The philosopher Gerard Bolland (1854-1922), professor at Leiden University, is considered the father of Dutch fascism. This is mainly due to his jet-black reading The Signs of the Times, which he pronounced a year before his death. In this, Bolland tried to show furiously that our society is “cancered” to the bone, which, in addition to technological progress, would mainly be caused by the Jews: “[De Jood] is born divisive, spoilsport and peacebreaker, revolutionist and anarchist.” And: “[Joden] strangenesses remain in our un-Jewish organism, unpalatable and unprocessable, which cause morbidity and malaise in the European social system, even to the point of decay.”
Bolland was already despised and loathed by many in his time. And also afterwards, for example by writer Willem Frederik Hermans and historian Johan Huizinga. Yet his ideas did not die with Bolland. When the Germans invaded the Netherlands in 1940, he even got a posthumous kickstart. Bolland’s fascist lecture was reprinted many times and distributed as a pamphlet to the population. However, it did not stop there: strange as it may be, until 2003 there was a bust of Bolland in the House of Representatives, right in the heart of our democracy. Mind you, a bust of an anti-Democrat whom the people considered “lazy, ungrateful and cankered.” So he found democracy as the rule of the people repugnant.
Remove his bust, that would be him cancelled can name. But Bolland’s anti-democratic, anti-Semitic and fascist ideas have been gaining popularity in recent years in social undercurrents. In the depths of YouTube, for example, you come across the account of one ‘Faust’: someone who agrees The Signs of the Times read and analyse. This Faust links Bolland’s ideas to contemporary examples. In doing so, he uses the same malicious convictions as the founder of national fascism a hundred years ago. The reactions under the video show that Bolland’s ideas are alive and well among some Dutch people.
Recent fuss
It is this liveliness that prompted the Leiden music theater collective mc KASSETT to create a performance about Gerard Bolland, together with director and writer Frank Siera and music ensemble Ikarai by composer Camiel Jansen.
The show Discord, which premiered on 4 May at Theater Na de Dam, wants to get into Bolland’s head, in an attempt to understand him. And yes, the date of the premiere caused some tension, according to Jansen, also given the recent one fuss around a performance by Bo Tarenskeen, in which Jacob Derwig delivered a monologue, in Carré, also on 4 May. Derwig played a man who became increasingly anti-Semitic – and that went down the wrong way with some visitors. They left the room indignantly and shouting. Derwig and colleagues received support from Emile Schrijver, general director of the National Holocaust Museum. He signed up The parole: “Can you even remember what you do not dare to name and should we not call the beast by its many names more often, anti-Semitism, racism, you name it, and thus take the bull by the horns?”
That’s the raison d’etre of Discord: in times of polarization it is important to try to understand the ‘incomprehensible other’. Because if we can even put ourselves in the shoes of a fascist like Bolland, then our racist neighbor and the conspiracy-thinking uncle may come a little closer. However? Actors Oukje den Hollander and Freek den Hartogh wonder aloud in the performance. “Whether we are not overshooting our target with such an undertaking?” Because doesn’t understanding someone also mean that you approve of someone’s ideas?
According to composer Camiel Jansen, it is important to realize that understanding others does not mean agreeing with them. Empathy comes from the German Einfühlung, to feel. So showing empathy for someone mainly means that you show the mental act of putting yourself in the other person’s shoes. So empathy does not mean showing understanding, but just trying to see the world from the other person’s perspective. Do not cross the bridge but shorten it.
Traumatic childhood
That wish comes true Discord partly in an exploration of Bolland’s youth. A traumatic childhood, poor and full of mourning; he lost both parents. He taught himself to philosophize. Could that be the reason for his hateful ideas? Strong in Discord is the dialogue between actors Den Hollander and Den Hartogh, who keep shooting back and forth between the roles of Bolland and Esther (an admirer of Bolland, who is Jewish herself) and themselves. Den Hollander tells about Bolland’s childhood to Den Hartogh, who in turn reacts furiously and argues that a traumatic youth does not condone evil ideas. Jansen agrees: “There are people who have lived under difficult circumstances and yet hold on to humanity and openness to dialogue. When the dialogue ends, everything stops. End of story. We must always keep talking, no matter how difficult.”
This turns out to be possible through music theater: Jansen’s composition fits the confrontational theater of mc KASSETT and alternates hard, dissonant sounds during Bolland’s speeches with subtle, cinematographic melodies. Theater is pre-eminently a place where we are challenged to show empathy and understanding for others. And that matters. Lest we die, as Bolland argues, of self-cancer — “An end full of filth, stench, and putrefaction.”