after a productive night full of writing.
Awesome!
A neat development!
I’ve finally made the move to the new place. A house in the country.
Not yet the place I see myself grow old, but a hell of an improvement over the flat next to the urban highway I lived before.
I can feel my physical health returning to an acceptable level, and even my mind is stimulated to a point where stuff gets done.
Writing an average of 4 articles a day for instance! Now the only thing left to get back to is writing in English, which is a way better way of actually getting read than writing in Dutch.
I’m going to do it on my Medium account to begin with, but if you are running a site that can use some European input, don’t hesitate to drop me a line. My rates are reasonable, and flexible.
If you have specific needs other than journalistic or opinion writing, I’m more than willing (and capable again, yay!) to discuss any and every type of Dutch or English language-mongering.
In the meantime, I’ll be getting used to absolute silence, long walks with dogs, and chopping wood. Lovely.
All I have left for ‘concerned citizens’ is a baseball bat.
Het enige dat ik nog heb voor bezorgde burgers is een honkbalknuppel
I have been out of patience for months now.
It’s really not like I roam through people’s neighborhoods with a weapon in my trunk. That kind of shitty person behavior I gladly leave to the likes of Jan Roos [a Dutch ‘journalist’ and ‘politician’ who has been known to chase after kids of color wielding a machete.]
I’m more trying to make clear that I no longer want to hear your excuses for the poor and misunderstood Trump/PVV/[whichever fascist group is making headlines today] fans who “don’t mean it that way” or “are just victims of economic insecurity.”
No, these folks aren’t sad underdogs, they are scum. Violent, hateful and dangerous scum. And they need to -as a certain comrade from Den Bosch calls it- opbokken. At our youth organization we used to call it wieberen. [both are euphemisms for “piss off, forever”]
Even people who see themselves as leftists have been piping up lately, as advocates for mainly those people who -either out of mental apathy, or out of some kind of latent malignancy- have hitched their wagon to the movement of one demagogue or another.
You know, the people who say: “Yes, Trump is a scary guy, but the people who have voted for him can’t all be racists/rapists/con artists.”
Then why the fuck would you vote for a racist rapist who swindles people? Just explain this one thing to me: just because these folks meant well, should we just hug them until their good intentions paved a road to a Hell that we’ll all be forced to live in? How about you go fuck yourself on the fucking moon?
To return to my baseball bat: It’s not my goal to go out and smash a couple of folks in their bony skulls. Anyone who knows me will be able to tell you that I’m not the type to do such a thing. But honesty forces me to consider that I’ve been wondering more and more frequently if doing just that wouldn’t be a much healthier reaction to the fact-free spreading of hatred that groups like for instance DTG [a xenophobic anti-refugee group, members of which are currently in prison after trying to burn down a mosque] than the socially accepted option. No, we do not have to “understand” these people. We do not need to “empathize with their fears.” They need to learn that they have to behave themselves, and that if their only argument is that “she needs to have a dick inside” [a thing these people love screaming at women who have the courage to disagree publicly with their hate…] they just are not in the right place if they want to occupy a role n the public discourse surrounding these matters.
And if any of them wants to come around to my house, I reserve the right to demonstrate the fact that I do not appreciate their their contribution to our society with a swift blow to the genitals.
Because: All I have left for ‘concerned citizens’ is a baseball bat.
Until I move back to the country-side, that is. Because there i will be in the possession of a heavy splitting axe with a carbon fiber handle.
A Patreon, you say?
Indeed! A Patreon!
Not so much because I have the illusion it’s going to pay the bills, but more as a constant reminder to myself that this writing thing is what I really want to do.
As both of my loyal readers will know, I’ve been dealing with a pretty nasty chronic headache for the past couple of years. Luckily I seem to have hit on the perfect medication to fight the symptoms of this debilitating condition, but it’s become clear that in the long run I need to make an effort to go through some lifestyle changes to avoid having to deal with it for the rest of my life.
By lifestyle changes I mean that I’m going to have to take a step back when it comes to operating in stressful environments and dirty air, and find a way to work my little patch of land, earn some money writing (be it fiction, opinion, journalism or even user manuals for cheap Chinese-made mp3-players) and generally leave the capitalist and corporate culture that has sustained me for the past few years behind me.
A return to my roots, in many ways, as I’ve been involved in some pretty interesting experimental living situations in my past. One of the things I’d most like to see is a way to reconnect with the people, movements and the ethos I’ve had to leave behind for a bit.
What makes this step a little bit bigger than just dropping out and living in a tent -next to the aforementioned chronic illness situation- is the fact that I am the lucky caretaker of two wonderful elderly dogs. Our Yeti and Woutje are very spry for their respective ages, but the vet bills and costs of specially formulated food and additional assorted seeds and herbs are something I need to keep in mind when deciding on a course for the next couple of years.
Also, that little patch of land I mentioned? Bought it on credit… So that is not something I can (and want to) walk away from. My monthly costs are fixed, so no matter how much I save, I’ll always need some regular income.
To complicate matters: my job just stopped existing. Free trade and free movement of capital can do that to a company these days. I did get a reasonable settlement out of the situation, but new streams of revenue need to be found soon.
That means a new job. Which, for someone with my skill set, work ethic and pretty well-functioning brain shouldn’t be a huge problem. Thing is though, while there are plenty of jobs available, I would love to be able to do something that I actually love again.
I’m good at what I did, and I know I’d be a valuable employee to almost any business in this town, but what I want to do is not exactly what most companies out here are hiring folks for. (So if you are or know of an employer who is looking for a (copy-)writer, back-office specialist, editor or translator: hit me up! I clearly wouldn’t mind working remotely either. And I’m based in Poland, so I’m cheap!)Anyway, back to the Patreon! I’ll primarily use it as a portfolio of sorts for the time being, sharing the writing I do that’s spread over many platforms in one place. If anyone would be kind enough to actually patronize me, that’d be awesome, if no one is nutty enough to do it, par for the course, amirite?
I also made a Facebook page with more or less the same purpose, and I’ll (of course) keep tweeting any new writing until everybody is heartily sick of it (and then some!)
I wrote a thing on Medium that probably should’ve gone on here!
I’ll try keeping myself to the promises made in that piece.
I’ll reiterate though: if there’s anything you want something written about that’s even remotely within my fields, I’d love to lend a hand! Drop me a line!
That thing I sent to OpenDemocracy.net
(Note: had to stay within 350 words, nailed it. First reaction to Brexit, crystallized somewhat by reflection.)
I can’t believe it came to this.
The legions of the populists and xenophobes have brought the proud history of European commitment by Great Britain to a halt.
To reach this result they’ve lied and misrepresented and lied again. The press -lead by the Murdoch-papers- has made the run-up to the referendum into some kind of contest of misrepresentation.
Fact seem to have been placed at the wayside, and worthless demagoguery put in its’ place to fulfill anti-factual agenda’s
I still can’t believe it.
The British government is going to make some very unpopular decisions to save the situation.
They need to remember that in the long term, it is facts that count in the welfare of nations, not feelings of xenophobia and fear. And that for a continued economically sound environment for Britain to reside in, Union membership is not optional. It is a basic necessity.
I call on the United Kingdom to remember that this referendum was not, and has never been meant to be, binding. I call on Her Royal Majesties’ Government to make the right call, and end these shenanigans once and for all.
Britain needs Europe, Europe needs Britain, we all need each other, and we need to stop listening to the populist right, who want to deny these facts.
It is time for a pan-European move towards unity, instead of following the divisive politics and policies of the right, which already have record numbers of people dependent on food banks, homeless children in London, and a specter of fear haunting the millions of EU-immigrants to the UK.
I used to be an unabashed proponent of referendums as a means of checking the power of politicians, but I am sorry to say: I’ve been proven wrong, by this Brexit referendum, as well as by the Dutch Ukraine referendum. We’re simply not the educated electorate needed for them to be a useful democratic tool. At this point in time we do need -contrary to Brexiteer rhetoric- experts and specialists to see the true gravity of a decision like this.
And they need to turn it back.
De mythe van de terugkerende soevereine natie-staat
Donald Trump in Amerika, de Brexitters in Groot-Brittannië en de rechts-populisten in Europa; allemaal wensen ze een spoedige terugkeer van de sterke en soevereine natie-staat. Hoewel misschien ver…
♪ ♫ ♪ Are you Left and want a Nexit? ♫ ♪ ♫
Then we’re now on completely different planes of existence!
I have long tried to to give the benefit of the doubt to those who are skeptical about the Dutch membership of the European Union out of a well-founded distrust of centralized power and bureaucratic overreach.
After the dramatic events following the ‘decision’ by the British to believe the British media (the American Australian Murdoch) stuffed lie campaign I have decided this is no longer a tenable position.If you are politically on the left, and still feel that the Netherlands do not belong in the European Union, then there is something in your worldview I personally have significant problems with.
After two dramatic twitter encounters with people I’d normally read with pleasure, here’s a PSA that might also prove to be useful to other internationalists, borderline cases and traitors:
A Nexit is a disaster. Politically, socially and economically.
The only ones who will reap the political Nexit itself and the fallout after his fascists and populists.
I classify the SP among the populists, but not with pleasure; even as the party itself does exhibit creepy nationalistic tendencies at times, most people working for this party are well-intentioned. This will generally not the SP-members who will be cheering at a Nexit.
The political consequences will therefore among other things involve even more polarization. In particular, the PVV will see the whole mess as an opportunity to sow more hatred against minorities. But simultaneously the VVD and the rest of the center-right – without the dampening effect of a European framework – will keep pushing its neoliberal agenda with renewed courage: if you think that after Nexit the Left will have even one finger in the pie you horribly miscalculated.The SP will obviously have to endure her grief-filled role of voice in the wilderness, and for GroenLinks, D66 and the left wing of the Labour Party there will remain damn little room to maneuver.
The social consequences will, as we see happening in Britain, be devastating: a victory of fascist inspired Nexit advocates (and you might pretend, as might well be, that a lot of different groups are voing to leave the Union, but perhaps not all Nexit voters are Nazis, but all Nazis’ll vote for exit) groups like the PVV voters and the NVU and Pegida supporters have the courage to put their raunchy ideas in public practice.
Economically you just have to look at the state of affairs in world markets in the week after the Brexit vote. The Netherlands are slightly less critical for global markets than the UK, but we are still – trading nation that we are – disproportionately influential.
The Netherlands will be, after leaving the Union, a more poor, more violent nation with a less democratic representative parliament and cabinet.
The Netherlands are within the EU one of the countries that play a fairly important role in a number of essential areas: our country is one of the intermediate states between different groups and countries within the Union. Also our contribution in financial terms is partly responsible for giving the EU the opportunity to express for the first time in the history of capitalism adequate and substantial international financial and socio-economic solidarity with international partners in a political relationship based on equality.
A Nexit not only makes our country weaker, it also undermines the unique and in my opinion extremely hopeful European experiment.
“Oh, but then you think the EU is definitely perfect as it is now!” I hear you now: Wrong! Obviously there are a lot of things not (yet) organized as I would like to see it within the European Union, but it is for that reason that it is important that we endeavor to prevent Europe crumbling into isolated blocs again, with Putin in the east, Donald Clinton over the ocean, and Obergruppenfuehrer Johnson on Gray Rainy Island in the west.
Europe is not finished yet. We must – and here I mean we, the international Left, not the Dutch – to ensure that it is a fair, democratic, and social federation of civilians in its final form. And not because there is a spider in the attic is kick out the foundation from under the building and then get the hooligans to piss out the resulting fire.
So if I see you in my mail (standplaatskrk@gmail.com) or on my twitter or anywhere coming out whining @ me about that angry old neoliberal EU, you can be completely correct in some respects, but I will block you, immediately, if your conclusion is that everything will be better on our own. That view testifies to such an intense lack of political and historical insight that I’m afraid it’s contagious.
For the title of this piece, my deep apologies to The Clash – Should I Stay or Should I Go
I hope that after reading the previous rant you know what I think of this question.
(previously published in Dutch: http://www.krapuul.nl/economie-blog/2587808/%E2%99%AA-%E2%99%AB%E2%99%AA-ben-je-links-en-wil-je-nexit-%E2%99%AB%E2%99%AA-%E2%99%AB/)
New Piece: “Work: the New Church”
A strange delusion possesses the working classes of the nations where capitalist civilization holds its sway. This delusion drags in its train the individual and social woes which for two centuries have tortured sad humanity. This delusion is the love of work, t
he furious passion for work, pushed even to the exhaustion of the vital force of the individual and his progeny. Instead of opposing this mental aberration, the priests, the economists and the moralists have cast a sacred halo over work. Blind and finite men, they have wished to be wiser than their God; weak and contemptible men, they have presumed to rehabilitate what their God had cursed. I, who do not profess to be a Christian, an economist or a moralist, I appeal from their judgement to that of their God; from the preachings of their religious, economics or free thought ethics, to the frightful consequences of work in capitalist society.
One of the more eccentric arguments used in the discussion surrounding the introduction of the Universal Basic Income is as follows:
Working is good for people, and if everyone has enough to live on no one does anything anymore.
Besides the fact that this claim is actually really easy to rebut (except for a very small minority is nobody wants to spend their life doing absolutely nothing) it also apparently assumes that working for wages, as is the norm in our current economic system is somehow the very highest vocation of mankind.
On the basis of no more than loyalty to a habit, it is claimed that people are meant to spend their time by selling it to a company that profits on their labor, so that shareholders can receive their dividends. It’s expected that you are happy to turn your limited time on this earth into some abstractly designed printed papers for you and a new super yacht for the CEO of the multinational company which owns your brewery, department store or steel mill.
The current economic system, in which the 62 richest people have as much possessions as the poorest half of the world would -with a little thinking – have to raise the following question:
Why should I work to maintain this sick situation?
Instead, opponents of a more fair world create a strawman figure to justify their concerns. They do not look to judge a propertied class which en masse plunders the world economy, but focus on a fictional John Slacker, who, as soon as he receives his modest basic income just lies in his hammock, and from that vantage point observes the world in joyful futility.
In a world that is heading rapidly towards mass unemployment because of the automation of virtually any physical labor and increased use of artificial intelligence, this John would actually turn out to be quite a useful kind of citizen: from his hammock, he at least wouldn’t be a troublemaker, anyway .
The truth, however that it has been found that in case of financing the cost of living -meaning people people no longer have to work to survive- most people become more active and socially involved, finding a communally useful life far preferable to the laziness attributed to them by the cynical naysayers.
Personally, I would even argue a sharper distinction: the way labor is regulated in today’s society ensures almost complete stagnation of social progress, and the fact that everyone, in a world where it’s actually not completely necessary, spend so much time to ‘earn’ their daily bread actually ensures that people believe nonsense that, if they’d have time to get away from the daily grind to think would never get stuck in their minds.
The emerging right-wing populism in Europe? Due to economic uncertainty. Xenophobia and the hatred immigrants? That’s due to a system in which the weakest in our societies are played out against each other the fat cat capitalists together. The greenhouse effect? Direct consequence of an economic system that has put growth and profit above all other considerations.
Millions of people are so deeply immersed in this system, from the cradle to the upcoming grave, that that they see this precarious balancing act of an economic system based on the fantasies of big business, that is full of inequality, injustice and social unrest, as the norm. If you dare to take to Twitter or Facebook to make it known that you think this neo-liberal capitalism shit is problematic, you invite the most far-fetched arguments (you post this on your iPhone is a big favorite) put forward to try to make you look ridiculous.
The irony is that many of these brainwashed champions of capitalism are the biggest victims: large loans for their Audi A8s and terraced villas ensure that they are trapped in jobs which might as well not be done, or which could be fulfilled by a computer .
Perhaps that’s the reason the uncertainty that the transition to a new, more honest and less exclusive society brings makes them so afraid : they have more to lose than someone renting an apartment who rides a bicycle.
However, what these people overlook is that the economy is no zero-sum game: to increase prosperity at the bottom of the social ladder there is no need to reduce prosperity for the middle classes. (Although I would personally like to cut off the top of the ladder, but that’s a different story.)
A fairer, freer and less compulsively profit- and growth-oriented society could well mean the difference between life and death for our species (qv Naomi Klein:. This Changes Everything,) and it is therefore of utmost importance that we disarm the false arguments against radical reforms of the economy as soon as possible.
Let’s start with putting an end to the veneration of work.
Standplaats Kraków 