The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia

by Michael Booth

As evidence, he cited his ability to predict trust levels in American states based on where their immigrants had come from over the last 150 years. There are, according to the research Bjørnskov used, high levels of trust in those states, such as Minnesota, that received a large number of immigrants from Scandinavia in the mid-nineteenth century (i.e., pre–welfare state), and low levels of trust in those that welcomed, say, Greeks and southern Italians.

There are many other special days in the Danish calendar: Sankt Hans we have already encountered; there is also Fastelavn (Shrovetide) when they beat a cat with a stick (or, at least, they used to; now they whack a barrel filled with candies); Store Bededag (Great Prayer Day), a random religious holiday that falls on the fourth Friday after Easter; and something called Mortensaften (I never have been able to figure out what this is, but it is in November and they eat a duck).

“They have to be pragmatic,” Schatz argued. “They are used to –40 degrees Fahrenheit, and they have bears! If you are used to dealing with winters that last for eight months, the Russians are nothing. I would call it a shrewdness, a survival instinct.