**please wait, researching...**
**Note to editors: The law of Jante is an excerpt from a published book, "En Flyktning krysser sitt spor" - a refugee crosses his tracks. It is a commonly used expression in Norway and Denmark, and quoting the law itself is well within fair-use rights of those countries. I hope it's OK.**
"Egalité!" - equality, was one of the slogans of the french revolution. For a long time mankind has dreamed about the day when all people are recognised as being of equal value, and are treated accordingly. In some societies, class or caste is still very important, in others, it's definitively less so. Danes going to Britain may be suprised at how real the class differences are there compared to Denmark, and conversely an american going to Norway might be fascinated by the relatively even standards of living.
It's something of the same thing a man from a large metropolis might feel when walking into a town where everyone knows everyone.
But are these places necessarily better places to live because of the egalitarian spirit?
The author Aksel Sandemose has an often-quoted "law" in his book "A refugee crosses his tracks". In the imaginary small town of Jante there is an informal, oppressive law that forbids anyone from standing out from the crowd:
The law of Jante
1. Thou shalt not believe thou art something.
2. Thou shalt not believe thou art as good as we.
3. Thou shalt not believe thou art more wise than we.
4. Thou shalt not fancy thyself better than we.
5. Thou shalt not believe thou knowest more than we.
6. Thou shalt not believe thou art greater than we.
7. Thou shalt not believe thou amountest to anything.
8. Thou shalt not laugh at us.
9. Thou shalt not believe that anyone is concerned with thee.
10. Thou shalt not believe thou canst teach us anything.
The enforcers of the law are of course the same people opressed by it, the citizens of Jante. Sandemose said that it was in our culture to keep each other down in Scandinavia. Regrettably, it seems that the law applies to a greater or lesser extent in all places where there is little class division, or even inside groups of people with similar social status, like employees at a factory or residents in a neigborhood.
Is this an unavoidable fact of human nature? Or can there one day be a society where you can take just as much joy in your friend's accomplishments as in your own?
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