Election day in the Netherlands has come and gone. As I’m writing this, they are still counting the last votes, because the race is so close that those final votes will decide who becomes the largest party. It’s a final twist in an election race that has been tense, and dramatic, and the main talking point of every discussion for a week or two.
And that’s when I realized: people actually enjoy this. I saw people get really into watching the debates, talking about little slip-ups in politician’s campaigns, checking the latest news. Even people who never seem interest in politics at all. People who would otherwise run away from any conversation that might have even the tiniest bit of conflict or disagreement.
Election Day, at least in the Netherlands, is an event. No, it’s more than that, it’s almost a holiday. It brings excitement! It brings news, every day! It brings funny moments, dramatic twists, until the big climax on election day itself!
People are engaged just because it’s an engaging event, not really for the politics. I noticed this with myself too. I kind of liked the fact that election day was coming up, because it meant something to look forward to. It meant I had something to ask people when I met them. It meant the newspapers were just a bit thicker every day, with some more articles about blunders, mistakes, or controversial perspectives from political parties. It meant that when I was bored, I could always “check what’s happening with the election”.
It’s important enough to interest most people; it’s talked about so often you can’t really miss it and there’s always something happening; but it’s also simple enough for anyone to understand and form opinions about.
That kind of makes it an ideal “national event”. At least, in terms of engagement and storytelling.
And that’s when I thought: a country needs days like these. We, the Netherlands, need more days like this. Days when the whole country is talking about the same thing, being interested in the same thing, experiencing the same thing. A day when you suddenly realize that there’s a lot more people in your country, and most of them are reading the same news and worrying about the same problems. Our politicians are more divided than ever, but honestly, I’ve only seen Election Day bring people closer together ;)
People often talk about Dutch people as completely lacking in culture and heritage. This is not entirely true … but mostly true, I’ll admit. We have Sinterklaas and that’s it. We’re often seen as stoic people, just “being normal and that’s that”, which is quite accurate. We have so few big national events, so few big cultural touchstones that repeat every year, that Election Day (and most of all the run-up to it) really feels like something “special” that’s happening nationwide.
And so I write this article to encourage people to invent more fun national events. Anything works! As long as it’s simple enough that most people can understand, and just important enough that most people want to engage with it. The sky’s the limit!
Why don’t we hold more votes (or “polls”)? We could elect our favorite animals each year or our favorite food. We could have two weeks of debates about which animal is better than another. The newspapers could be full of people campaigning for specific animals. During that period, you can strike up a conversation with anyone by simple saying “So I’m thinking of voting Pig, you?”
Or we might pick some crucial pillars to our society, such as school and healthcare. For one week only, schools could be decorated as something else, or regular people can be teacher for a day. Every day, the government issues a “puzzle” that’s related to some school topic. It starts easy, of course, with first grade material. But then, as the weeks go on, the puzzles get harder and harder, until we get this climax on the final day when people can submit their solution to the final puzzle. The hardest puzzle, about all topics. Those who manage to solve it, win money, or a bag of candy, or some college fund for their kids, or whatever. (That would get a lot of kids interested in these school exercises again.)
We might even pick a cultural pillar like, erm, stoicism? We could have a week full of activities celebrating and challenging our culture. There could be all sorts of game shows related to it. It would be the kind of thing that other countries laugh at, but we take it very seriously. The kind of thing that makes other countries look in disbelief and shake their head, but we’re all looking forward to it and having fun for a few days.
It would be so much nicer. It would make every part of the year—and especially the darkest and coldest parts—much more bearable. Because there’s always a new national big event coming up in a month or so. There’s this regular moment of “synchronization” between all the Dutch. The moment when everyone is talking about the same thing, interested in the same thing, engaged with the same thing. The moment when you realize we’re all pretty similar and living on the same tiny patch of land with 18 million people. The moment to break up the boring routine and drudge work that fills most of a year. A little shiny light to fight the gray weather and polarization.
That’s the feeling I am left with, a few days after Election Day. The feeling as if the past few weeks were leading to some grand national holiday, and now it’s over and “back to normal” (unfortunately). It’s a much nicer feeling to have, though, than to be bored out of your mind by every day being the same and stoically going through life.
Those were my thoughts,
Tiamo
I have to add that I am not really politically active. I guess I’m just average, or even below it, in how much attention I’ve given to this election. The same goes for my family, friends I’ve visited over this period, strangers I bumped into.
I do have very strong ideas on politics and society that absolutely no party in our system represents whatsoever. You’ll know this if you’ve read some of my more serious articles. But I decided to move some of those ideas and remarks to a different article, to make this one short and to the point.
And I did vote, this year. I voted as soon as I was eligible, then I didn’t vote a few times, but now I’m back again. Not because I have any more trust in politicians or stand by any party. But because I want to be part of our nice national holiday masquerading as an election. And because I saw what happened in the USA and thought it would be nice to vote while we are still allowed to do so.