It sounded like the cry of a driver who feels the ground shift beneath his feet. “We-problems ask for we-solutions”, oracled CDA leader Wopke Hoekstra about migration at a party congress, a few days before colleague Rutte had to come and encourage the ‘we’ at the neighbors in dire need.
That ‘we’ has been questioned quite a bit, for years. “It wouldn’t work without us,” noted Paul Scheffer in 2007 The country of arrival (a bumpy catchphrase that was quoted as the motto five years later in Thierry Baudet’s anti-EU thesis, then still in its nationalist run-up).
The annoying thing is that some of the problems that affect us all don’t ask for ‘us’, but rather ‘them’ solutions. Take the Benefits scandal, shame on the public sector. The solution should not come from ‘us’ – certainly not from the people who were the victims through no fault of their own – but really from a government, tax authorities and media that were incited by an alleged vox populi to a hunt for fraud with respect of persons. They have to work differently, not ‘we’.
Or the slavery past. Public apologies for this are not a ‘we-solution’, initialed by each individual Dutchman (heroic right-wing angers are already crying out loud that the sorry really won’t be on their behalf). But that is not necessary at all. Regret does not express a ‘we’ or a ‘general popular will’ but the State of the Netherlands, the official heir of this historic past.
Or the hoopla at the public broadcaster. They from Ongehoord Nederland have created a big we-problem there. It seems that this could well lead to a smaller Hilversum ‘we’ – or, better, a revision of the entire system that has to serve ‘us all’.
The problem with we-talk meant to be promotional is that this rhetorical playing field has long since been occupied by forces that appeal to ‘us’ very differently. The spiritual fair is a squabble of conspiracy gurus and extremists who tell us that the state, cold-blooded or not, is our enemy. And then there are radical activists who denounce that we “live on as if nothing happened,” as one author who advocates tougher climate action told de Volkskrant. Yes, just take out the garbage every day or go to a meeting in the city council, how dare we!
So now that the ‘we’ alarm goes off every day, the best thing a government can do is try to mobilize us in only one way. That’s like democratic citizens, who can disagree completely – including on us, them, and you issues – but who can sometimes be asked to draw a line. Against anti-democratic poisoners, for example, who declare war on everything that smells like them – that is, on us.
Sjoerd de Jong writes a column here every Thursday.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of November 10, 2022