The Jante Law (Danish and Norwegian: Janteloven; Swedish: Jantelagen; Finnish: Janten laki; Faroese: Jantulógin) is a pattern of group behaviour towards individuals within Scandinavian communities, which negatively portrays and criticises individual success and achievement as unworthy and inappropriate.
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The ten rules state:
- Don’t think you’re anything special.
- Don’t think you’re as good as us.
- Don’t think you’re smarter than us.
- Don’t convince yourself that you’re better than us.
- Don’t think you know more than us.
- Don’t think you are more important than us.
- Don’t think you are good at anything.
- Don’t laugh at us.
- Don’t think anyone cares about you.
- Don’t think you can teach us anything.
An eleventh rule recognized in the novel is:
- Don’t think that there aren’t a few things we know about you.
I’m not saying I think I’m better/smarter/faster/more important than anyone else – but I do believe strongly in both individual expression and pointing out (and fiercely resisting) arrant stupidity; the above smacks too strongly of a company I once knew, one which was going down the toilet and was doomed by mediocre middle-management spreading blame through collective responsibility and suppression of the drive for change.
Fie upon that bullshit.
When I read these rules, I first thought “how very Orwellian” – looking at the Wikipedia article shows they were first widely published in English in 1936, which gives Eric plenty of time to have seen and thought about them by 1948.
When it comes to American Corporatism, if we’re thinking of the same failing corporation, then the corporation which subsequently bought them out was (and continues to be) an exemplary adherent to these rules. In some ways, I’m amazed they’re still in business.
On a slightly different, individualist note, with a more positive spin than the above, I think I’ve told you Weeze’s five rules for dealing with software vendors, culled from 30+ years experience in IT management of one sort or another:
I am smarter than you.
I am better than you.
I am relentless.
I will outlast you.
And, I do not care how much you hate me.
They work. Really.