The vikings really learned to chillax over the last handful of centuries. Multi-generational therapy? Being stuck in an unforgiving environment where you either work with all your neighbors (eeek - sounds like socialism!) or die a miserable death? The book
Collapse (Jared Diamond, the dude who also wrote
Guns Germs and Steel) makes some interesting points about Iceland.
I've never been there, though I've met a few folks from there in other Nordic countries that I've been to. In general, that entire region has a rather different mentality than we in Canada about many things; taxes, social services, education, policing, on and on. Canada has always been a little Euro and (especially lately) a little more American, I'd like to see Canada internalize lessons-learned in Nordic countries.
In some ways, it comes down to viewing your country as a collection of individuals, or as a group (society, social... it's like hints are being dropped... nah). Whenever someone proposes socially progressive policy, let's say cheap or even free (with strings attached) higher education, folks react with horror if it will take $100 out of their pocket every year. Short-term, individualistic benefits trumps long-term, group benefits. We're a bunch of selfish thugs, is what I'm saying. The downward spiral ensues when a less-educated and individualistic society doesn't care to, or is able to, understand long-term social policies. They're too wrapped-up in defending their compound against their countrymen, collecting as much everything-and-anything as possible, or more likely bemoaning their own lot in life (since our systems are producing an ever-growing gap between have's hand have-not's).
In a case like this, our politicians would be prone to say, "What if he was
your neighbor - this is why
you need a gun, higher fences, militarized police with sweeping powers to abuse body and privacy, bigger jails, mandatory minimum sentences, etc., etc.". Not, "Gee, this is terrible; what can we do to help a person like this before they do something like this; is there a better way to deal with someone like this if it happens again ("better" meaning, not kill him), etc., etc.".
It's sad to see guys like Rob Ford and our PM, Stephen Harper, maintain base support levels no matter what they do. Yes, two very disparate examples, but cut from the same clothe. They tell people that they are good for them (translation, save individuals money) whether that's true or not. They both reject science, facts, analysis, and other tools of policy-making in favor of blind adherence to ideologies (that all of the those things show they are, in-fact, not actually following anyway!). It's 'stop-hitting-yourself' thuggery that works (as-in, getting re-elected). The mentality of, "If he puts $5 in my pocket and screws everyone but me, I don't care how he does it, what he does otherwise, or really, about anything else".
Ugh, now I've gone and got myself all depressed.
*yells out the home-office door* "KIDS, decide what do you like better, Bjork, ABBA, Danishes, cross-country skiing, or practicing to snipe Russians while cross-country-skiing; pack-up your room, we're going on a long trip!"
A quantum state of signature may or may not be here... you just ruined it.