COMMENTARY: The dumb and the mean-spirited

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By Pekka Hakala
     
      The claim has been made in the course of the brouhaha over the selection of a new editor-in-chief for the Rovaniemi newspaper Lapin Kansa that the only person properly equipped to run a newspaper in Lapland is a meat-eating heterosexual, because the local population are as intolerant as they come.
      One specific justification cited for this assumption is the influence on the region of the Laestadian Lutheran revivalist movement, which is said to be particularly short on tolerance.
      As for the intolerance of the Laplanders in general, this is to be honest the first time I have heard this one voiced, and I leave this completely baseless argument to others to ponder.
     
The claim about the peculiar intolerance of the Laestadian adherents is almost wrong.
      The Laestadian movement may indeed be murderously strict towards its own flock, but it does not display Messianic features.
      The Laestadians are not an open proselytising lot - they do not have a strong sense of missionary zeal.
      What is true is that Laestadian municipal councillors and politicians can - at least in their strong areas of Northern Ostrobothnia - exert a good deal of influence on local decision-making.
      This does not really derive from the Laestadians themselves so much as from a desire for consensus felt among the non-Laestadians: decisions are reached with a view to making sure they will also pass muster with the archly conservative minority.
     
This state of affairs is also reflected in the broadly-held misconception that the elite has of the people, and not perhaps just in Finland.
      According to the belief of the elite, the hoi polloi are a dumb and mean-spirited lot.
      They should of course be educated and cultivated out of this, but because the collective head of the people is bone-hard and unresponsive, then this stupidity and mean-spiritedness has to be taken into consideration by making dumb and mean-spirited decisions.
      And so the overlords become dumb and mean-spirited.
     
When I was at school, I believed that the spiritual headquarters of these two less than endearing human features was located in the staff room.
      On entering the world of work and becoming a journalist, I discovered that the HQ has been moved to the executive floors of provincial newspapers.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 7.10.2008


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Sacked editor plans to demand significant damages from Alma Media (7.10.2008)
  Outgoing Lapin Kansa editor to take leave until retirement, Alma Media CEO refuses to go (6.10.2008)

Links:
  Conservative Laestadianism (Wikipedia)

Helsingin Sanomat