In my mind I have discussions with the people who entered the hotel in Kijkduin to loudly protest against the reception of 98 asylum seekers. What do they want, I ask them? Should those people sleep outside? I’m not winning this discussion in my mind either, because you can never beat ‘that’s not my problem’ and ‘so what’. You can’t force someone to care about something.
And while I think that, I immediately wonder whether I am already busy acting morally superior. Because of course I know what you should worry about. Of how you should care about your fellow man. That is precisely, I think, what makes ‘the left’ often so insufferable, that eternal moral rightness, that higher ethical sense.
But if you have no ethics, no values, no rules of conduct, or if you are not willing to uphold and defend them, then nothing remains of the ideal of good action.
I am now trying to convince the imaginary common person of this insight, but of course it is much less successful. I put indifference into his or her mouth, but also the statement that they are not bad people and that they would do anything for their family and that it comes first and that they will not allow their lives to be disturbed by me and my like-minded peers.
Usually you can reason unbeatably well in your mind – who never writes effective letters in the dark before going to sleep? When you try to write down that irresistible argument of yours in the morning, it is often disappointing, or the writing itself takes you straight down a different path, from which you can never return to your quips of the night.
But now, walking through the woods near the village, it is cold, the sun makes a vague attempt, there is a woman walking with a dog who greets friendly and the world looks very hospitable, so now I don’t know how to explain why what I find important – being helpful, helpful, tolerant, showing solidarity – why that is important. What is missing, I suppose, because there is no interlocutor in sight, is a common starting point. Perhaps a common belief in, or a similar definition of, ‘the good’. Otherwise it will be very difficult to agree on anything.
Theory. What is also missing from my thoughts is compassion for those who feel that they have no ‘control’ over their lives, I say sternly. While I am filled with sympathy for the refugees of whom I know nothing, I cannot muster an ounce of sympathy for those who do not allow them a place in a hotel – no! I don’t understand that! I’m honking furiously at no one again.
The ability, or perhaps even the urge, to find people pathetic. Not for the first time, I wonder whether that is always such a good guideline. I found myself feeling ‘sad’ for Wilders that his first scout was an immediate failure. But a day later, that pathetic Wilders went to Kijkduin to make governance more difficult for the mayor who expected some humanity from his residents.
Having to sleep outside in a rich country after fleeing your own country is not sad, that is unjust. And not giving such people a place, not even temporarily, is heartless.
So much for my attempt at understanding and humility.