The Danish capital of Copenhagen has always been associated with a liberal approach to most things. The Scandinavian city of sin keeps up its tolerant banner, even as the rest of the world succumbs to the sanitized tyranny of globalization. Good for you, Copenhagen! Ordinary people can probably enjoy drinking beer, choking themselves on artificially colored sausages, or the Little Mermaid or the amusement park Tivoli, but there is one phenomenon, literally a left field area, that remains Copenhagen’s most visited attraction, year after year after year: Christiania. This is very rarely mentioned in the guide books. Why is that? What began as a loose social experiment in the early 1970s, imbued with alternative mind frames and politically naive agendas, has grown since then to incorporate a lot more tangible and realistic approaches. What was once crusty and run down has been considerably fixed up and taken care of. Christiania: a section of the city that is well ordered and self...

An example of Swiss rebellion of the more moderate kind. Altstadt, Basel. People all over the world usually mistake Sweden for Switzerland and vice versa. Sure, the names are sounding (somewhat) alike but there seems to be a mirage-image in there too: one of neutrality, high standards of living, a conservative kind of liberalism etc. A people slightly reserved at first, but definitely also open-minded, creative, industrious and generous. Then there’s the nature issue. Both countries have a reputation for being very beautiful and well taken care of. And that’s true too – Switzerland’s alpine paradises and fecund valleys and Sweden’s vast forests and refreshing archipelagos make up substantial parts of the nations’ (self) image. No wonder then that people mix us up. But as we scratch the surface we can see there are things that set the Swedish and the Swiss widely apart. One distinct psychological phenomenon is a strong streak of exhibitionism in the Swiss. As I was leaving for home...

The antidotes to the malignant maladies of human post-civilization can all be found in nature. Nature is good. The definition of good being the least possible noise in the solar-chlorophyllic signal response. Recently I was in Abisko in Swedish Lapland (Laponia) together with my daughter and it struck me after only five minutes and approximately five meters into nature how incredibly energizing this experience is – each time and always. Abisko is a National Park and perhaps that’s one key to the mystery: this vast area of serene and stark nature hasn’t been polluted by people. Sure, there are a lot of people there each year but they leave nothing behind. They come, they fill their lungs with clean air, their auras with chlorophyllic saturation, drink clean water, etc, and then leave as happier individuals. To me it is just a really plain equation: If you respect the area by adhering to just a few simple rules (Allemansrätten, the right of public access) that in itself creates a...