The Danish capital of Copenhagen has always been associated with a liberal approach to most things. The Scandinavian city of sin keeps up its tolerant banner, even as the rest of the world succumbs to the sanitized tyranny of globalization. Good for you, Copenhagen!
Ordinary people can probably enjoy drinking beer, choking themselves on artificially colored sausages, or the Little Mermaid or the amusement park Tivoli, but there is one phenomenon, literally a left field area, that remains Copenhagen's most visited attraction, year after year after year: Christiania.
This is very rarely mentioned in the guide books. Why is that?
What began as a loose social experiment in the early 1970s, imbued with alternative mind frames and politically naive agendas, has grown since then to incorporate a lot more tangible and realistic approaches. What was once crusty and run down has been considerably fixed up and taken care of. Christiania: a section of the city that is well ordered and self governed. Now, that's a radical idea!
This is something most people never hear about. Media-wise, for instance in my native Sweden, there's an immediate association between Christiania and Hell (in a criminal, moral, behavioral and every other sense). Why is this? Well, Christiania makes its own rules and one of these dictates that the commerce in and personal use of Cannabis, psychedelic mushrooms and other forms of "light" drugs are absolutely OK.
If Swedish citizens want to get high in this area, the alarm goes off (as it has for many decades now). However, if Swedish citizens want to get plastered drunk on the ferries between the countries or in Copenhagen proper, that's totally OK, despite the related absurd and humiliating behavior, accidents, violence etc. Where is the logic in that? The answer is: there is none.
Yes, there is a small section of Christiania called "Pusher Street", where (for the most part) organic substances are sold to adults who are able to act and use responsibly. But this part is just a tiny section of a great residential area (34 hectares) which could be seen as a magnificent triumph of Lebensreform ideas stretching back to the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, including vegetarianism, ecological architecture, recycling, organic farming and many other things.
When one is strolling along in these lush and flowering residential environments, Pusher Street fades quickly. That particular stretch is there to provide mature adult human beings with something they prefer to use in their own private leisure processes rather than degrading themselves with alcohol. But, again, as soon as one leaves that area and enters Christiania proper, it is remarkable to notice how this social experiment has become integrated within the city of Copenhagen, like a free spirited and alternative Vatican within the city limits of Rome.
I'm quite convinced that everything is not always peaceful in Christiania. Wherever there are black markets and uncontrolled economies, there's bound to be trouble and territorial disputes between criminals. However, I'm also quite convinced that everything is not always peaceful in Copenhagen outside of Christiania. Nor in the world we live in in general. But at least that aspect of human life is not visible on a sunny summer day as one strolls through a lush Lebensreform reality and looks at a multitude of wacky, fanciful houses and a vibrant plant- and animal life.
Also, please ask any police officer with a daily experience of urban streets what causes the most problems in regard to crime and violence: organic substances or alcohol? Everyone knows the answer but strangely enough there's still so much pussyfooting around. Everyone also knows how the problems originating from illegal commerce could be solved basically overnight. It's remarkable how slow the European Union (or, rather, its representatives) is in making the decision that is essentially inevitable. Reality seemingly always moves ahead of the decision makers.
Christiania is a fine example of a social experiment that has grown up from politically naive leftist theories and rough beginnings to a well ordered dynamic alternative society with an integrated organic and sustainable agenda and a referendum-based "internal" democracy. The key word here seems to be "responsibility".
Whether or not this interesting development had been able to take place without the integrated business of presently illicit organic material is hard to say. Radical ideas have always gone hand in hand with mind expansion and higher states of consciousness. But the challenge is not so much to achieve these states – on the contrary, that is quite easy – but to create a substantial and tangible reality stemming from these visions. The movers and shakers of Christiania have certainly achieved this, at least judging from a mere ocular inspection.
This is not meant to be an avid advocation of the organic substances mentioned in this text nor any kind of lobbying for "anti-social" developments. On the contrary, it's a sober observation of a section of Copenhagen that has moved from a literal pipe dream to a manifested experimental existence characterized by serenity and holistic ingenuity. Individual liberty is not a shallow catch phrase or a politically correct slogan in Christiania. It is something several generations of people have worked hard to maintain and develop – often at the cost of ridicule and harassment from prejudiced outsiders.
Perhaps each major city should have a free zone like Christiania, in which those daring enough could try out radical concepts for the benefit of the general population: test pilots of communal behavior. This does not need to include the use of light drugs at all, although I'm not excluding the possibility. Free individuals are perfectly able to make up their own minds, and they always will.
The main dictum, in Christiania as well as elsewhere, remains as relevant as ever: Responsibility to the responsible!
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