The other day I attended a fascinating lecture titled “why are the Danes weird?” delivered by a Danish anthropologist from the Living Institute. Personally I don’t find the Danes weird by any means – in fact, I can think of several other European nationalities that are much weirder. But I guess the word was chosen for its sensationalist appeal in order to attract a large audience. (I could never possibly resort to such cheap tactics myself…)
The lecture was organized by a wonderful non-profit organization called Expat in Denmark. They organize social events and gatherings for expats and foreign professionals in Denmark for the stated objective of professional and social networking, but with the more obvious purpose of providing chances for commiseration. There’s nothing quite like meeting other foreigners and sharing your horror stories and head-scratching moments to find out others have experienced them before. Having only been here a few months I quickly realized I’m considered a ‘rookie’ in their midst, and was even scorned as being “still in my honeymoon period”. Yes, I’m much too green here to be nearly as bitter as the some of the veterans there.
In any case the lecture provided the expected entertainment value and occasional anecdotes like the display of a world map with Denmark disproportionately magnified and placed in the center (“this is how most Danes view the world” said the lecturer), and the analogy between Denmark and the proverbial bumble bee (there is a myth that the bee is not supposed to be able to fly due to its ratio of wing size to body weight, just as the Danish economy is not supposed to work considering the extreme welfare system – the similarity being that clearly in both cases the assumptions have proven wrong and both the bumble bee and the Danish economy seem to be flying quite nicely).
The lecture also attempted to explain some of the ‘strangeness’ of the Danes – apparently strangeness is measurable and it seems Denmark measures quite high on the scale. So the cold and reserved demeanour (on which I commented myself in this blog) is really just the flip side of an ‘arms-length’ society respecting others’ privacy. And the homogeneous nature, stemming from biological and cultural similarity, also leads to an abundance of trust, often referred to as Denmark’s social capital. The talk also touched on the unique Danish mixed sense of superiority and inferiority, which led me to ponder upon something I always wondered about – can Danes be considered a nationalist bunch? Is that why they use any excuse to fly the flag?
OK, I realize I’m not the first person to say this, but I honestly don’t get the flag thing. Years ago, when I received my first birthday card from my svigermor, I asked my partner why there were Danish flag stickers on the envelope (those were the early days – before I became familiar with the Danish flag fetish). “Because a birthday is a celebration” he answered casually, puzzled at my strange question. “And what’s the connection between celebration and flags? Or more accurately – what’s the connection between me and the Danish flag?” I asked. “The flag has nothing to do with the state or nation – it’s just a mark of celebration” was his stern response.
Call me crazy, but having grown up in one hyper-nationalist country and spent several years in another, I tend to get quite sensitive to public displays of flag-affection. I usually call it nationalism. But every Dane I’ve ever met (including my partner) takes that as an offence and vehemently denies any connection between the ubiquity of the Danish flag and any sort of cultural nationalism (putting aside recent politics and a certain parliamentary party).
The more time I spend in Denmark the more I tend to agree that Danes never think about their nation or nationalism when they fly, hang, raise or attach the flag in their day-to-day lives (and let me be clear about that – the frequency with which the Danish flag is used puts to shame any other country I’ve ever visited). But what I’m sensing is a different kind of ‘nationalism’ – a certain conviction that Denmark is ‘the best country on earth’. I don’t think that’s the reason Danes love and display their flag, but it’s perhaps the reason why the flag and the letters ‘DAN’ or ‘DANSK’ find their way to so many brand names, logos and terms (think Dankort, Danfoss, Danica, Danish Crown and countless others, including my all-time favourite term ‘danskvand’). Less like American patriotism, more like Swiss pride. Maybe that’s just another manifestation of the ethnocentric world map shown in the lecture.
So my own conclusion is that I don’t believe the Danes are particularly nationalist (in the cultural rather than the political sense) or particularly weird. Why they’re so in love with their flag I still don’t understand. Perhaps it’s a little bit of both.
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