Marianne Williamson’s candidacy is compelling to people around the world, including many Europeans, but challenging to Americans for many reasons.

One of them has to do with the fact that her platform as a whole is so far outside the American Overton window, even though her policy positions are popular.

As an American, I would know. I've been reading Hanzi Freinacht’s The Listening Society and I am literally shocked when I hear that people in Scandinavia talk to one another and reason their way to a common ground based on mutual respect and understanding—even though I've lived and worked in the Nordics.

That's not something we've done a lot here in the US, especially after 50 years of neoliberalism!

But that's how

, at least in my observation, tries to operate. Though very much an American in character, Marianne points to Scandinavia often, as well as the French. While she might not perfectly fit the Nordic ethos, I think people need mental models to understand why Marianne is running.

The Scandinavian political model is one of them, and to the likely satisfaction of traditionalists, centrists, and leftists alike, the Nordic countries are both Protestant and secular; they're uncompromising in their support of both a market economy and a welfare state.

Yes, it's possible to do both and hold center, but more in the Nordic style of a 'center' than in the American style of moderate centrism to date, which isn't viable. Here's how Hanzi describes Sweden's political culture:

• An uncompromising acceptance of the market economy

• An equally uncompromising acceptance of the welfare state

• A gradual adaptation to the pressures of economic globalization with a focus on economic growth, liberal markets, and international competitiveness

• An approximate 50-50% mixture of public bureaucracy and private enterprise, usually with a slight tilt towards private

• An uncompromising acceptance of basic liberal values

• A rhetorical minimum of ecological awareness

The better our concepts and mental models for understanding different phenomena, including the phenomenon of Marianne Williamson running now 2x for President of the United States, the more quickly we can reach understanding and do something meaningful.

Sometimes we don't realize we're running in a fixed loop until someone comes along and says, "we can break out of this." Sometimes we also don't realize that we can retain our uniquely American character even after we've evolved and transmuted our shadows—or perhaps that we can only retain our character by doing so.

This is why Marianne is running, and why I think she's a critical part of the political conversation and election.