A group of Mona Lisas hang in the window of a second-hand shop in Stockholm. About 50 copies of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa of varying quality. Like badly counterfeited money. Or a good illustration of how worth is created and maintained. One might think that all these copies are inferior to the original, that they somehow diminish the experience of the real article. Or else you might think the opposite, that the worth of the real Mona Lisa is created by the huge number of copies the world over, and that the experience of seeing these may be even stronger than if one actually goes to see the original. And in fact, most people are disappointed when they see it. In the pompous halls of the Louvre, Mona Lisa is so small, so difficult to come near, behind bulletproof glass and through the hordes of visitors. It is no more than superficial proof that mankind has a history.
In the new economy, one wants to disseminate as many copies as possible. It needs no proof. History is instead created through effective marketing, according to the rules of the game. It is history itself which is the original. And history best be updated and modified in new, family-oriented versions. In spite of this, history is often still discernible, in order to create a recognition factor and fit the median consumer. Therefore, the Mona Lisa concept is continually repeated. Like a tired but effective mantra, her smile recurs in advertising and magazine covers. Secretive women sell better than secretive men, according to market research.

Mona Lisa is what people in the computer business call a "killer application:" a hit, pure and simple. A winning lottery ticket for the copyright owner. According to Schumpeters, this is the driving force behind the economy, as opposed to the neoclassicists’ belief in the unbroken flow of the profit-maximizing market mechanism. Everyone, however, shares the belief that money is an important reward. The beauty of this reward is that it makes it possible to have things your way. This may not happen if you get a gold watch for years of loyal service, win a trip to Crete, or get a rebate on 25 kilos of coffee. To be rewarded in money allows one to choose for oneself. One can become free from the situation and say, "I don’t care if I’m fat and have diabetes, I want to eat so much chocolate that I puke!" Therefore, an important aspect of the money economy is the ability to choose well.
Butter or margarine, which brand of tampon? Shampoo in a pink plastic bottle with yellow flowers, or a white, more masculine look? A Big Mac or Whopper? It’s important to process as much information as possible without cracking. One must sort, catalogue, and recheck. Or perhaps simply go with the flow. Become the Consumer, in a state of higher consciousness, where products lose all meaning other than as icons of a religious experience. Where the material reality is held in check by more or less legal drugs, larger prisons and—not least—higher walls against a Third World where the pink plastic bottles are still being made.

As long as there is money, everything is still under control. In Sweden, the National Bank controls the money. The head of the King is still used as a sort of guarantee that the coins are real Swedish tender. But in the New Europe, this sign of a class society will soon be but a memory. The state is already outsourcing not only social work; even money itself is open to entepreneurship. Pengar i Sverige AB (loosely translated, Money in Sweden, Inc.) is the name of the company that since 1999 has made money off of money. The national bank would like us to stop using money altogether due to its high cost of maintenance. But it is more difficult to make people stop using money than was originally thought. People hold stubbornly onto their crowns as if they had a value in and of themselves. A somehow different value than, say, a plastic card. Money is still money.
Once you change, you cannot go back. We know this from the experience of former Soviet states like the Ukraine. Since their independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine has changed its currency at least three times. In 1992, all bank accounts were frozen. The life savings of entire families simply disappeared, more than 72 billion rubles worth. Many still believe that their money will one day return. That one day, someone will find an enormous bank vault containing the missing money. As if the worth of the bank’s numbers somehow were connected to an original value somewhere. A monetary Mona Lisa. Unfortunately, the Ukrainians bet on the wrong currency. Or were simply born in the wrong country: a state without a propaganda machine capable of creating a convincing enough history for their currency. Without enough of a military force to defend their country’s trademarks against competing ideologies. In the Ukraine today, the American dollar works better as payment than the local currency.

Even though the value of the Swedish crown has gone down so sadly the past decade, many loyal consumers still believe in the trademark Sweden. It is, after all, a collective name for a great many trademarks such as Ikea, Bjorn Borg, and Volvo. In addition, we have the JAS plane, freedom of speech, and democracy.
Now maybe not all of the Swedish trademarks are so Swedish anymore. Still, Sweden as a trademark is still intact. In our new economy, this is the real product, and you don’t want to change it as long as it is selling well. Sweden stands for many easily communicated values such as security, solidarity and orgiastic sex. Strong values which are easily applied to a wide array of products. Nothing is impossible. Shaving razors, noodles and/or Mona Lisas. Everything can be just like new again.

Karin Hansson

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