As I read the above, my first thought is that the Nordic countries sound more grown up than the Unites States. The Swiss psychologist Carl Jung saw individuation as the primary task of psychological development. In other words, eventually, to be healthy, one has to become fully one\u2019s own person, free of subordination to family, religion or society. Collectively, the Nordic cultures seem to have taken Jung to heart. Yet they acknowledge, and rightly so, that even fully individuated human beings need social support, and better yet, a social safety net, to be both happy and free.<\/p>\n

There is no perfect culture, but the Nordic countries seem to have found a way to live that consistently places them at the top of everyone\u2019s list. \u00a0Whether the topic is economic success, sustainability, individual freedom or happiness, they give us much to think about as we contemplate the future of the United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the United States, over the past decades, we have experienced growing income inequality and the undermining of our once stable middle class. Because<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":14226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[128,384],"tags":[2488,2490],"yoast_head":"\n