I can't imagine a more tragic headline. But I'm more than a bit concerned so here are my thoughts about the darker side of the Scandinavian welfare society.

Humans can talk about things that hasn't happened and doesn't exist. We have imagination, we dream, we laugh and we deceive. With 29 symbols, we document experiences and pass them down through generations. We have brain with more synapses than there are stars in the Milky Way. We give words to feelings, sensations, tastes and smells. Billions of years of evolution. Our adaptability to habitat and climate is unparalleled on the planet.

We sought to escape nature, the raw and unpredictable. Away from parasites, bubonic plagues and torrential rains, predators and frosts, away from starvation and infant death. We build a hut, we build a village, we build a city. We made peace with trade agreements, an army and diplomacy. We cultivate the fields, raise the animals. We tear ourselves away from nature's ruthless selection process with penicillin, vaccines, blood transfusions and heart surgery.

Now we're fine. We're good. No worries.

All this planned and implemented by politicians, the socialist Social Democratic party in Sweden during 30 years of majority rule.

We replaced the family with the state - the social welfare state. The state takes responsibility for everything the family traditionally did. Take care of the children, take care of the old, care for the sick and abandoned, resolve conflicts, create jobs, collect taxes and punish transgressions. All the functions that the family, the clan and the village performed over thousands of years of human civilization.

The manifesto states..

We firmly reject liberal freedom, which means that each person fights for his or her own interests without regard for the collective. The right of the individual to develop independently must be subordinated to the interests of society as a collective, democratically determined.

Now we are behind closed doors in our houses and apartments, estranged from relatives, children and grandchildren. We do not need each other. The state provides. Fill in a form, see your case worker. Make an appointment, money in your account on the 20th.

The welfare state provides everything but the genuinely human - empathy, overcoming adversity and finding comfort in one's own abilities. To love, to touch, to belong, to give joy and to create trust. To be something for someone else. To exist in a meaningful context.

So let's go back? It's not that simple. Relationships within a village, clan or family are complex and require skills to sustain - skills we have long since lost, skills we are born into. Gossip, sexuality, boundaries, celebration, initiation, punishments, trusts, redemption, reciprocity, forgiveness, hierarchies...

The most miserable thing is this dismantling of human ties was a strategy of politicians and leaders. That Swedes would be freed from dependence on others. Swedes should be free individuals, free to....yes... free to what?  What is the point of being free from all obligations and responsibilities to others - to have only oneself to look after.

Section 4 of the Socialist family policy:

All adults should be economically independent of dependents.

Now we die alone. According to the Swedish Palliative Care Register, 16% died alone. Without relatives, children and grandchildren. At worst, after a life of almost unbearable boredom where we could never use the unique and amazing qualities and skills within us, a result of thousands of years of evolution where relationships with people around you were the prerequisite for your survival. And, in all likelihood, your happiness.

More on this sad theme in the book Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, in the film "The Swedish Theory of Love" by Erik Gandini and Ann Heberlein touches on the subject in much more depth in a text in Swedish on timbro.se