Does the Verbeek family in Werkendam have the freedom to keep a domestic pig? Or do their neighbors have the freedom to be deprived of the stench and a torn lawn? Freedom has so many different meanings that two people who completely disagree with each other can still both value ‘freedom’ highly.
In the short children’s documentary Nelson the mini pig (NPO3), the neighbors seem to be winning. Especially if the housing association and the police get involved. Son Brandon is bullied at school because of the pig, so he increasingly distances himself from his pet. Nelson does indeed look dirty and ugly, especially when you see him eating in close-up. The family had bought Nelson as a mini pig, but “five hundred kilos later” he turned out to be an impressive bear.
The family tries to accommodate the neighbors. They potty train Nelson and wash him with soap and water. The best tool to keep Nelson is passing by. The family gives the animal a Facebook account, which becomes so popular that Nelson is also invited to various TV programs. If Nelson becomes a famous Dutchman, the neighbors will also love him more.
Director Anneke de Lind van Wijngaarden had the bright idea to tell this story from the pig’s perspective. She gave Nelson the voice of historian Maarten van Rossem. This cuddly bear laconically places his well-known quasi-surprised, ironic comments, but now in the role of a pig. By the way, I have the feeling that many scenes are re-enacted, which often makes the documentary resemble fiction. Maybe the director thought: it’s for children, so it’s allowed.
A battle of generations
The struggle between liberty and freedom also plays out in the four-part travel series The Battle of Florida by Eelco Bosch van Rosenthal and Hans Pool. Nowhere does the battle between Republicans and Democrats seem more fierce than in Florida. According to Bosch van Rosenthal, this is also a battle of generations: young people vote Democratic, old people vote Republican. In the first part of the series he visits New College, a progressive state university in Sarasota. The Trumpian governor thinks it is far too woke, so he has installed a new conservative administration. Students and teachers feel threatened by this and protest strongly.
What about the clash of freedoms? Conservatives have traditionally been defensive the freedom of entrepreneurs against government interference. Progressives want the government to take active action to defend workers’ freedom from corporate exploitation. However, in Florida it is not so much about classic socio-economic contradictions as about an emotional culture battle. This requires a flexible approach to the concept of freedom.
The progressive university fights for academic freedom and for the protection of marginalized groups who want the freedom to be who they are. The governor sees “the woke” as a threat to freedom: new-fangled rules of conduct and expressions that are forced on traditional citizens. Conservative students, for example, would not dare to express themselves at universities. So the governor gives citizens more freedom to have unwelcome books banned. He himself bans certain university subjects such as critical race theory and gender studies. So he wants to ban everything to protect freedom. Usually when you see such series about the US you can still think: “Weird guys, those Americans”, but the polarization in the US is increasingly reminiscent of what is happening in the Netherlands.