Nostalgia for a past past, paradise lost, as Van der Plas advocates, is misleading and dangerous. As one US president, Dwight Eisenhower, said: “The wise man and the brave man know better than to lay their heads on the railway of history and wait for the train of the future to crash over them.”


BBB's farmer lobby contributes significantly to the farming myth: the romantic, nationalistic view of farm life as true life, as the traditional cradle of Dutch culture. As an endangered cultural asset that must be protected at all costs against attacks from the big city.
A society that, according to the BBB, should go back to the 50s of the last century. Does she have any idea what society really looked like back then?

Showers, washing machines and refrigerators were not commonplace. Moreover, the church was leading in helping others, because the Assistance Act had not yet been adopted. As a result, not everyone who needed it received assistance. “Naboarship”, or Neighbourhood, is timeless, but the atomization of our society has put pressure on that, because you can find like-minded people more quickly on social media than with your neighbours. The crumpy, lovely countryside, cows that are eating out of the woods, a farmer feeding ryegrass, is in sharp contrast to the large-scale agricultural industry in which millions of animals suffer. The popularity of the myth also explains why aggressive farm activists are so sympathetic and why so many people vote for the BBB party. Joined by the Christian right, traditionally guardians of agriculture, and the farmer lobby are the drivers of this.


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