A left-liberal facing the apocalypse

”Scener ur hjärtat” is a book by Malena Ernman and Svante Thunberg, published in 2018. The authors happen to be Greta Thunberg´s parents. Both Greta and her sister Beata are prominently featured in the book, a book the anti-Greta crowd loves to hate, since it gives ample opportunity to freak-shame the entire family. I happen to be critical of many aspects of the Greta Thunberg phenomenon myself, but it *is* richly ironic that the same people who accuse Swedish schools of being left-liberal indoctrination camps are telling Greta to stop her climate strike and…go back to school! Even apart from that little detail that anthropogenic global warming is, well, real or something…

The book, which I assume is largely written by Ernman (she is the “I” of the narrative), feels somewhat “stream of consciousness” and is therefore difficult to review. It deals primarily with two issues: autism and other forms of neuro-developmental diagnoses, and the global climate crisis. Ernman has a diagnosis herself: ADHD, which in her case took the form of being a specially gifted child (music and opera), but also dysfunctionally shy and uninterested in social intercourse. Beata also has ADHD, or perhaps misophonia, while Greta is diagnosed with Asperger´s syndrome. She used to have OCD, selective mutism and eating disorders. At the same time, it´s obvious that both daughters are smarter than average, Greta in particular coming across as “the little professor”. A large portion of the narrative deals with the family´s attempts to cope with their disorders, and a large part of *that* seems to be handling bullying and the incomprehension of other people, which includes teachers and bureaucrats. These parts of the book make for painful reading. Since Greta is only 16 years old, the situations described presumably took place around 2012 or so. It was shocking to learn that many Swedish schools were (are?) still stuck in the past, with freak-shaming considered perfectly normal. (I heard from another person that perhaps this is changing now, at least in some school districts.)

Malena Ernman is a high-profile climate activist, and has used her celebrity status as a pop and opera singer to promote the cause against global warming. She is very radical on the issue, quoting climate scientists who believe that *all* carbon emissions must be stopped for 10 or 15 years for the Earth to have a chance. She seems to believe in the Venus scenario, according to which Earth will turn into a new version of Venus unless something is done now. An interesting detail is that Ernman doesn´t trust the politicians or the media to do much, or anything at all, while the campaign of her daughter Greta aims to shame the politicians into taking action and has had great traction with the media. Most of this happened after the book was published. Personally, I think the establishment will disavow Greta the moment she turns 18 and isn´t a child prodigy anymore (and therefore not photogenic enough to sell subscriptions). That, and the electric car lobby! Ernman seems to understand that modern industrial civilization is essentially screwed without fossil fuels – she doesn´t buy into the current fad about electric cars either – and calls for sharply reduced levels of growth and consumption, both individual and collective. She doesn´t think people want to hear this message, and the perspective is therefore near-apocalyptic and depressive.

Metaphorically, Ernman sees a similarity between her own family crisis and the global climate crisis. They are both part of an underlying crisis connected to capitalism, attempts to dominate nature, patriarchy and crazy competitiveness. Interestingly, her feminism is “essentialist”, Ernman arguing that men and women really are different (her husband Svante often comes across as the “rational guy” on the block), and that part of the problem with modern society is that women are forced to act like men, since the male is the norm in a patriarchal society. This, in turn, is connected to society´s inability to cope with, let alone cure, neuro-developmental disorders. Worst off of all are girls with such diagnoses, since they are usually introverted. The ADHD norm is an outgoing and aggressive boy! After attending meetings about such topics, Ernman believes that nobody really gives a damn…

It´s obvious from “Scener ur hjärtat” that Ernman is extremely privileged, and comes from a left-liberal and Christian philanthropic background. Her parents use to hide illegal aliens in the family villa, and they seem to be on a first-name basis with Sister Marianne, the controversial Swedish nun who was also aiding illegals during the 1980´s. For some reason, Ernman never mentions Marianne by name, perhaps because the nun was disavowed by the liberals after accusations of anti-Semitism? Ernman was aiding refugees during the recent migrant crisis, and explicitly denies that it even *was* a crisis, since “Sweden” is so rich and prosperous, etc. There are two obvious problems with this scenario: not everyone in “Sweden” is as rich as Ernman, and nobody in Sweden would be rich if the entire country reverts to non-fossil fuels. Indeed, this is the most glaring contradiction in the book: Ernman´s open border policy (and other left-liberal ideas) would be the first to go in a post-carbon world, dog-eat-dog nationalism being the most logical option, and while she somehow senses the problem, she simply continues as before. Her (and Greta´s) polemic against those who see overpopulation as a problem isn´t convincing either, since the environment would collapse even faster if everyone in the Third World would get the same high living standard as Malena Ernman herself – something she actually acknowledges! I also wonder if Ernman really believes that Swedish schools will have enough resources for children with special needs, if the public sector simply collapses due to the migrant crisis and/or global warming?

Had I been an old fashioned leftist (which I was once), the line of attack against “Scener ur hjärtat” would be obvious: the liberal bourgeoisie offers no solutions to the systemic crisis, except a combination of individual purism (Greta´s refusal to eat meat or fly), classless appeals to “everyone of good will”, and utter despair…and perhaps some solar and wind. Today, I no longer believe in the Messianic role of the working class in taking up the Cause of Progress and World Revolution, so I can´t say I have any particular solutions either. However, I can say that they (whatever they are) won´t be pretty – unless some kind of truly grand project of geoengineering, bioengineering or nuclear-electrical conversion can be made to work. If not, we better chose the right tribal confederation before the next great battle of the Catalaunian Fields…