THOSE DAMNED DUTCH! AGAIN

It always irritates me when a Dutchman falls on his ass by putting his foot in his mouth. Because I expect better of them. Of us.

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — The Netherlands’ foremost philosopher called the dispersal of Jews in the Diaspora a “blessing” because it prevented them from achieving the power they have in Israel today that has resulted in “religiously motivated violence.”

Hans Achterhuis, the first recipient of the prestigious and royally recognized title of “thinker of the Fatherland,” made the remarks in an interview on the role of religion in the modern state for Trouw, which the paper published on Thursday, Israel’s national Holocaust memorial day.
[SOURCE: Leading Dutch philosopher: Diaspora a ‘blessing’ because it kept Jews from power -- JTA.]


“Hoe vreselijk het verhaal van de Joden ook was, toch was het in zekere zin een zegen dat ze verspreid werden in de diaspora. Ze hadden geen macht, en daarmee ook geen mogelijkheid om religieus gemotiveerd geweld uit te oefenen. En je ziet ook hoe het mis kan gaan als die macht er wel is, in de staat Israël."
-----Hans Achterhuis, in Trouw


As a Dutchman (Dutch American; the Amsterdammers sold my ancestors and their territory to the English in 1664), I'd like to remind Mr. Achterhuis that the Calvinist 'Ollanders ruled Catholic North Brabant and Limburg like conquered territories, the Catholics (Spain) wiped out the city of Naarden and salted the earth, and the Dutch imperium in the East Indies was absolutely not remarkable for the absence of violence. Albeit admittedly for "business reasons", such as the building of the Great Post Road (Djalan Raya Pos) across Java, and the extermination of the natives of Banda. We Dutch should, perhaps, not bring up organized violence for any reasons, especially not when our business acumen went hand in hand with savage religiously motivated ruthlessness. Nor are we particularly "tolerant"; that's just pragmatic apathy about the heresy and heathendom of non-Calvinists who, we know, are not of the "select". Our capacity for blithering arrogance is, at times, stupendous.

Then there's the term "Dutch philosopher"; I find this a contradiction.

The last and only "Dutch Philosopher" was Baruch De Spinoza.

By the way, it's high time that we Dutch, in our own language, learn to think before we speak, as well as carefully nuance our public statements. Nuancering, da's toch iets waar wij attent op moesten zijn, daar wij zo vaak anderen (de Amerikanen) verwijten dat zij dat niet doen. En dan daarbij vergeten dat in de moderne tijd wij niet meer kunnen schuilen achter de ondoorzichtigheid onzer taal is een stupiditeit van jewelste.
Opacité bestaat echt niet meer.



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