What you have to understand is that Norwegians do not necessarily always feel the need to unconditionally declare themselves as members of the best nation in the world. I mean, when a situation arises that invites making a favourable comparison to other nations, we do not experience many qualms about the prospect of bragging about our scenic topography, how we have the highest standard of living in the world and the fact that we have the highest amount of winter Olympic medals ever. But we do need get the urge to do this more than once or twice a day.
However, this is but the general tendency. Approximately once every six and a half minutes, a need arises that is not so much about affirming the splendidness of our own nation as it is a need for belittling our dear neighbours Denmark and Sweden.
But a recent event has lead me to abandon this way of sustaining the part of my perceived self worth that is based on national identity. On my previous journey to Norway, my connecting flight from Copenhagen was cancelled because Thor, the god of storm and thunder, decided spend the night being a dick to prospective airline passengers.
And how do the Danes, those wonderful beings, deal with a bunch of tired (this was at midnight), stressed and miserable people who have just had to let go of the prospect of getting back home in time for whatever they were aiming to get back home in time for?
They give them all a free beer. Bless them. Meaning from now on Sweden shall be my primary target for petty, nationalistic rants. Seriously though , their only contributions to the world are ABBA, the Linnaean classification system and some meatballs.