Maybe Norway’s Soccer Team Is Showing Us Something Bigger

The success of Norway’s national soccer team is, of course, about talented players, hard work, and good leadership.

Photo by the author.

But perhaps it is also about something more.

About the team.

About people who see one another, trust one another, and understand that an individual often achieves more when he becomes part of something larger.

No one wins a soccer game alone.

One player makes a run to create space for another. Someone does the hard, unglamorous work without ever making the headlines. Even the biggest stars must understand that their talent has its greatest value when the team works.

Everyone rows in the same direction.

I believe this also says something about Norwegian society.

We are not all the same. We have different abilities, different opinions, and different lives. But we believe in equal human worth, and we have built much of our society around the idea that everyone should have a real opportunity to live a good life.

And perhaps we also need to rethink what strength really means.

Strength is not behaving like a predator.

Strength is not narcissism.

It is not pushing others down, dominating the room, humiliating weaker people, or demanding that everyone admire you.

A predator may look powerful.

A narcissist may speak loudly about his own greatness.

But real strength is something else.

Real strength is being secure enough to cooperate. Strong enough to respect others. Confident enough to let other people succeed. Wise enough to understand that helping build a strong team does not make you smaller.

Still, I meet people who seem to have decided in advance that social democracy must be a failure.

Community is bad. Taxes are theft. Government is always the problem.

But are we willing to look honestly at reality?

Are we willing to ask what the Nordic model has actually helped create? What works? What should be defended? And what clearly needs to be improved?

A democratic conversation requires openness to facts.

It requires listening.

It requires that we do not decide the answer before the question has even been asked.

Perhaps Norway’s soccer team reminds us of something very simple:

A team does not become strong when everyone thinks only about themselves.

A society does not become strong by rewarding predators and narcissists.

Strength is not about standing on other people.

It is about standing together.

A team becomes strong when talented individuals understand the power of we.

Perhaps the same is true of a society.