Dutchmen- and women- are a pain in the neck. And I should know. Twenty million humanoids cramped in a man-made submarine delta. Too claustrophobic to fart without someone complaining of ecological terrorism, we've carved out PERSONAE for ourselves!
We're defined by our likes and dislikes, our political colour, our position in the nature-nurture debate and our CV of foreign travel. And we'll violently defend any position, on any continuum of opinion, that happens to be OURS.
How unlike the Ozzies. Who either have no opinion, or are blissfully unaware that their way of thinking is one amongst many. Not something to be proud of, or to defend- just the way things are seen and interpreted without a value judgement. So it is possible to get letters published in the West Australian newspaper that would land you in jail anywhere in post-holocaust Europe. ' I'm not a racist. I just feel, and have seen that Aborigines don't pull their weight, etc, etc'.
Same for medicine. All the Ozzie doctors come from the top 1% or so of high-school scores and are individually extremely bright and competent. Which they need to be, because the Australian medical SYSTEM leaves a lot to be desired in direction, organisation, funding and underlying values. Lots of brains, but no thought.
Another way of highlighting the differences it is in examining three sociolegal things that Holland is famnous for:
1. Very relaxed drug laws
2. Ten years ahead of anywhere else regarding euthanasia
3. Unfettered abortion laws with the LOWEST number of actual abortions
Regarding the drugs- there was a West-Australian conclave on the consideration of somewhat decriminalising marijuana. All proponents of this invariably point at Holland saying that you can get it legally on any corner of the street and yet there's hardly a Cloggie who takes more than the occasional toke.
What everyone forgets is that the Dutch society is so bovinely bourgeois that you could send all citizens a kilo of heroin by mail along with the tax papers without risking single overdose. In a WA society that seems to be driven to drink, drugs and suicide- I wouldn't dare.
Same for abortion- the Dutch girls seem to have been instilled with some sort of pregnancy horror and responsibility- it's Double Dutch all the way. In Oz one gets drunk and laid in a logical sequence. In Holland an abortion clinic is wanting for customers, in Oz they work overtime.
Holland isn't actually liberal, it is just not prone to excesses as a society. They can afford to be relaxed about the tiny minority.
I used to hang out with the anarchist squatters. They felt that ' repressive tolerance' did them in. A vocal minority just didn't dent Dutch complacance.
Which is different from thinking that the Dutch laws produced the responsible use of this, that or the other.
Anyway. this just to say that I've been on three consecutive Shark Bay Sailing trips with Dutchies and Ozzies in varying mixtures. And to make the observation that the Dutch cannot experience anything without contemplating the relative value of the experience. And that the Ozzies seem prone to just experience without further thought. There's no right or wrong in either, but I welcome the mixture.
And that sun, sea and wind still rule the waves when sailing.
Whatever you think.
