We Dutch: always subject of Scorn and Admiration

Dutch history
The other day I read an account written by an English fugitive in Holland some time in 1619, reflecting both a clear contentment with the Dutch environment of religious tolerance and the general spirit of freedom, but also some serious concern about the behaviour of our children. Whatever the general merits of Dutch self government, tolerance and freedom, some English migrants held clear misgivings about the “licentiousness of youth in that country" and “the general immorality of Dutch youth and how they cared little for a personal relationship with God” (source: Bradford Smith’s biography of Pilgrim William Bradford). The writer was a member of the group that sailed on to America and later became known as the Pilgrim Fathers.

Holland experienced an astonishing success both as an economic power and as a center of science and art at the time. It was our Golden Age. We were greatly admired, but we also attracted the scorn of many serious people, who frowned at our social habits.

In many ways this is a theme that runs through our entire history. And it is true in equal measure, that in periods of stagnation or decline, our behaviour - whether towards children or towards other aspects of our social or religious lifestyle – stifled at the same time.

Duality of discipline and tolerance
So really, I have come to think of this duality as an essential characteristic of who we are as a people, and perhaps more broadly speaking, of the key ingredients of prosperity in general. Shouldn’t we think of social chaos – to a degree – as a fundamental prerequisite to progress?



Today, the Dutch are subject to similar criticism as the one expresssed some four hundred years ago. We are considered too permissive, we have legalized drugs (soft drugs that is), we allow Mosques to be built almost everywhere, whereas we are still supposed to be a (European) Christian nation; we allow for the greatest sexual freedom (or degradation), and our social system seems too tolerant to really stimulate people to get back to work etcetera.

Well, let’s say that we do address those issues. We are not ignoring them. Some of them do cause grave concern. But the last thing we will do is to resort to authoritarian measures to ‘solve’ them. We won’t.



Our country has emerged out of a fundamental adversary: the tides of the North Sea. Later on our main adversaries were European autocrats who thought they could rule a country that already was too much accustomed to rule itself. Even our Orange monarchy is a direct result of it, and not a contradiction to it.

Craddle of freedom in the greater world
Furthermore, we may seem chaotic and permissive to a degree, but otherwise I believe Holland is one of the most tightly run and well organized countries in the world. For us there is no alternative. Our country has too few acres to do it otherwise, but our population equals that of Australia.

I am not saying that we are miraculous in any way. But don’t mistake us for just a small country somewhere in Europe. Our minds and ambitions have been trained to largely carry us beyond our own borders, speak other languages, invest in other countries. We are the craddle of Republicanism that now governs the United States – thanks to the Pilgrim Fathers and those who followed. We don’t need admiration, nor do we need scorn. It is much more interesting to try and understand us.

Are we hunting ghosts?

Last week the world was shocked to hear that North-Korea, in defiance of international decency, carried out a nuclear test. Now the International Atomic Agency casts doubt as to the accuracy of this event. They are not quite convinced that North Korea actually ignited a true bomb, or – alternatively – just a fizzle.

We all know that North Korea is not actually contemplating a nuclear world war. It is a country in great despair and in need of real help. Its leaders have lost their proper track for some time now, and it is probably a great challenge to put things in order, without a lot of faces being embarrassed along the way.

All of this does not justify War-type language – what does? – but a carefully designed multinational effort to help North Korea see a brighter future, and not let it protract the agony of its people.

Similar ghosts are plaguing us elsewhere in the world. In many respects I call terrorism such a ghost. We do not wish to see the reality behind this phenomenon, and thus will not learn how to respond to it as long as this is our attitude.



We continue to hunt the stuff of material affluence, but fail to become richer and happier in the process. When will we understand?

Really, it is going to require leadership of as yet unknown magnitude to counter the prevailing trends in our world and help us too to find our proper course on this Planet. For who can really say that we are less misguided than North Korea, or Iraqi insurgents etc.?

I have now watched Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth, and I admire him for his courageous effort to bring across the message that has been obvious to many people for a long time already. Again, when will we really learn, and start to respond?

I do not want to spend my life hunting Ghosts. Nor do you. And I am not just sitting here, and commenting on all the wrongs etc. of my contemporaries. In my own life, I know what I can do to help future generations design a brighter future. I sincerely wish you can do this too.

Angels, angels out there in the cloud

Angels, angels out there in the cloud
What is my destiny
for which you have vowed?
Time and again my life was saved
A thousand deaths were somehow waved
The scooter from which I fell
The car that could have sent me straight to hell
And all those other accidents in your store
Or vicious traps right there at my door
That you kept out of harm’s way -
Why is it that you want me to stay?

Over the years I tabled my goals
All of them fell into big black holes
Again and again my destiny was kept at bay
I never really grasped what you wanted to say
And even when mistakes I made
So huge, that in the end I was afraid
No purpose ever could be fulfilled
And it was I, myself, who really killed
All likelihood of a worthy cause
Thus did I count my failures, loss after loss
And yet each time a new horizon came in view
Chances for me, or otherwise for just a happy few



And now again a mission is laid at my feet
I know, it is of my own doing, my own treat,
A dream so beautiful and noble to pursue
Can I really benefit all, give everyone his due?
All the lessons that I learned must go in the balance
They will have to guide me to the final essence
Of what it is that a man should accomplish
Rather than to merely live at the whim of his wish
Even the reptiles understood this from their early days
It was for their offspring they had to make a case
All that life will count, as it goes on
Is what the organism for posterity has won
And then it leaves you to rest
To dream forever about what you did best.

The Hague, October 2006