INDIVIDUALISM IS A HOAX:

Jante persists in the culture in every way and, according to Ourhouseinaarhus, even affects the school system. There is no competitive school system, no advanced programs for gifted learners. The schools must all be equal, and the students must help each other rather than vie for 'the best.' There are no rewards program, no trophies for the students who graded better. As the blogger commented, the Danish children learn early on about Jante.

The laws themselves are simple. They all encourage the idea that you are average, and that's just fine.

1. You're not to think you are anything special.

2. You're not to think you are as good as we are.

3. You're not to think you are smarter than we are.

4. You're not to convince yourself that you are better than we are.

5. You're not to think you know more than we do.

6. You're not to think you are more important than we are.

7. You're not to think you are good at anything.

8. You're not to laugh at us.

9. You're not to think anyone cares about you.

10. You're not to think you can teach us anything.

The laws, when written out, are meant to look horrifying and quite intimidating. They come from a book written by Aksel Sandemose, and he was trying to satirize what it was like in Scandinavian small towns in his novel A Fugitive Crosses His Tracks (En Flyktning Krysser Sitt Spor). When Sandemose named that town Jante, he gave name to something that already existed in practice in Scandinavia.

While the idea of Jante Law is culturally relevant, according to Lindsay Dupuis, a therapist in Copenhagen, it's not discussed in everyday life as a conscious practice, rather it's lived out -- talking about it seems redundant. Why discuss oxygen intake when you were born breathing it? It materializes like this: nobody brags when their child is named number one in their math class. They don't talk about who gave the best speech at their work function, or discuss who's been promoted most at work. This is not to say that the Danes are not ambitious, they're just as ambitious as everyone else. They just don't brag about it, or stress over doing more.

"By definition, most of us are average," remarks psychologist Madeline Levine in her Big Think discussion of the topic. 

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