Book Review: Age Of Security by Ruben Andersson

[Andersson's] Sense Of Freedom Is As Pale As [His] Skin. Otherwise As Solid As Flan. This is one of those books that is well documented at roughly 26% of the overall text and raises a lot of solid points about its general premise with a largely global-ish look, examining different aspects of security as it plays out in Sweden, African Spain, China, the United States, and other areas and giving some views into different aspects of each that many readers are likely unaware of - and even less aware of the actual 2020s realities of some of these issues in particular.

Yet it is also a very leftist (in terms of US politics, the only ones I am truly directly knowledgeable of enough to speak to at all as a lifelong American who has only left the US on a few brief vacations, and those always in or near the Gulf of America/ Caribbean Sea), European-oriented text where it is clear than Andersson is at his most comfortable speaking to Brits or Swedes with similar views to his own and generally expects everyone to hold similar-ish views to his. In other words, capitalism is to be disdained at best, "freedom" means massive government intervention - just not what he views as "too much", which is ultimately the subject of the book.

This is where the flan in the title comes in, and is the star deduction. On its surface, the arguments broadly hold their shape reasonably well, and there is a lot of interesting "flavor" in this particular flan. Something both interesting to see and a general delight to consume. But it is as though this particular flan is flavored with cilantro or perhaps somehow made with a hoppy beer or some such - there is a strong discordant note that some will find quite off-putting and others will enjoy immensely, but it also objectively enough a mistake that I feel the star deduction here is warranted, because it ultimately detracts from the overall enjoyment of every consumer and thus weakens the overall argument. Additionally, the chapter on Sweden in particular - Andersson's homeland, apparently - is so distinctly and particularly Swedish (up to and including using a couple of Swedish language terms that are difficult - per Andersson's own admissions in the text - to truly translate to other languages as key features of this chapter) that it is more than a little jarring to include it in a book that largely connects to the overall global view of the topic much more even in other chapters detailing specific countries, such as the chapter on China's Panopticon.

And that brings us to the other reference from the title of this review, a modified form of a line from the movie The Patriot with Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Jason Isaacs, and many others released back in 2000. At one point in this movie about the American Revolution, an openly racist white man is told a version of that line by the Frenchman who has come to assist Gibson's character in leading this group of rebels when he remarks "I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't like the idea of giving muskets to slaves." (Without spoiling *too* much of a historical-set movie released over a quarter century ago, the racist man *does* see the error of his ways by the end of the movie.)

Ultimately this is a solid enough book that raises a lot of essential points that I doubt many have viewed with this level of detail in the context of 2020s era political and technological realities, and for this reason it is

Very much recommended.

This review of Age Of Security by Ruben Andersson was originally written on November 2, 2026.