Dutch Disease or European Dilemma? Calvinist Legacies Confront Globalization & Islam
Geert MakOctober 30, 2006
Copley Formal Lounge
Cosponsor: BMW Center for German and European Studies
Geert Mak is one of the Netherlands’ most popular writers and is a prominent commentator on culture and politics. Over the last several years he has argued forcefully that a politics of fear has caused increased polarization and racism between Muslim immigrants and the Dutch. After the confusion and rage that followed the Fortuyn and van Gogh murders, the Dutch should not respond with isolation and a closing down of their free and open society.
As Mak put it in a recent article of NRC Handelsblad: “The time has come to face reality and to stand up for our liberties and constitutional rights. It’s time to dust off the citizens’ courage of old. But this also means, we need to, rather soberly and concretely, roll up our sleeves to teach and learn real tolerance and its inherent conflicts. We need to reassess our national heritage and figure out which (national) qualities we need to preserve and hand these down, whatever the price […]. There is only one way out and that is hope [not fear]. We have no alternative.”
As Mak put it in a recent article of NRC Handelsblad: “The time has come to face reality and to stand up for our liberties and constitutional rights. It’s time to dust off the citizens’ courage of old. But this also means, we need to, rather soberly and concretely, roll up our sleeves to teach and learn real tolerance and its inherent conflicts. We need to reassess our national heritage and figure out which (national) qualities we need to preserve and hand these down, whatever the price […]. There is only one way out and that is hope [not fear]. We have no alternative.”