It began as a tale about law enforcement in the Swedish countryside: Shoot, bury, keep quiet. Today, the same grim solution can be heard in ordinary people’s conversations. When entirely ordinary, law-abiding Swedes begin to fantasise about execution squads, it is a warning that must be taken seriously.
The author and polymath Jens Ganman recently published his book Skjut, gräv, tig (Shoot, Bury, Keep Quiet). The title did not emerge out of thin air. In a conversation I had with him several years ago, he told me how farmers on isolated properties, far beyond the reach of the long arm of the law, dealt with the gangs that stole both their machinery and tractor diesel.
Of course, one could call 112 and ask the police for help upon discovering someone stealing diesel behind the barn, but the nearest patrol would most likely be several hours away. Since virtually all farmers are also hunters, and therefore have gun cabinets full of rifles and shotguns, there was one principle that applied: Shoot. Bury. Keep quiet.
According to the anecdotes, this method put an end to thefts in many areas of the Swedish countryside.
No one is looking for the Balts, Romanians and others who may be buried there, so they remain where they lie.
Skjut, gräv, tig has remained on Adlibris’ bestseller list for many weeks now, and that says something about the state of Sweden and the Swedes: The principle that may already have been applied in remote parts of the Swedish countryside appears increasingly attractive, even to those living in relative civilisation.
Shoot, bury, keep quiet. If the idea has now taken root, the Swedish authorities may be facing an entirely new situation.
My friend is a clear example that the idea no longer exists only among marginal groups of extremists or desperate farmers, but also among entirely ordinary, middle-aged, university-educated, Swedish middle-class women.
When we talk about the situation in Sweden – and we do so quite often – it is not uncommon for her to end by stating what she believes ought to be done with all the rapists, murderers and terrorists who are allowed to walk freely among us.
– I know what I think should be done, she usually says.
– Line them up against a wall and shoot them.
She is always quick to add that she herself, of course, would never be able to do anything to them.
– But if I didn’t have a family… If I truly had nothing to lose. Then, perhaps…
My friend is not thinking only of the perpetrators, however. She also includes all the politicians, journalists and activist officials who have made their actions – and the nation’s collapse – possible.
She calls them “traitors”, all those who, through active decisions or passive facilitation, have contributed to ensuring that the Sweden she and I grew up in no longer exists: politicians of every political stripe, media personalities, heads of public authorities, civil servants. All those who have contributed to transforming Sweden, in just a few decades, from an international model into a cautionary example.
And she – a stylish, articulate, full-time working mother – believes that they ought to be treated in the same manner as Vidkun Quisling, Amon Göth and Nicolae Ceaușescu.
Is she unique? No. I do not think so. I know that the frustration and despair she expresses are feelings shared by an increasing number of Swedes. I know that what she says when no one else is listening is what more and more people are thinking.
At the same time, however, there is another group that shares precisely the same idea.
That group consists of the very people in power whom my friend would place before a firing squad – and in that group’s worldview, it is instead people like me, my friend and others with politically incorrect values who are the problem.
Over the past decade, we have therefore witnessed how people have been dismissed from their jobs, excluded from trade unions and had their social media accounts deleted.
A person can, after all, be erased in many different ways. And if they could, they would probably have lined us up against a wall and shot us – long ago.
We are not there yet. But polarisation is increasing by the day, and hatred is being demonstrated openly in our streets and public squares.
Two groups with different visions for Sweden. Two groups with different views of nationhood, identity and the future. Two groups that both believe the solution is for the other group to remain silent, or preferably disappear altogether.
There is nothing new about that. We have heard it before.
– Line them up against a wall and shoot them! And once that thought has taken root, it is only a matter of time before thought becomes action.
The only question is who will be standing with their back against the wall, and who will have their finger on the trigger.
There have been several warnings in recent times that Europeans are fantasising about vigilantism. The film Citizen Vigilante is one of them.