Insanely cool

Read in de Volkskrant of 30 May 2015:

On 20 May 2015 Louise Fresco published her weekly column in the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad. That day it was on the future of Europe. Fresco is an expert in food production and president of the board of Wageningen University. Her column was a letter to the next generation, those who just finished their highschool and started studying. In a nutshell this is what she wrote: you will enter a Europe that is losing ground. Jobs will be difficult to find because Asian robotics and outsourced work will take over. You will be part of the internet of things, you will have nothing to hide. You will not write any longer, so grammar is of no use to you anymore. National governments will be the weakest level of administration, so you will no longer vote. Your parents will be worried, but that holds for every generation. The only thing that matters in your life is a goal. What is your dream?

Ten days later I read a portrait of Mark Rutte, the Dutch Prime-Minister, in de Volkskrant. Journalist Ariejan Korteweg characterized him as bionic, as an ‘invariable optimistic man-machine’. Everything about him is unknown, he wrote, nothing essential we know about his life or thoughts, except that he drives an old Saab and eats cheese in Zermatt. In every crisis he seems to behave cheerful. It reminded me of Mrs. Fresco’s column. Does the Prime-Minister have a vision on the future of this great country? Again, we simply don’t know. Or do we? Korteweg: some time ago Mr. Rutte compared the Netherlands with a piece of marble. The form, he said, is already there, you only have to free it by cutting the stone. “I think about Michelangelo, the man who drew the perfect proportioned David.” How will this David, hidden in marble, look? Mr. Rutte: “Just an insanely cool country.” He certainly is not in a position to be Michelangelo. Then who is? We, the people of course. And Fresco’s next generation. But mostly global forces, the space of flows.