Written when the early 1990s banking crisis was deepest, the book argues for abandoning the general welfare state in Sweden, for sharp tax cuts, and for the rollback of the state's involvement in education, law, culture, and the media.[4][5][6][7]
Background
The Swedish Social Democratic Party (S) was, after World War II, a dominant force in Swedish politics. S led the government from 1948, until 1976 when the Moderates (M) formed a government with the Liberals (L) and the Centre Party (C). M was then part of the government until 1982 when S once again formed a government. In the 1991 general election, M – under the leadership of Carl Bildt – once again formed a government and Reinfeldt was elected to the Riksdag, representing Stockholm county.
Reinfeldt had been active in the Moderate Youth League since 1983,[8] and represented a conservative faction in the organization. In 1992 he became the chairman of the organization, beating the incumbent Ulf Kristersson – who represented a more liberal faction – in what has been called the Battle of Lycksele.
Content
The book is a compilation of five chapters. The first chapter ("The Sleepy brains") describes a dystopian world where there exists two types of people: "fools", who work for the government, and "the sleepy brains", who live on government welfare. The story is told from the perspective of a "fool" who finds out his son has died from an illness called "the welfare death" (välfärdsdöden). The son was 28 years old and a "sleepy brain", who had no motivation or purpose in life and just watched TV all day, with a remote glued to his hand.[7]
The Swedes are mentally handicapped and indoctrinated to believe that politicians can create and guarantee welfare.
The second chapter ("How is the civil society woken up?") describes how the Moderates should convince people of their ideology. Reinfeldt accuses the Social Democrats of suppressing civil society and brainwashing people to support them. The chapter also disparages the Left Party, the Liberal People's Party and parts of the Centre Party. The chapter advocates for a reduction in government influence.[7]
Chapter three ("Diary in an awake human's life") is a fictional diary entry by Johanna – a young Swedish woman – describing a day in her life. She is motivated, plans for the future, talks to older generations, supports Djurgården IF[a] and thinks about international events.[7]
We don't want to see a society where people starve, but other than that no standard rights should be financed by taxes.
In Chapter four ("Responsibility, morality and own norms"), Reinfeldt reflects on the Ten Commandments and their relevancy in the modern world. The chapter ends with a call to action for Moderate Party politicians, to be more daring in their actions.[7]
Chapter five ("Of course it's possible to affect") is a non-fiction story, about how Reinfeldt fund-raised money for a famine in Ethiopia in 1985. At the time, Reinfeldt was part of a committee representing conscripted soldiers in Sweden (Värnpliktsrådet [sv]). The story describes how he helped organize a country wide campaign to convince conscripts to voluntarily donate their money, and raise c.SEK 250,000 (equivalent to SEK 656,500 in 2023).[7][12]
Reception
After Reinfeldt became the leader of the Moderate Party in 2003, and Prime Minister in 2006, the book was often referred to by his political opponents. At the 2009 Social Democratic Party congress, the party leader Mona Sahlin recommended reading the book, not for inspiration, but to understand the ideology of the Reinfeldt cabinet.[13]
Reinfeldt has tried to distance himself from the book,[1] calling it a "sin of youth" (ungdomssynd).[2][14][15] When asked in May 2014 if he had written any books, he said: "I have not written any literature or non-fiction books, but have been a co-author to texts that the Moderates have published."[b][16]Folkbladet published an article criticizing Reinfeldt for having denied authorship of the book,[17] and Alliansfritt Sverige – an anti-Alliance organisation – accused Reinfeldt of falsifying history by hiding his authorship.[11]
Theater Adaption
In 2013, when Reinfeldt was still Prime Minister, a theater group adapted The Sleeping People to the stage, which renewed discussion of the book.[4][5][18][19][20][6][21] The play was a direct adaption of the book, with the addition of two homeless people talking about their experiences.[22][23]
^"vplriksdag". Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå (in Swedish). Örebro. 10 March 1986. Inte mindre än 251 000 kr har tio procent av landets värnpliktiga som nu gör sin grundutbildning samlat in till Afrikas svältande. Det har de gjort genom att avstå från en dagpenning som nu är 23 kr och som höjs med en krona från 1 juli i år. [No less than SEK 251,000 has ten percent of the country's conscripts who are in basic education collected to Africa's starving. They have done it through abstaining from a daily payment which is now SEK 23 and which is raised with one SEK after 1 July this year.]
^Guillou, Jan (10 August 2014). "Pang på rödbetan i boken Reinfeldt helst vill glömma" [Straight down to it in the book Reinfeldt would rather forget]. Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Fredrik Reinfeldt nekade först till att ha författat boken. Senare erkände han, men avfärdade saken som en ungdomssynd. [Fredrik Reinfeldt first denied to have authored the book. Later he admitted, but dismissed the thing as a sin of youth.]
^"Riksdagens protokoll 2002/03:4" [The Riksdag's protocol 2002/03:4] (in Swedish). Sveriges Riksdag. 8 October 2002. Archived from the original on 4 October 2024. Retrieved 4 October 2024. Det sovande folket ... Han skriver så här: Nu kommer Moderaterna snart att bli störst. ... Reinfeldt (m) replik: ... mina ungdomsförsyndelser – att jag har trott att Moderaterna ska bli ett större parti – ska jämföras med finansministerns motsvarighet som ungdomsförbundsordförande. [The sleeping people ... He writes like this: Now the Moderates will soon become largest. ... Reinfeldt (M) reply: ... my sins of youth – that I believed that the Moderates would become a bigger party – should be compared to the finance minister's equivalent as youth organisation chairman.]
^Barkman, Clas (17 May 2014). "Högt spel bakom politikernas litteraturval" [High stakes behind the politicians choice of literature]. Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 11 October 2023. Jag har inte skrivit några litterära eller faktaböcker, men har varit medskribent för skrifter som moderaterna gett ut.
^Westerlind, Linda (3 July 2014). "Reinfeldts dubbelmoral" [Reinfeldt's double standard] (in Swedish). Folkbladet. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
