On November 22, some twelve million Dutch voters will be eligible to cast their vote in national elections for the Lower house of the National Parliament. It is amazing the country still does not have universal suffrage and that people under eighteen are not allowed to vote. After all, they can decide (from a very tender age) whether they want to be a boy or a girl, and are entitled to full official and medical support it they want to transition from their birth gender, yet they are still denied the vote in national elections.
On the face of things, the Netherlands is an important country, which would make elections there relevant to the outside world. The Dutch economy, amounting to over a trillion dollars, is the sixth largest in the EU, making up five percent of the EU gross national income. At the same time, the Dutch economy is about one quarter of Germany’s, which accounts for more than a quarter of that of the EU. At least on paper, such details look impressive, as statistics are wont to do. However, reality is different.
The Netherlands may boast as many of ten of Fortune’s 500 biggest corporations in the world, but it would be naive to assume that this would make the country especially powerful in any meaningful manner. Even if three of the world’s one hundred biggest banks are Dutch (ING, Rabobank, ABNAmro), in no way does this translate into increased power for the Netherlands.
Well then, what about Rotterdam, by far Europe’s biggest port? Just keep in mind that indeed, during four decades it was the world’s number one port (from 1962 to 2004), before it was surpassed by a number of Chinese ports. Today it is just number ten in the world.
All things considered, the Netherlands is just another part of the US Empire, a vassal state, with its government taking orders from the US, either directly or through the EU or international crime syndicates such as the WEF and the WHO.
Nevertheless, not a single individual is allowed to reflect publicly on such matters, most definitely not during election time. It should be pointed out that Dutch radio and TV broadcasters are under strict state control. All newspapers and magazines are owned by two Belgian conglomerates that work closely with the Dutch authorities to control what the Dutch public gets to read. As for social media, it is no secret that these are all under ruthless censorship, perhaps with the exception of “X,” formerly known as Twitter.
Apart from being a mass murderer of German women, children and pensioners, such as in Dresden, Churchill is known for having observed that “[i]t has been said that democracy is the worst form of government, except all those others that have been tried.”
Taking a cold, hard look at democracy such as it has been functioning for over two centuries, one can only say that it is very effective because it serves as a smokescreen, making the voters believe they are actually exerting some kind of influence on politics. Actually, democracy is a sham. Basically it is all smoke and mirrors.
Each and every time any of today’s politicians, while looking sternly into the camera or devoutly up to the heavens, refers to “our democracy,” this serves as a confirmation that democracy is a sham.
The vast majority of voters, for all their belief in “Western” values, fail to realize that their vote is utterly meaningless. As Italian historian Antonio Annino has convincingly shown, voting is really nothing more than an elaborate civil ceremony with at best only a very marginal influence on decision-making at the highest political levels. Essentially, elections serve as an instrument to reinforce a sense of belonging and togetherness among the inhabitants of a certain geographical area.
Politically, the Netherlands is in the same desperate mess as all other EU member states. There is a Liberal Party (in the European sense), a Left Liberal Party, a Social Democratic Party (recently merged with the Greens to form a new “Brown” Party), there are Christian Democratic parties and a couple of “right-wing” parties that are being routinely vilified by the media and the other parties. No need to bother anyone with names and further details.
It does not really matter who wins the elections, because any new government will, just like the preceding ones, have to follow each and every order and directive from Brussels and Washington DC.
There is, however, one thing that Dutch voters will decide next Wednesday, namely who will be the person to succeed acting Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who has been in office for thirteen years, a record in the Netherlands. Rutte has announced his retirement from national politics in the hopes of becoming NATO’s next Secretary General.
The small group of nameless and faceless people actually calling the shots in the Netherlands have long been looking around for a suitable successor. The requirements are impressive: someone with no personality (a “man with no qualities”), without a conscience and a spinal column, and with a skin made out of teflon.
The choice will be between the fat, ambitious former EU Commissioner Frans Timmermans, a Social Democrat, the Christian Democrat turncoat Pieter Omtzigt, a ruthlessly ambitious and utterly incompetent Turkish woman called Dilan Yesilgöz, and the young leader of the Green Party, Rob Jetten. The last one seems to meet all the requirements and, moreover, hardly seems to have a functioning brain, which makes him uniquely qualified for the position. Most importantly, he is openly gay.
In the final analysis the entire voting business, both in the Netherlands and everywhere else, is mere political theater in which most of the public takes part, duly voting at regular intervals, without ever asking the questions that matter.
That system is called democracy. It may work on a small scale at the local level and under certain benevolent circumstances, but it is an illusion to think that it can function in a highly developed, intricate and complex political setting such as the Netherlands. More that a century ago, Italian sociologist Robert Michels demonstrated that organizations, such as political parties, inexorably tended to develop into oligarchic systems in which a small number of individuals makes all the decisions.
However, there just may be a bit of light at the end of the long dark tunnel of democracy in which most people in the “West” are still dwelling. As a result of NATO’s defeat in the Ukraine and the televised genocide of Palestinians in Gaza by the Israeli armed forces, serious cracks in the “International Community,” as the US and its vassals like to refer to the US Empire, will begin to appear. When that happens, many things will begin to change, some hopefully for the better.
