"System of Play"

"Psychically, the Lego brick is also distinctly calibrated; it operates in a space shared by childhood imagination and parental ambition. For children, Legos allow them to build whole universes to their idiosyncratic specifications. For parents, Legos seem like the vegetable your kid actually requests and then eats in heaping mounds—a toy that's also a building block for future creativity, a mechanics lesson that doesn't feel like schoolwork, a wholesome embodiment of Scandinavian craftsmanship, something tactile in a world that is increasingly pixelated. It is the plastic plaything that even the parent most committed to natural, wooden toys will gladly buy. It is also more popular today than it has ever been, which is a surprise even to some at the company, since roughly a decade ago it was nearly bankrupt."

Genevieve Smith in New York calls Lego "the perfect toy."

"This Isn't About Big Government, It's About Smart Government"

"The United States is its own country, and no one expects it to become a Nordic utopia. But Nordic countries aren't utopias either. What they've done has little to do with culture, size, or homogeneity, and everything to do with figuring out how to flourish and compete in the 21st century. In the U.S., supporters of not only Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, but also of Donald Trump, are worried about exactly the kinds of problems that universal social policies can help solve: worsening income inequality, shrinking opportunity, the decline of the middle class, and the survival of the ordinary family in the face of globalization. What America needs right now, desperately, isn't to keep fighting the socialist bogeymen of the past, but to see the future—at least one presidential candidate should show them that."

Anu Partanen in The Atlantic explains how Scandinavian social policies are driven by enlightened self-interest.

And Marian Tupy connects Sanders to social democracy..

"Out of the Playroom and Into the World of Design"

"Lego shares the sort of simplicity and clean lines that are found in so much mid-century modern and Scandinavian style, Kenney says, adding that it’s the same aesthetic that has made Ikea, another Scandinavian giant, so popular. 'It has an instant charm to it, and it's also very clean and classy.'"

In a 2012 Globe and Mail article, Dave McGinn reports on product designers who use Lego.

Snap and Pop

Christian Wienberg in the Irish Independent marks the fiftieth anniversary of Lego, and Tom Scanlon of The Seattle Times looks back on twenty years of Sub Pop.