Stronger than ever in recent years, the influence of spin doctors on politics has been noticeable. Whereas at first it was only the PVV that had the presence of a spin doctor in the person of Martin Bosma introduced the American methods of 'framing', now it is also standing Cabinet policy. We all know the Henk and Ingrids, the hardworking Dutch and the head rag tax. And now there is the latter, introduced on 1 June by State Secretary for Culture Halbe Zijlstra: "we are still spending hundreds of millions on culture". He has been using it ever since whenever he is called to account about the unjust, unnecessary and, above all, resentment-born abolition of the cultural sector as the international pride of the Netherlands for decades.
Classic framing, that sentence. Because no one can deny that the government is still spending hundreds of millions on culture. Although 650 million sounds a bit more exact then. If you object that the cabinet has also taken hundreds of millions away from culture, you are trapped. You have fallen into the trap, because now you are someone who whines instead of someone who is happy with what is (still) there.
The same principle, by the way, is applied when selling the cuts in healthcare, the personal budget and defence, although these are all more proportionate. Rutte says: "rather look at what we still do: we help those who really need it". So therein lies the devil in the word 'really'. It implies that a lot of money is now going to people who don't really need it. The not hardworking people, so christened now that Rutte no longer uses the PVV term Hardworking Dutch.
So hundreds of millions are still going to culture, and the pride with which the cabinet of technocrats says this is chilling. And rightly so, because they had actually not wanted to spend anything more on culture at all, as Martin Bosma had actually dictated. In short: everyone who complains should be glad there is still some, and otherwise stop whining. That, on balance, the cutback on culture hardly contributes anything to the cabinet's total austerity mission makes the grapes extra sour. Spoiled toddlers are the Gijs Scholten van Aschats and the Music Centres of Broadcasting.
One contest question remains: is counter-framing possible?
Perhaps there is material in Friday, June 10. That day, we reported on a liveblog about the firestorm that now appears to be turning fatal for small and medium-sized organisations in the arts. After all, they are being thrown out of government protection and at the mercy of municipalities and provinces, which have to make even more cuts than the state. To stay in the analogy, the basement and the bottom 10 floors of the cultural building have been declared uninhabitable and are no longer maintained. In the penthouses, life goes on, although residents will find that the lift is broken and the stairs stop halfway up.
After a while, that top will then die off by itself. Though the money still flows there in hundreds of millions at a time. when they don't really need it.
Here our liveblog.
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