Recently, J.K. Rowling made headlines for standing up to the power-mad leftists of the Scottish government in a manner reminiscent of the lone Chinese citizen who faced down a column of tanks near Tiananmen Square, armed with nothing more than a couple of grocery bags. Not exactly a right-wing nut job, Rowling committed the unpardonable sin of failing to mindlessly parrot the party line regarding gender fluidity. Specifically, she pointed out that, aside from a very small population of hermaphrodites, there are really only men, women, and people who should just go see a psychiatrist. That was enough to get her books banned and/or burned. The far-left Scottish government passed a hate speech law, expecting that to muzzle the troublesome Rowling. It has not. She didn’t back down, and basically dared the state to arrest her. She is still free, so far.
Oddly enough, Rowling isn’t the first female children’s author to embarrass a bunch of foolish leftists by calling attention to the emperor’s lack of wardrobe. Astrid Lindgren was the Swedish author of the popular Pippi Longstocking books, about the adventures of a “red-haired, freckled, unconventional and superhumanly strong” little girl, who makes fun of pompous adults. Lindgren’s books sold 167 million copies worldwide, and were translated into 76 languages, eventually made into both movies and TV shows. Lindgren, and Pippi, were, and are, very popular. So popular that in the 1970s Astrid Lindgren was the richest person in Sweden.
And that’s where the trouble started. In 1976, new Swedish tax laws were scheduled to go into effect, enacted by the leftist government. Lindgren was making so much money from book sales that her income, past a certain point, was to be taxed at a rate of 102%. Meaning that making more money would cost her money. Now, she could have just moved to some other country with saner tax laws, which would’ve been embarrassing enough for the socialists. She certainly had the money to live wherever she wanted. Instead, Lindgren published a protest in the form of a fairy tale, called Pomperipossa in Monismania, illustrating just how ridiculous the whole thing was.
When the Swedish public read the fairy tale, realizing just how stupid it was that the most successful Swedish author ever was being punished precisely for being successful, a raucous debate ensued. Some credit (or blame) Lindgren for the fact that the Social Democrats were voted out of power for the first time in 44 years in the next election. Of course, Ingmar Bergman left Sweden in a huff over the tax laws about the same time. So, he might’ve helped. But, it is interesting to note that when Sweden was considering joining the EU, the pro-EU press intentionally did not interview Lindgren because they were afraid of what she’d say about the matter.
Unfortunately, the tanks did eventually roll on into Tiananmen Square to crush the protestors, merely delayed, not stopped, by the random man. Leftists are never stopped for long—even if their cultural tanks are momentarily blocked by a couple of problematic children’s authors. Sweden didn’t turn into a libertarian utopia because of Astrid Lindgren’s witty tale. The scolding busybodies in Scotland are not going to ever forget how J.K. Rowling has defied them. Pointing out that their philosophy just doesn’t work doesn’t change their minds. Because Marxism, communism, socialism, or any other kind of -ism, are really just flags of convenience. The true motivation is the gathering, growth, and entrenchment of power. Power over you, incidentally. No amount of logical argument will divert them from that path. The answer is to limit the amount of power piled in one spot, governmental or otherwise. It draws them like flies to honey. Or to manure, depending on which metaphor you might think more appropriate.
Now, I don’t know what Astrid Lindgren would’ve said about gender fluidity, since that particular nonsense didn’t take root and metastasize until after she passed away in 2002. And I don’t know with any degree of precision what J.K. Rowling’s views on tax law happen to be. But I find it remarkable that two separate female children’s authors managed to stymie leftist governments (however temporarily) simply by stating a few inconvenient truths. Well, maybe it’s not so unexpected after all. Children’s authors have to understand children, who are often impulsive, stubborn, and unreasonable. And, you won’t find any adults who are more impulsive, stubborn, unreasonable… and childish than leftists. I guess both Lindgren and Rowling both knew just how to handle them.
I think there might be a lesson for the rest of us there.
Addendum: The title of this piece is a play on words, a nod to the 1966 movie, A Big Hand for the Little Lady. It’s a western about a long-suffering frontier wife, Joanne Woodward, who has to step in and play out a poker hand when her no-account husband, Henry Fonda, dies of a heart attack in the middle of a high-stakes game. Fonda literally bet the farm on the outcome of one hand, and Woodward has to win or lose everything with the five cards she holds. The situation echoes the resolve displayed by Lindgren and Rowling, the most unlikely of heroes.
image, Pixabay license, no attribution required.
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