Those Lucky Old Swedes

When you read this you realise why philosopher kings are such a very bad idea. The deviation towards ‘wokeness’ works like an iron mountain on their nous compass. In their little plane they can’t clear its height. Slightly scathed they emerge from the wreck and in their helpful piping voices continue to explain, explain, explain.

The staggering levels of international inequality would not be so objectionable if the typical Swede had done something to deserve a better life than the typical Chadian, for instance, but the truth, of course, is that Swedes were merely lucky to have been born in Sweden rather than Chad. And given this, what justification could the Swedes have for putting guns at their borders to deter Chadians from trying to move north and take advantage of the preferable social, political and economic environment? In the eyes of cosmopolitan egalitarians, they have none. As Joseph Carens puts it, “Citizenship in Western liberal democracies is the modern equivalent to feudal privilege—an inherited status that greatly enhances one’s life chances. Like feudal birthrights privileges, restrictive citizenship is hard to justify when one thinks about it closely.” (Carens 1987: 252)

(from Immigration entry Stanford Ency. Phil.)