Re: [microsound] completely OT yet so on-topic

[Jeremy Tolsma <ccws@xxxxxxxx>]

>
> your name, Tolsma, sound very Dutch. Maybe you have ancestors here? Maybe
> move back and find a middle path between US criminal capitalism and your
> Romanian peasants?

yes to be exact, Tolsma is a freislandian name, and frieslanders were mostly
peasants.  My ancestors had nothing, they had to create land to farm out of
the ocean by building dykes.  But surrounding german land barons threatened
to break the dykes and flood the land, which they eventually did.  Other
dutch nations were protected by pacts they made with the French aristocracy.
So much for hanging together.   Anyway I do believe that Holland has built a
very good modern state given the uphill battle against capitalism and
industrialization (wasnt there a problem a while back with the economy being
based too heavily on tulips?).  However, any dictator could come in and get
people all fired up about past provincial injustices to their ancestors and
turn Holland into another Yugoslavia.  Austria might be heading down that
road, lets hope not.  The social policy of the Netherlands was very
progressive in the early 80s, social workers were supposed to keep youth on
the right track, so they wouldn't be disillusioned and easily courted by
extermist politics.  In fact social workers were supposed to hand out
cannabis in community centers and the like.  But now Amsterdam's cannabis
coffee shops are vapid commercial tourist trap, certainly not helping anyone
from becoming disillusioned.  There is a certain 'libertarian' entrepreneur
here in Vancouver trying to turn Vancouver into a cannabis-related tourist
destination.  Funny enough, much of my current political outrage is a result
of having debated with that bonehead and his cronies.