For Willem Frederik Hermans, as is known, a hero was “someone who was careless with impunity.” A very limited definition of the concept of hero, as has become clear to me in recent days from some examples in daily life. These heroes showed that you can also be conscientious with impunity.
The first case occurred one afternoon when I was working at home unsuspectingly. I didn’t read until the next day Het Parool what had happened a hundred meters from my house. Then I also remembered hearing fire engine signals – not an uncommon sight in a busy city neighborhood. The fire brigade had been on its way to a spot in the canal where a woman had ended up with her car after awkwardly reversing.
Imme Glaudé, a 27-year-old Amsterdam resident, heard a splash and saw a car floating on the water. “My thoughts were racing,” he told Het Parool. “First: this isn’t real. Then: this is serious, no one is doing anything. I have to do something. Not on my watch!” Not during his service as a fellow human being, he must have meant, and he immediately acted on it.
He jumped on a boat along the quay and saw that the woman in the car had panicked because she could not open the door and side window. Glaudé tried in vain to smash the window with a brick, the car was now half full. “I thought: this is going wrong.” Then he was given a crowbar by a neighbor, with which he could easily smash the window. Then, with the help of staff from a neighboring cafe, he lifted the woman out of the car and onto the dock. “I didn’t sleep well,” he said the next day. “Although it is nice to know that I apparently take action in such situations.”
I especially liked knowing that such Amsterdammers still exist. I also wondered whether from now on every motorist parking along the water should not have to equip his car with a crowbar or hammer. Because there is not always an Imme Glaudé ready to save you. Can he get a ribbon?
The second case of heroism took place in September on a tram in The Hague. There is a video of it that I recently saw for the first time WNL on Sunday saw. A so-called harasser vlogger filmed a young man taking a seat on the tram with painted toenails. “What a cancer gay you are,” said the vlogger, “bahbah.” Another young man heard this and said to the vlogger: “Be normal man.” “Shut up,” the vlogger ordered, “these demons are accepted by people like you.” But the man was not intimidated and stood his ground.
An example of Zivilcourage found Frans Timmermans who saw the video in the studio. “Someone stands up and says: this is not possible.” Timmermans advocated heavier penalties for hate-motivated violence and destruction. “The threshold for physical violence has become so low,” says Timmermans.
Doesn’t seem exaggerated to me: the Netherlands is almost exploding. A thousand explosions in a year, the police estimate. The demons are among us, they are just different demons than those the Hague harasser vlogger intended, they are demons like he himself is. Unhinged people, filled with anger and revenge. Anti-heroes.