"It's violent, gory and disgusting," writes English critic Bryan Appleyard of Lars von Trier's upcoming film, "Antichrist." "What's worse," the critic claims, "it masquerades as art."
The Danish filmmaker credits his two-year bout with depression as inspiration for "Antichrist." He says he wrote the script "as a kind of therapy."
What little I know about von Trier's fellow Danes is limited to Shakespeare's fictional Prince Hamlet and Denmark's 19th-century dour religious philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard, author of "The Sickness Unto Death."
So I was not prepared to learn recently that the Eurobarometer poll ranks Danes as the happiest people on Earth — a record they have claimed for the past 30 years. Even in this year of economic hardship, more than two-thirds of Danes still report being "very satisfied" with their lives.
Could it be some ingredient in Scandinavian drinking water that accounts for the Danes' contentment relative to the rest of the human race? Apparently not, because their neighbors, the Swedes and Finns, are much less sanguine about daily living.
Demographer James W. Vaupel reports that Danes tend to be healthy, married and active — all contributing factors to personal happiness. But what distinguishes them as a people is their low expectations relative to the citizens of other nations.
Although Danes are not an especially religious people, they savor today rather than expecting something better tomorrow.
Eric Weiner, writing in The New York Times, states that "Danes seem to know instinctively that expectations kill happiness." Most of us tend "to constantly ratchet up our expectations, a sort of emotional inflation that devalues today's accomplishments and robs us of all but the most fleeting contentment."
For those individuals who harbor high expectations, it takes more and more just to maintain their level of contentment.
Experience persuaded Abraham Lincoln that "most people are as happy as they make up their minds to be." Years ago, I wrote a book about happiness, concluding that the pursuit of future happiness risks our losing the contentment we have today.
Joy, in any case, is elusive. It cannot be grasped by the throat or purchased on the installment plan. Happiness is no respecter of gender, race, age or economic condition.
Men and women, black and white, young and old, rich and poor (short of destitution) are not significantly more or less happy than their opposites.
The critical difference is attitude and attention — the building blocks of contentment.
Danes have learned that contentment does not come from striving for more but from enjoying what they already have.
David Yount's latest book is "Celebrating the Single Life: Keys to Successful Living on Your Own" (Praeger).