Tolerate What You Cannot Legislate
After centuries of tolerating human foibles and putting aside differences to cooperate, kindness, as it turns out, is part of Dutch culture.
The Dutch people are incredibly nice. They are patient, kind, and tolerant. In Amsterdam, where there live 180 different nationalities1 and is often overrun by Insta-tourists, one might forgive the locals if their patience, kindness, and tolerance wore a little thin. I think of the brashness of New Yorkers or aloofness of Parisians used as armor against the teeming hordes. The Dutch are altogether different. They are accepting as if the act of it is almost fun. What’s going on around here?
There are two philosophical concepts unique to the Netherlands that, together, go a long way to explain why the Dutch people are so damned nice2: Gedogen & Poldermodel. I believe we can learn something here.
GEDOGEN
The rough translation of “gedogen3” is “tolerate”, but its practical translation is so much more than that. The full applied meaning of Gedogen is to tolerate what you cannot legislate. It is used for activities that are technically illegal, but are tolerated because enforcing the law would do more harm than the activity itself.
For example: Amsterdam is famous for its marijuana cafés. Everyone (outside of the Netherlands) assumes marijuana use is legal here. It is not. It is, indeed, illegal. Yet the enforcement of soft-drug laws would be a losing battle because the Dutch are fully aware that people are going to smoke pot regardless of whether it is legal or not. Enter Gedogen. Pot use is illegal, but as long as those who use it follow some basic guidelines the long arm of the law is going to keep their hands in their pockets.
Gedogen was also the official policy on sex work until it was fully legalized in 2000. As the world’s oldest profession, the Dutch understood that it was going to happen regardless of its legality. They gedoogd it until deciding to just make it legal.
This gedoogbeleid4 has created a gedoogcultuur5 that allows for people to gedoog6 certain activities rather than prohibit them and lose control over them altogether. It is a remarkably pragmatic approach.
POLDERMODEL
A polder is land behind a dike. The land (the polder) has been reclaimed from the water and is thus below water level. The Netherlands is made up of many such polders. As you might imagine, living in a polder, below the water level, has its risks (flooding. It’s called flooding). As long as there have been people living in polders7 there has been a need to cooperate whenever there has been a danger of flooding—regardless of whether these neighbors agreed with each other’s lifestyle choices or personal views. Thus the “poldermodel” was born: setting aside personal issues to tackle bigger problems.
This mindset, ingrained into the fabric of Dutch culture, is used formally in business and politics and informally in any situation where people need to find consensus and work together despite their differences.
PUT THEM ALL TOGETHER
Combined, both Gedogen and Poldermodel explain quite a bit of what I am experiencing here. After centuries of tolerating human foibles and putting aside differences to cooperate, the Dutch people are well versed in such things as forgiving my botched attempts to speak their language or patiently guiding me through local customs. Kindness, as it turns out, is part of their heritage.
The Dutch are also notoriously direct. They don’t fuss about the edges. They cut straight to the heart of the matter. I would attribute this also as a byproduct of centuries of gedogen and poldermodel: Why worry about offending anyone if we’re just going to work through it anyway? Get to the point if you want your point of view to be considered.
All of this fits very nicely with my ethos: “Find Happiness In The Happiness Of Others.” The overarching conceit of which is that, if it is not harming anyone, let people find their own happiness in this world. Gedogen probably takes it down a notch: If you can’t be outright happy for them, at least tolerate them. The poldermodel suggests we should put our differences aside to work to that greater goal. And the resulting directness is a form of refreshing honesty.
Man, I’m going to go out and gedoog something right now!
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DutchAmsterdam - Amsterdam is One of the Most Multicultural Cities in the World
My kind of people.
In the Dutch language the letter G is pronounced like a long K, as if you’re choking on something. If you say “gedogen” out loud and someone jumps up to perform the Heimlich maneuver on you, you are pronouncing it correctly.
Gedoogbeleid is the policy of the government to not prosecute violations of a particular law.
Gedoogcultuur is literally “culture of permissiveness”.
Gedoog (as in to gedoog something) is to allow flexibility in enforcement of social matters that do not have concrete solutions--especially when eradication is impractical, if not impossible.
Some say since the Middle Ages! Netherlands: Democracy In The Netherlands