I live in Sweden. The country is doing many... irrational... things these days. The country is for a large part dependent on imported foodsources, this in contrast to the way it used to be half a century ago so it is in a bad position if war or catastrophe were to actually happen upon it. The Swedish defence force ('Totalförsvaret', the combination of all military and non-military organisations responsible for the defence of the country) is in a bad shape and numerically not up to the task of repelling a serious offender - the estimates are that the defence would crumble in a matter of hours to some days at the most. Just last week the island of Gotland - strategically located in the Baltic - got a permanently stationed regiment again, something which was done away with at the end of the cold war.

Meanwhile last weekend two [1] people [2] were shot again in two days in Göteborg (edit: and I just saw that another likely murder victim was found today [2.5]), two attempted rapes in Östersund after which the police says they expect much more like this so people should not go out alone at night but they might as well get used to 'this being the new normal' [3], comparable to Sadiq Khan (the major of London) claiming that terror attacks are just part and parcel of life in the big city. Elsewhere a police station was closed because the safety of the people working there can not be guaranteed [4].

In other words, Sweden has much more to fear from the enemy within than from any outside aggressor. What made the Scandinavian countries into the success stories they've been held up to be for the last 50 years was for a large part due to the strong social cohesion and the inherent trust in authorities 'doing the right thing', this goes especially for Sweden. That same trust has now been broken, possibly beyond repair - this remains to be seen. The 'social contract' which provided a well-functioning welfare state at the price of some of the highest marginal taxes has been broken, Swedish healthcare is in a crisis with longer and longer waiting times, the once tranquil and peaceful society is now almost daily reminded of the changed reality by news of the next shooting/stabbing/rape/robbery, the police has lost control over a multitude of areas which are now under gang rule.

One of the things playing a big role in the large discrepancy between the words and deeds of those in power in Sweden is the upcoming elections in September this year. The ruling parties (social democrats and greens) both stand to lose a large part of their constituency while the one party they have all been accusing of being 'racist' - but whose politics the social democrats are now by and large claiming as their own - seems to be on a winning streak. That party has its roots in the radical right-wing movement which is the major reason for all other parties to shun them, even though they might end up becoming the biggest party in Sweden. Oddly enough the fact that the social democrats were in line with the German National Socialist Democratic Workers Party (NSDAP, better known as the 'Nazi party') before and during the first years of the second world war while the greens have a strong affiliation with both communist as well as islamist movements does not seem to be reason enough to shun them.

In other words, Swedish politics is a mess and it will take a long time to sort it all out. It is also uncertain what will rise out of the shambles.

[1] https://www.svd.se/skottskadad-man-hittad-i-molndal

[2] https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/a2x8bA/person-skjuten-i...

[2.5] https://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/dod-person-hittad-i-gotebo...

[2.5] https://www.svd.se/dod-person-hittad-i-goteborg-5571

[2.5] https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/ngKV1o/dod-person-hitta...

[3] https://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=78&arti...

[4] https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/helsingborg/polisreception...