This is a somewhat monotonous company, I hear someone grumble. Another: if this has to be representative… A third: I don’t think you have a cross-section of the Dutch population here.
If that was the case, we would live in a country with predominantly female, higher educated, somewhat older white inhabitants. In addition, some men in short boxes or zip-off pants, with colorful shirts above them and a baseball cap against the sun that keeps Oerol in a warm grip. People with a heart slightly left of center, an above-average receptivity to refugees and enough involvement to go to a politically charged performance. Although I also heard someone grumble about that: all those committed performances, is that a trend?
We had previously been told: keep what happens here to yourself, otherwise you may influence the results. Now that Oerol is over, I can vent: I was part of a political science research disguised as a performance. Acts of citizenshipa collaboration between the University of Amsterdam, theater group Via Berlin and the Berlage Saxophone Quartet.
Uncomfortably we crowd together in a tent on the edge of West-Terschelling, where we get wristbands; mine is red, there are also yellow, blue and green. Each color track receives different information, will become apparent later. Red arrows take us to the next tent, where the 0-measurement is made: how we think about GroenLinks and the PVV, what feelings refugees evoke, where we situate ourselves on an axis from left to right. Quite guiding questions, judges a couple with whom I am somewhat on the same page.
A student in black overalls points us to a dune path, from which loudspeakers come out with ominous messages: the extreme right in power in Flanders, they want to break free from Belgium, shops belonging to non-ethnic Flemish people are looted and the police are watching. There is also wise advice: differences are valuable, seek support from invisible similarities.
Halfway up the dune slope, students again wait with tablets and control questions. Then we climb a grandstand, from which you can see rolling dunes and an edge of the sea. Four saxophonists fill the dune pan from waiting booths with almost liquid sounds. ‘Border Post’, reports a sign.
Border guards talk to themselves and each other about what to do if Flemish refugees arrive. There is the first one already, a very nice copy. She speaks the sweetest Flemish imaginable and took the form of a cuddly electric cart with an EU passport. She wants to continue, she wants water and says: ‘Coincidence plays a part. Coincidentally, I’m on this side of the border and you’re on the other.’
‘We don’t have camp beds’, the border guards warn as more refugees appear – all the dilemmas surrounding hospitality come along. Then, when the last mourning blows away, we become test subjects again. This time to test whether the performance has changed our views. Do we feel anxious or angry, excited or proud? To speak for myself: no. How I think about PVV, GroenLinks or refugees cannot be adjusted in an instant, the cynicism of the political reporter is persistent. But when I peek at my neighbors, I see pointers turn to empathy.
Then political scientist Matthijs Rooduijn and theater maker Dagmar Slagmolen appear to explain what we have contributed to. “We manipulated you,” they say, somewhat unnecessarily. What they want to investigate is the influence of empathy and tolerance. What works better if you want to increase support for the reception of refugees: do you appeal to the willingness to put yourself in the shoes of the other person? Or are you aiming for the more rational considerations that underlie tolerance? (Rooduijn also casually reports that the tolerance of left-wing people towards the right is considerably smaller than vice versa; the insight of the day as far as I’m concerned.)
A few days later, he can report preliminary results. Personal stories work well to promote empathy. But encouraging tolerance – my red trail – has little effect on receptivity to non-Western refugees.
Speaking of tolerance: virologist Marion Koopmans would come to Oerol to see this performance and tell about it on the radio. Because the police could not guarantee her safety, that visit had to be cancelled.