Thursday, November 4, 2004
Continuing interesting commentary on the Van Gogh murder from Dutch expat Pieter at Peaktalk. Here's the conclusion, but read it all.
...I have written extensively about the American-European divide on this blog but I think what happened this week puts it all into sharper perspective. Americans have elected a wartime leader whose policies are centered on a smaller role of government and more individual freedom to gain wealth. If that great system is under pressure from external or internal threats its members are willing to take up arms and defend it, whatever the cost. Europeans often not only do not want to recognize the threat – it would be too rude an awakening for many – no, they prefer to ridicule the man that has correctly identified the threat. Yet, a huge number of Dutchmen would be all too willing to do what their forefathers did and leave for a better world where elections are driven by a brighter tomorrow rather than a comfortable today. It means many Dutchmen have acknowledged the threat but sense that a battle is pointless when a majority of their compatriots prefer a comfortable and lethargic journey to nothingness. The Van Gogh murder is not a wake-up call, we’ve had too many of those already. It’s evidence that hope in Holland and in Europe at large is steadily evaporating.
Update: Charles points to a good Dutch blog (in English) which also has a lot of coverage of the Van Gogh murder.
There's a big difference now in that emigrants are not going from the elite civilized area in the world to a place where there is nothing but hope, opportunity, and raw wilderness. They're going from 2nd tier economic powers to 1st tier ones. Before their ties to Holland disintegrate into the melting pot, they will be able to afford dual residences and their growing economic clout will enable them to have a bigger voice in bringing the old country back to sanity.
Things are not hopeless, not yet.
I think that's an upbeat assessment. I hope that's right, of course, but so far it's really not looking like it. It *sounds* more like the negatives of the old country culture are coming over and overwhelming their new societies who are too weak to assimilate the immigrants.