Swedes

One should never generalize over such a great (only 8 million but one has to be respectful) amount of people. I very well know that. Still...

Still Swedes are workers. They take work seriously. They could have been said to be ambitious even. But not in the overloading sense like in the States. A swede would make the best of the working hours he has, trying hard to succeed, to accomplish something; and free his evenings for leisure. In a sense he knows balance. He enjoys good food and not just eating. He enjoys company but only if he can get something out of the conversation (fun, information etc.). He does work only if he believes in its ends. What I suspect is, this, whatever one can call it, this way of drawing pleasure from life, this sense of balance, of doing things at the right way in the right time keeps this society together. It gives it a common feeling of being a swede. In a rich society which has almost no religious concerns a common feeling is a 'curiosa'.