Our duty is to resist: post-elections blues

 Our duty is to resist

Aldous Huxley wrote a little book many years after his classic ‘Brave new world’, reflecting on some of the ideas from his novel and how they had evolved over time – especially as WW2 had taken place in-between, and the Cold War was in full flow. And Huxley writes:

‘Perhaps the forces that now menace freedom are too strong to be resisted for very long. It is still our duty to do whatever we can to resist them’.

Here in the Netherlands, after Sweden, after Finland, after Italy, Hungary, Poland, Serbia and Switzerland, a General Election (to elect members of Parliament, in order to form a new government) has seen a Far-Right political party win the most seats, and by some margin. The Netherlands’ electoral system is fully proportional, so that, typically, the Parliament is made up of many parties, inevitably leading to coalition governments (not one party can ever obtain a majority on its own).

So we’ve got this Party for Freedom – a telling name if there is one – having won the first part of the race, its leader no doubt hoping to become Prime minister. He might well not, but his party’s manifesto and core ideas are bound to find their way into the new government, and so will members of his party find their way in the coalition.

For a foreigner like me, the Netherlands have always been a right-wing country, if I’m honest. I don’t mean a far-right one, but definitely one that is much closer to an English or American model, where the Left (Labour, Democrats) is really centre/centre-right, and where a certain, liberal idea of the economy reigns supreme.

But this – this isn’t nice at all. This is going too far.

And as a Frenchman, I’m only too aware we have our own such party who everyone predicts will battle it out at the top at the next presidential election. Many fear, in fact, that it will battle it out so well it may end up winning. And indeed, who congratulated the Dutch winner? His hopeful French counterpart, Marine Le Pen.

And as a convinced European (albeit not necessarily in an economic sense), I can’t but make a link between those countries I reeled off above, the Netherlands and mine: it seems that once a people has felt emboldened enough to vote the fascists in, others will follow suit, no doubt feeling justified in their beliefs, in their hatred, in their fear, in their ignorance.

I could make a case for books and literature and thinking and all that, to stop the flow, to counter the rage, to say ‘Read and learn’, to say ‘Open your mind to others’, to say ‘Don’t you see what you have to fear most is what we’re doing to the world at large?’, to say ‘Books lead to empathy, empathy to peace’. The truth is I don’t entirely believe that last one, even if I firmly believe in the others; the truth is that even if they are true, banal statements like that are unlikely to help much. They come and go like memes on Facebook: as Flaubert famously said, ‘one doesn’t make great Literature with good sentiments’. One doesn't change minds with memes.

And what we need is a form of Great, Great literature to mend all those fences, to bridge all those gaps.

But above all, our duty is to resist, and resistance can take many forms. André Gide, in his Journal kept during the Second World War, admits he doesn’t know who is right between those who advocate change through changing people, and those who claim change can only come through changing people’s conditions. Teachers often see themselves as the first, although obviously the second is crucial too – as Gide acknowledges, one is not possible without the other.

So I humbly resist with my teaching, in however small and almost insignificant a way I can. I humbly try to change people's conditions by attending to individuals. I also resist as a citizen, as a member of a collective that contains all manners of people and thoughts and fears and rages and stupidity and ignorance and rank, crude hatred.

'We have a duty to do whatever we can to resist the menace to our freedom'.

Flaubert has this line in one of his letters to a close friend of his: it encapsulates exactly what it’s like today, in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, and more broadly in Europe and in the world really – just look to Gaza, Ethiopia, Ukraine, Syria. I’ll give it in French first, since Flaubert’s style is something to behold:

Dussions-nous y périr (et nous y périrons, n’importe), il faut par tous les moyens possibles faire barre au flot de merde qui nous envahit – élançons-nous dans l’idéal !

(Very roughly : 'Even if we should die from it (and we will, whatever!), we must by any means necessary stop the flow of shit that swamps us – let’s jump headlong in the Ideal!')

 Let's resist - all together.

·       Aldous Huxley: Brave new world revisited, 1958 (re-issued only a few years ago by Penguin)
·       André Gide: Journal 1939-1949 (Pléiade)
·       Gustave Flaubert: Correspondance (Gallimard) – if you’ve never read those letters, you have missed out on a monument. They exist in English – go read them!