopting neo-Stalinist methods to brainwash children into accepting a utopian socialist view of society, Bergkvist touched one of the holy cows in Swedish political debate.

Together with like-minded intellectuals such as establishment-critical Pär Ström, Bergkvist attempts to diversify the discussion around what role the various institutions in Sweden should have to actively discriminate and promote individuals to positions in society based upon gender. Lately Bergkvist has begun blogging, combining a sort of mathematical-satirical language with her own views about feminism, gender theory, and the European Union, colored by her cultural background in Eastern Europe.