The Guardian has an article today on the world’s happiest, safest, freest society, Finland. I have visited the national historical museum in Helsinki, and saw a replica of a 19th century Finnish peasant’s hut. They were so poor they had no chimneys, and smoke just seeped out of the thatched roof. Only with the coming of the industrial revolution did they achieve wealth through waterpower and mills. There is little agricultural wealth to be found in taiga and post-glacial scrape.
The article points out the degree of cooperation needed to survive in a cold climate. I point out that Finland is not colder than Canada. Average January temperature variation in Helsinki is -2C to -7C. The same figures for Ottawa are -6C to -14C, and I use the capital cities as stand-ins for large countries.
What the article fails to point out is that the Finns are 100% white. I mean really really really white. They almost invented melanin-deficiency.
Nothing can reduce my admiration for a society so industrious, clever, and lawful. But when people burble about the values of multi-culturalism, they seldom stop to think about how much easier it is to engender trust when everyone is your third and fourth cousin, and the place is mono-cultural. We may have forgotten that fact, but our Canadian French compatriots have not.
They were the first country to decolonize from the Russian Empire, in 1917, and have ever fought their larger neighbour to maintain that independence in the Winter War of 1940. By the way, the Russians believe the Finns still practice powerful folk magic, and are barely Christianized.
General Mannerheim was their leader in World War 2. His strategy and the immense bravery and battleworthiness of the Finnish people kept the numerically superior Soviets to a draw, meaning that they killed many more Soviet soldiers than they lost themselves. The Germans thought the Finns were, man for man, their only equals in the art of war.
Listen to their national hymn, composed by Sibelius. The “slavery” mentioned in the hymn is that of the Finns to the Russian Empire. Be inspired.