Societal Structure

I did a lot of reading about the Dutch society before the war and just after. At one point the Netherlands operated under a pillar society. What this meant was that each self-identifying group created their own system of society. Each major religion had their own school system, places of work and circle they moved in. There was also an understanding that different social classes remained at their level thought this was not openly discussed.

Though this form of society started to break down I still saw traces of it. Though the Netherlands are small, there are areas with their own dialect; the Roman Catholic church rules the south, the protestant more to the north. And what was really disturbing was the circles we ran in. If someone in the family or acquaintances was lower class in occupation I would be assured that they were "smart". We only went to "quality" stores, ate "quality" food. There were things that others do in Holland that we didn't - notably eating fries with mayo and the little pancakes. Our hosts being older might have accounted for this narrower middle upper class view of Holland and I found it disturbing - as if we weren't really visiting Holland but a narrow version of it. This dedication of staying in the "best" and eating the "best" (within upper middle class standards) meant eating in the same restaurant two nights in a row instead of the other many choices of small places with terraces and local colour.

Most disturbing was the invisibility of those who don't fit. Though very small details of Dutch life were pointed out to us on our visits to different places there was one area where we quickly noticed that no explanation was given. We were in a pretty town and there were what appeared to be gypsies (they go by the name Roma) at the entrance to the area of shops playing accordians for money. I thought they were roma because I had seen a presentation on them in class last semester and they looked very much the same - they certainly weren't Dutch or Muslim by birth. Though they dotted the area - and its hard to miss accordian players - no mention was made of who they were or what they were doing - it was as if these people just feet from us weren't there. I know from class that many Europeans dislike the roma and they were taken to concentration camps by Hitler during the war though their fate has not been recognised to the same extent as other persecuted groups. So whereas other groups of people were commented on either in passing or negatively this group didn't warrant any discussion. We decided not to ask because we didn't want to have a negative conversation about them - little good could come out of that. Cliff, who is usually so gracious, made sure his dontation of coins to the accordian player tinkled enough to draw out a comment from his aunt - but none came! He really can be quite the instigator when he wants to be!

Since people are the same all over, I have been thinking about my own attitudes - who do I ignore?, what class biases do I have that prevent me from seeing the whole world - all of God's children?, is there stuff I wouldn't do because its not "quality"?