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It's old news now.
Danes are the happiest people on earth. That survey came out in June, 2008, and just a month ago Oprah dedicated a TV-show to us happy Danes. What's our secret? Why are we always so goddamn happy? Even when we shop for carrots we're the Embodiment of Bliss. And when we throw poor refugees out of the country, we smile because we live here and they don't.
So what's up? Are our expectations lower than others? Are we happy because our welfare state works (kind of), or do we simply take pride in the fact that we invented Lego? If you've ever played with Lego, you know it makes you happy, right? Well, that's what we Danes are all about, supposedly.
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But are we seriously happy? No, we're simply patriots. That's what the survey reflects. We suffer from The Small Country Syndrome. We're tired of being taken for Swedes or Germans. We want to come out of our Southern Scandinavian closet; we simply want to be seen!
That's what the coming UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen is about as well. See us, appreciate how much we do for the environment, admire us. But happy? No, how could we be? Most Danes don't believe in anything, not even in ourselves. Our only God is the welfare state. That has become the church we worship, and the walls of the church are crumbling down. The recession will see to that.
So Oprah, next time you come to Denmark, please continue to celebrate us, because we do have a great little country with socialized medicine. And Denmark is still the kind of fairy tale place where it makes national news when a gang member fires a bullet into a park bench.
But if you walk around Copenhagen on a cold November day, you won't find much happiness. You'll see people in their own comatose world, walking to and fro with plastic bags and briefcases, not saying hello to any one, not smiling through their painkillers, just going about their business in the dreary drizzle.
Strangely enough, if you want happiness, you see more of that in a poor village in India or Bali - maybe because they have 52 million gods to help them with their pain?
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Read my award winning blog entry, Denmark for Dummies: A Superficial Introduction to the Happiest Country in the World.
6 comments:
At last, a Dane living with his head not buried in the ground.
Seriously, if happiness= safety then yes, Danes are very happy.
But what about excitement? What about passion? What about the kind of challenges which make us wake up for life and stir our survival instincts?
Copenhagen is a fairy tale. I enjoy it but have felt a lot more alive in less pretty places.
Peter, nice to find you! Thank you for speaking out. I hope you will continue trying to burst a few myths about this place.
He is not a Dane, he has lived out of Denmark.
Which is why he is lucid.
what does God have to do with happy? I am as godless as they come and happy 95% of the time, which is pretty darn good.
Mr. Fogtdal, in the most unlikely event that the traditional Judeo-Christian concept of heaven proves to be a reality, and, in an equally unlikely turn of events, you Mr. Fogtdal, should happen to find yourself there, do you think the chances are good that you'll be telling God that Copenhagen is better than Heaven? In the equally unlikey event- or is it- that you should find yourself in some state akin to the traditional Judeo-Christian concept of Hell after you pass, do you plan to "give the Devil his due", as they say and admit to the horny guy in a sportsman-like manner that hell does have certain advantages over Copenhagen, such as warm all year round, perhaps?
If either of these unlikely scenarios should happen to reflect the actual future, would you be kind enough to take note of which form of afterlife I reside in and then, please "GO TO THE OTHER PLACE", whichever?!
You know who you're beginning to remind me of, no kidding, none other than JOHN WAYNE! He was just about your age when he seriously began to diminish is own box office bankability by his inability to keep his ethnocentrism and xenophbia to himself. I know, you must be thinking the analogy his wildly unfair due to the fact that Wayne was an extreme right-winger from a tsar-like nation, and you're a social -or is it more like- anti-social democrat from an underappreciated, underrated dwarf-like nation, and many would agree with you. But really Mr. Fogtdal, isn't that kind of thinking as simplistic as the "white hats" vs. "black hats" of so many of Wayne's "potboilers"? Now it's true, whenever the likes of Mr. Lars von Trier is asked a question
such as this, his usual default is that he's just giving the Yanks a taste of their own medicine. But, it would seem to me that the crucial difference between Trier and you Mr. Fogtdal would be, at least I would think, that
this misanthropic "tit for tat" is beneath the standards of an adherent of St. Francis. I mean, you certainly would not want us to believe that your concept of "spiritualiy" is utterly self-serving and without a social dimension. Or, do you feel you are already doing more than enough by living in a nation with admittedly astronomical taxes, and oh yes, running in an occasional charitable marathon (even though in the marathon, you still seem to be more interested in castigating the spirit of Jante, than embracing the spirit of Francis, reminding us that you are more "spiritual" than all the motorists).
Just one more question Mr. Fogtdal: will you ever turn out an autobiographical work? Maybe, just maybe, if we're ever permitted to learn why a man who towers well over the average height in most countries (I know because I was at one of your book signings), seems to feel ever so much like a dwarf inside his own adequately tall skin. Maybe this blog would suddenly be imbued with a sympathetic humanity it thus far utterly lacks. Who knows, maybe Oprah has read and enjoys "The Tsar's Dwarf", but is simply misanthropic-phobic. But, if you really want to go to Chicago, you'd obviously better get a move on, Pilgrim!
Well well well....funny to see that someone actually gets it.
Happiness is what we make of it. You are right about finding happiness in a small poor village in Bali than in the oh-so-wonderful Denmark.
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