Dear Mr Geert Wilders,
I have read your piece in Dutch daily de Volkskrant dated November 5, 2015, – this one right here – with great interest. In it you expound on how the Dutch political elite has been out of touch with the Dutch people, who, in the context of the asylum crisis against which you penned your penny for your thoughts, want nothing less than having their identity preserved by way of holding anything that's foreign at bay – lest of course it should cross the border and, like the Borg, assimilate everything in its path.
Should this, God forbid, happen, resistance will be very much futile, and for that reason, if I surmise your train of thought correctly, you want to give the people the very things the political elite has been denying them all this time: closed borders to repel the incoming stream of asylum seekers, strengthened security through less Islam and less crime, and improved health care and eldercare by cutting expenses destined otherwise for migrants and those damned Greeks.
In short, your solution to everything, it seems, is to lump everything together in two categories: foreign and native – and to go from there. Hell, the Dutch language now even has two neat expressions to distinguish the two: allochtoon meaning foreign and autochtoon meaning native. How helpful.
And how sad.
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but the way you see it: foreign is synonymous with bad and native with good. However, under this stark dichotomy, the choices made by the good guys for the good of the good guys – you lament – are criticized by your colleagues and the media as coming from a place that's both 'dark and ignorant'.
Then, as you so eloquently put it, the political elite has started a 'march of madness' that will lead the entire country straight into the abyss precisely, if I may again surmise your rationale, because they have been doing the exact opposite of what you, and by extension the people, has been demanding, i.e. close the borders; less Islam; more attention for Henk & Ingrid.
You then go on to say that the asylum crisis is a symptom of a deeper-lying disease, i.e. a political elite out of touch with the people. Because all they ever do is doing the exact opposite as to what the people want, i.e. as to what you want, and, in your eyes, the asylum crisis has demonstrated this fact all too well. And therefore, this calls for a reform of the political system. Because only the people, YOU, and not the bigwigs in The Hague, know what's best for the Dutch. You then call for a democratic and non-violent political revolution.
Mr Wilders, of all the things I mentioned above (your us-against-them, my-way-or-the-highway attitude) this I can agree with. I agree that the political system could indeed benefit from a good clean-up. Because, Mr Wilders, what political system allows the student to unduly take over teaching duties from the teacher in the classroom?
Because, Mr Wilders, that's exactly what the system has allowed you to do. Well, not just you, but you and your colleagues in the world of politics. However, to be allowed to take over teaching duties the student has to be exceptionally gifted, he has to be considered exceptionally advanced for his age, he has to be well-versed in the ways of the world. You accuse your friends in The Hague to be particularly wanting in the last thing mentioned. But reality is, Mr Wilders, so are you.
And like in any classroom this one too has the obligatory stock characters. I'm not sure what to peg you as – troublemaker, daydreamer, genius? – but you're unfit for teaching duties. Because what a teacher would do in situations like these is this: he would instruct his students that adversity is part and parcel of life, that this is the very means by which one grows and matures. You could even say that it is nothing but an opportunity to grow and mature. That trying to circumvent adversity in the hope of prolonging any existing good luck is an exercise in ignorance. But you, Mr Wilders (student), you advocate such circumvention. Which, I think, can only come as natural.
After all, no student in the classroom would voluntarily allow himself to experience adversity if he could help it. At times he may very well manage to shirk homework, but he cannot expect to do so forever. There comes a time he has to face his adversities, whether he wants to or not. Most of the times this will be when life throws you a curve ball, something that, unlike the streams of asylum seekers, you cannot see coming from miles away.
But by facing your adversities, how painful that may be, you will be setting yourself up for success, and by success I mean you get to graduate from the classroom, and even come back a teacher. (What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.) But how do you expect to deal with greater adversities if you can't even address the smaller ones properly? How do you expect to graduate if you botch up even the easy assignments? How do you expect to grow stronger?
Like most classrooms, our little classroom forms part of a school. And as it so happens, this school serves as a metaphor for Plato's cave (from his famous allegory of the cave). Plato, as you might know, was a Greek philosopher and, as it so happens, he's the headmaster of this school called Plato's School of Altruism. (I made that last bit up.)
At this school, things like the bottom line, pride, and patriotism are but inferior substitutes for the real thing: Love. At this school, the nation state is but a tool in the service of humanity, and never the other way round. At this school, the things you attach so much import to mean diddly-squat because they do nothing to cause its students to make the grade for the simple reason that they cramp your mind. Subjective values cramp the mind; universal values liberate it. You want to liberate the mind, and therefore your mind-cramping subjective values don't hold a candle to the mind-liberating universal values. Your revolution should then be this: to supplant these subjective values (the bottom line, pride, patriotism) with universal values (truth, justice, love). Your revolution should then be to see students graduate from the class and come back a teacher. Anything less would be futile.
What I'm asking from your revolution is then nothing less than to fulfill Plato's argument for rule by philosopher-kings. To bake this cookie to perfection, the first ingredient we are going to need is a freethinking society. So right now you might consider to break your revolution down into several segments. The first one would be to transform the Dutch into a true freethinking society. Anything less would be futile.
After we have our freethinking society in place, you can start revolutionizing The Hague (the second part of our revolution) into a true sanctuary of Truth and Justice where teachers, and teachers only, get to teach. Anything less would be futile.
Once the Netherlands is a freethinking society operating under the philosophy of Love, then you can have your Swiss-like referendums – the third and final part of the revolution.
I think that's the only way the cookie, your revolution, should crumble. Anything less would be futile.
With best regards,
Laurens Sipahelut
#KekekalanLatenFasisme, @PionirBooks
Tulisan di atas diturunkan dalam rangka terbitnya Kekekalan Laten Fasisme, esai filsuf Belanda Rob Riemen yang mengingatkan terhadap bahaya laten fasisme di Eropa dan menunjuk politikus Geert Wilders sebagai prototipe fasisme masa kini. Untuk info terkini tentang Kekekalan Laten Fasisme pantau kicauan ber-tagar #KekekalanLatenFasisme pada Twitter. Kekekalan Laten Fasisme dapat dipesan pada Pionir Books dan outlet daring pilihan.
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