What decades of abusive Marxism-Leninism Has Taught Us

To construct conformity, you take away people’s privacy.

The information had been available to media until 2004, when a more conservative government banned the publication of tax records. Three years later, a new, more liberal government reversed the legislation and also made it possible for media to obtain tax information digitally and disseminate it online.

Norway's 2007 law emphasized that "first and foremost, it's the press that can contribute to a critical debate" on wealth and the elaborate tax scheme that, along with the country's oil wealth, keeps Norway's extensive — and expensive — welfare system afloat.

The press, having some sort of rights greater than that of citizens, are written into law. How charming.

With characteristically uninformed ignorance of the issue they think they’re dealing with, we find commentary like this:

"Isn't this how a social democracy ought to work, with openness, transparency and social equality as ideals?" columnist Jan Omdahl wrote in the tabloid Dagbladet.

No, that isn’t necessary or beneficial in a social democracy. It’s a tool of coercion whose place is better limited to selective use in protecting society, like listing approximate addresses of convicted child sexual predators so that parents can gage the risks to their children’s safety – and privacy – for themselves.

The search for whys and wherefores isn’t that hard, when you look at some of the other symptoms of the disease that they suffer from:

The country of 4.8 million people had the third-highest income tax among industrialized countries in 2007, behind Denmark and New Zealand, according to the latest statistics from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

I wonder if it ever dawned on the opinion-makers there that when you keep feeding the beast, it gets bigger and bigger and worries less and less about why they were fed to begin with.

While this has little to do with the rest of the world, that’s never stopped Norwegian social critics from commenting vociferously about the lives of others. Other times, they find themselves enmeshed in it too:

A Somali-born Norwegian citizen accused of funding a Somali militant group has become the first person to be charged under the Nordic country's 2002 terror financing law.

Which is a great time to step up to the plate. A fine time to show the world their mettle. Except when your notion of the violation of privacy gets in the way.

They did not give his name in line with Norwegian privacy rules.

Rules, rules, and good intentions. Rulers, rules, and good intentions. Don’t they ever get bored with themselves?