Amsterdam: The Dutch

I'm usually not one to make generalizations about groups of people.

Except for the Dutch.

Before I spent time in Holland, I had an opinion of Dutch people being extremely forward-thinking owing to their tolerant social policies. This would seem logical, given that Amsterdam is, well, Amsterdam. But things are not quite what they seem. The Dutch themselves are actually very conservative, libertarian-type thinkers. Most tellingly, although Amsterdam is famous for its drug tourism, only 9% of the Dutch natives admit to having used Marijuana. Compared to the 33% of Americans that have In fact, it's actually "illegal", but tolerated through local law. There are plenty of restrictions, of course-- Shops aren't technically allowed to advertise cannabis (which is why they're all called "coffeeshops"), and they're only allowed to have a certain amount in the store.


The Dutch have a long history of this. It used to be that when Catholics were persecuted in Europe, the Dutch would again turn a blind eye. Catholics built "secret" churches in the top stories of residential buildings-- often very elaborate with organs and enough space for 200 people or more. Although the law required Amsterdam to close down known Catholic churches, the police would just sort of pretend it didn't happen.

But this tolerance wasn't / isn't born of a desire to improve people's lives. Rather, many of the Dutch Catholics were powerful businessmen, and were sometimes very wealthy. It just so happened that their economic impact held much more sway than the opinion of their European neighbors. Such is the case with any questionable-yet-profitable industry in Holland. Money always seems to have the final say.

You'll notice that helping mankind isn't part of the Dutch credo. In fact, they seem to harbor a lot of resentment for fellow man. Like any large city, Amsterdam has the rather unsavory problem of dealing with public urination. Whereas many cities have installed public toilets that are open at night, Amsterdam's approach is to place small urine-deflecting plates in certain dark corners that will angle a purpetrator's leavings back towards his pant legs. Annoying, yes, but certainly not a deal-breaker. Except that until very recently, many of these were also electrified.

Public accomidations in general are in short supply. Benches are rare, even in parks. Most of the comfortable places to sit (ledges, windowsills, etc) have a row of spikes that would cause the gluteal equivalent of "severe tire damage" if someone were unfortunate enough not to see them. If you try to sit in some cafe's unused outdoor seating, the employees will come out and bother you.

So, in conclusion, the Dutch aren't actually very tolerant. Tall, yes. Tolerant, no.