Happy Independence Day… or whatever’s left of it.
Back in medieval Visby, freedom meant things like:
The freedom to trade (as long as the Hanseatic League liked you)
The freedom to defend your town (even if you had no training and died in a ditch)
The freedom to pay taxes to Denmark, Sweden, or whoever just conquered you this week
In other words: freedom was a fragile, negotiable thing.
Which makes it weirdly relatable today.
Yesterday, U.S. lawmakers passed a bill so full of surveillance, state control, and dystopian overreach that even medieval monarchs would’ve blushed.
A “beautiful” bill, they said.
A bill that strips rights, funds repression, and waves a flag while doing it.
Sound familiar?
It should.
Because what’s happening in the U.S. isn’t new. It’s just medieval feudalism with a flag and better marketing.
Meanwhile, here in Sweden — where I now live and am counting down 32 days until I walk into Visby for Medieval Week —
I get:
Healthcare for €25
Freedom of press
A government that isn’t openly trying to burn down democracy on national television
It’s not perfect. But at least no one’s calling mass repression a “patriotic compromise.”
So this year, I’m celebrating the freedom to leave.
To build something better.
To learn from the past instead of recreating it in darker, dumber ways.
Swedish Word of the Day: frihet – freedom
(Frihet utan rättvisa är bara en kostym för kontroll.
– Freedom without justice is just a costume for control.)
Swedish Wanderlust 