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9 May 2008
Dutch values revisited
In September 2002, not long after I made the comment on The Edmund Burke Stichting (see previous comment) I posted a comment about the boorishness of many in Dutch society and the unwillingness of most people to accept it any longer. A report in De Telegraaf gave a litany of the sort of boorishness that one confronts everywhere in Western Society: rude gestures, bad language, road rage, mobile phones, violence in the streets and so on. All very recognisable complaints.
The report drawn from a survey said that most people blamed the rise of crude ignorant and violent behaviour on the breakdown of authority in the home, in school and in public. Repairing the traditional forms of authority (of parents, teachers, police and politicians) was urgent. Who but those responsible for the boorishness and violence could disagree? The expectation in 2002 was that something should be done about it - and now.
Alas, it seems that little has changed. On the question of crude and violent language I have already made several comments. I get the impression this is something peculiar to Holland. I mean, the extensive use of crude language and its defence on the grounds of freedom of speech. You wonder what sort of fantasy land someone is lost in when they mount a strenuous case for the right to abuse and use foul language. And it seems that the stock of foul words in Dutch has been exhausted because we now hear the worst of English foul language on Dutch television.
If the majority of people in Holland and elsewhere in Western Society agree on these matters why is it so difficult to bring about change? Why is it so difficult to ban language that most people in Holland don't want to hear in public?
The explanation lies in the power of the dominant political class and the unwillingness of the Dutch population to confront them. Are moral confusion, fearfulness, and lack of resolve being mistaken for tolerance and political freedom?
comment: gerard@gerardcharleswilson.com