Freedom to Trespass

Here’s one of the things I most admire about Sweden:  the constitutional right of allemansrätten , or “freedom to roam.”  The concept is that nature belongs to everyone.  In Sweden, you can basically pick wildflowers, berries, or mushrooms anywhere, except in a private garden or right up by someone’s house.  You can also ski, hike, and ride bicycles practically anywhere, and fish or use an unpowered boat in virtually any body of water.

Can you imagine this being the case in the United States?  Can you imagine Barbara Streisand having a meltdown because hippies were picking wild sage on her Malibu compound?  Or a Texas rancher sitting by idly while a group of hikers traipsed across his land, saying hello to his cattle?

I imagine this entire idea would sound terribly commie/socialist to many Americans.  Perhaps that’s why I like it so.

And as long as we’re talking about how Sweden is different…

Check out this photo:

This beggar was energetically working all of Old Town the whole time I was there.  Here he’s chatting with some children.  Their parents are about thirty yards away.  Now I ask you to imagine something.

Imagine this happening in the US.

Just think about it for a moment.

If a street beggar began engaging with a group of children in Dallas, or Boise, or Atlanta, the parents would absolutely lose their shit.  There’d be screaming.  There’d be threats.  Cops and lawyers would be called.  The children would be checked over for horrible poor person diseases and taken in for counseling.  You know it’s true.

Why the difference?  In America we fetishize fear.  Fear and stupidity and ignorance go together like peanut butter, jelly and bacon.  Swedes don’t think the loaf of bread is possessed by demons or that the beggar is going to eat their children.