Julia Bindel’s “Why I Hate Holland” is the most egregious example of national character assassination I have yet seen here on Substack. It may be one of the most egregious I’ve seen in my life.
Bindel wants to lay the blame for all prostitution, drug use and crime at the feet of Dutch tolerance. As if these things would magically disappear were the Dutch to follow the American example of banning anything that offended a Puritan sensibility.
Hers is the logic of the autocrat. The same logic is used in every demagogic cause, whether it be a religious, ethnic, communist, or simply imperial. If we can just stop people from doing what people naturally do, then the world would be a paradise.
I say bullshit.
Her examples are also phony. Amsterdam today has just a few streets downtown where prostitution is advertised. If walking down one doesn’t turn you off sex entirely then I can’t help you. The “coffee houses” selling marijuana are tourist traps, like Buc-ees. They’re not responsible for international organized crime. As to the right to end your own life, I’m for it. Especially in the case of some politicians I could name.
I think I’m upset because the alternative to Dutch cooperation and tolerance is easy to see in America. It’s called Louisiana. That state is now sinking into the Gulf. Its economy is held up by federal largesse, gas station casinos, and oil extraction. It is also filled with smug, self-righteous preachers who need to be eaten by alligators. I’m for making New Orleans into Amsterdam, moving the state capital there, and starting a water board with teeth. Save the place from itself.
There Are Limits
There are limits to my tolerance of Dutch historic behavior. Maybe the Puritans should have been sent packing to convert the Zulus rather than spreading their poisonous intolerance in America. Perhaps Charlie and Jimmy Stuart should have been extradited back, rather than be allowed to restore monarchy, steal the best bits of the Dutch system, and turn it against them. Also, purple carrots are cute.
It’s true that the Dutch “Golden Age” was built on slavery and exploitation. (They were fighting the Spanish and needed the money.) The behavior of most Dutch people during the Holocaust, when 75% of the nation’s Jewish population was killed, can’t be wiped away by making the home of one victim into a museum.
But the Netherlands of the last 80 years, tachtig jahr van vrede en vrijheid (peace and freedom) stands for international cooperation, for the pursuit of justice, and for a more sustainable urban order. Dutch political and social systems work toward sustainability and while it doesn’t always get there, it does a better job than most.
It’s true the Dutch are a bit smug, a mite closed off, maybe even a wee bit cold. Well, so am I, so what? Living next to Germany will do that to people.
But Dutch tolerance of human stupidity saves billions of Euros that can be spent fighting the real evils of the world, like hunger and lack of education. If we can make some sin revenue-neutral, rather than having it be a drain on everyone else, I’m all for it.
