I read a review of the Danish film 'Open Hearts' (I so wish they had used another title) in The Independent the other day and Anthony Quinn suggested that a trait of the Danish national characer is a remarkable ability to forgive. Is that because we tend to forgive and forget? Is it forgiveness or is it a deep fear of conflict? Would we rather ignore a problem than deal with it? Sit around in our living rooms, enveloped by cosiness? (The Danish idea of cosiness differs from everybody else's it seems - to us there is a great deal of hot chocolate and liquorice involved.) Or is it a Christian thing? Most Danes are, although many voice a secular view of life and publicly renounce religion. However, it seems to me that many people are actually closet-Christians and 'come out' when they get older. It doesn't mean that they start going to church (except for Christmas eve and on special occasions) or 'preaching the word', but they baptise their children and start quietly voicing beliefs in a higher, omnipotent being. Maybe we are brought up to believe that people are inherently good because we don't encounter evil in our daily lives. Perhaps we wouldn't be so understanding if we were ruled by a dictator. Or living next to Barry Manilow.


I never saw Open Hearts, by the way. The only Dane who didn't. Supposedly good, though, so maybe one day I will.
posted by charlotte at 16:20 - comment