Despite the enormous odds that exist, unflinching, unswerving, fierce intellectual determination, as citizens, to define the real truth of our lives and our societies is a crucial obligation that devolves upon us all. It is in fact mandatory. If such a determination is not embodied in our political vision we have no hope of restoring what is so nearly lost to us - the dignity of man. Harold Pinter in his acceptance speech for the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature
Political rants are rare on this weblog, but sometimes I need to get something off my chest. That good fellow Harold Pinter really got me thinking.
Some of the people who know me personally know I have a deep desire to leave the Netherlands before I hit my forties. I've already lived in a country in which all the crap I'm about to unload doesn't play a role of significance and I can honestly say it was great. Of course this country (Dominican Republic) has it's fair share of different problems but I guess I have less trouble coping with those problems than I have with what's happening here. Not only do I wish to leave the Netherlands, in fact I wish to leave the whole so called 'Western world'. Why is that, one may wonder. Here he is, sitting behind his nice shiny Mac, writing how much the world sucks. Who the hell does he think he is?
It's really simple I guess. There are several things going on that make me sick and tired of the environment I live in. And don't get me wrong here, I despise both sides of the problem equally much. First there's the religious fundamentalist idiots. Their 'power' spreads all over the Western world and of course the Arabic world. While I do have some sort of personalized belief in God, I totally despise organized religion of any kind. Not because I think there's anything wrong with the fundamental beliefs that make up religions but because of the morons leading the pack on both sides. I know many great Christians and many great Muslim people. Yet, on both sides the idiots are on the right side of the stick while those great people aren't.
We've got plenty of idiots on both the Islamic and the Christian side. There's Islamic 'leaders' calling out to their followers to blow themselves up in a bus full of 'non believers', promising them they'll go to heaven where a crowd of pretty virgins awaits them to 'love them long time'. On the other side of the spectrum there's Western world leaders rallying their followers to go out and 'fight for freedom', ensuring them they're getting killed for a great cause. And oh yeah, telling them God is on 'our side'. What a load of crap. What is 'our side' anyway? My side? Your side? I don't know!
Dutch people tend to be rather rational and able to look at both sides of the story with a clear mind. Yet we are governed by people who have proven to be easily affected by the above mentioned morons leading both 'parties'. Our government is sending commando troops to godforsaken places like Afghanistan to help George W. Bush 'fight for freedom' (how's that for an oxymoron?) and at the same time this government is seriously affected by the threats received from the islamic side of the madness. While no bomb has ever exploded inside our pathetic little country there seems to be a constant state of fear, actively fed by governmental means. Several times I've been unable to get home by train because some idiot 'saw some suspicious package' or spotted some islamic looking people 'acting weird'. Of course no bomb was ever found but every time something like this happens the bar is raised. Fear. Oh my God... they're going to try and blow us up! Someone oughtta do something about those terrorists!
And so, slowly but surely, the death grip of fear strenghtens. A new law requiring people to be able to show their ID at all times (including just for the heck of it) in true World War 2 style. European regulations requiring all internet traffic to be monitored into oblivion as if 'the terrorists' would ever chat on MSN to discuss tomorrow's bomb blast. There's cameras everywhere. Laws are being extended to make it possible to arrest people and lock them up without any trial just because there's some vague suspicion. Heck, one could probably get one's Moroccan neighbor arrested by just making an anonymous phonecall telling the authorities he's acting kinda strange lately.
Now before you jump to conclusions, I'm not stating there's no threat of terrorism at all. There probably is. I'm however getting sick and tired of the simple fact that it's impossible to switch on a TV or read a newspaper without being exposed to examples of the sickness that seems to be plagueing the whole Western hemisphere: fear of terrorist attacks. We've got to give it to them, those who send out the video messages every once in a while are probably laughing their asses off from within their caves. They've got us by the balls. The whole Western world is living in a constant state of fear. Quite an accomplishment if you think of it.
At the same time there's some movement going on where the powers that be (or those behind the screens probably) try to force feed us the fear in order to get us to accept the fact that our personal freedom is limited more and more. One would almost get paranoid and start thinking these people have some secret knowledge when it comes to terrorist attacks because it suits them damn perfectly that a bomb goes off every once in a while. It's almost like in the movie Brazil. The more bombs, the stronger the death grip the powers that be can have on society.
I may sound really negative by stating this but somehow I don't think any of the above is going to change any time soon. It feels like being surrounded by idiots outnumbering those who are still able to think rationally in large numbers. I don't hate the Western world. I don't hate Christians and I don't hate Islam. I just hate idiots, and there happens to be an unlimited supply of them coming from all parties involved.
Whatever 'cause' either party is fighting for, I simply don't want to be part of it. I don't care. I guess I'm part of the huge majority who just wants to live his live and allow others to live theirs without being caught up in all this. The cheesy cliche sentence 'Why can't we all just get along?' comes to mind. Great question. I have no idea!
So if you're living in a country in which fear, rascism, intolerance and ignorance is less influential than it is here (preferrably with some nice weather too) and you're looking for a web developer, by all means drop me a line!
Update: Seems we had another one of those 'bomb alerts' this morning. They keep coming and I expect this to get worse and worse. As the fear among the general public grows, more and more people are starting to 'see things' in trains and other public transport. All with the same 'threat level' as the couple of bags I saw at a railway station this week that inspired me to write this rant. Needless to say, no bomb was found. Like any terrorist would ever walk into a train and start 'behaving suspicious' before blowing himself up. What a load of crap. Someone tell me where the exit is?
