Moderation and a comparatively egalitarian approach are quintessential Danish qualities, all too often thoughtlessly maligned and ridiculed.
The fact is, for better or worse, these traits have served us well as a functioning society for the last thousand years, and in my guess, far longer back than that. A few data points:
The last Danish regent or head of government to die violently was king Erik Klipping. The date may resonate with some Americans. It was the 22nd of November. But it was in the year 1286.
We have had no real civil warfare since the late viking age. Some unrest leading up to the reformation ("Count's Feud") was actually a war against North Germans. The reformation itself was settled fairly amicably. No real bloodshed, the monks and nuns were often allowed to stay in their monastries for as long as they lived.
No pitched battles in 1848/49. A delegation went and saw the king. A democratic constitution was announced.
An overwhelming majority of Danish jews escaped unharmed to neutral Sweden in 1943, a thing only possible because of a quiet but widespread support in the general population.<p>Really, we haven't done too badly. But it's not a societal model particularly well geared towards the present day influx of large numbers of people with quite different and often more muscular attitudes to everyday interictions.