Amsterdam: The city closest to my philosophical Ideal
When I first came to London, I had no idea what to expect. I had never been to Europe before, and it was a totally new experience to me. One of the first things I noticed about London was how liberal it was compared to the United States in the domain of sex. For the first time ever I saw nude pictures in almost every phone booth. At night, I could watch soft pornography on network television. It made me think that the U.S.A. was a little too conservative when it came to sex.
Then I went to Amsterdam. I have to admit that at first I was shocked, but pleasantly so. I must first say that my political beliefs lie on the far left. I would consider myself a libertarian if I were forced to chose a political party. So basically, I feel that the law's underlying principle should be "do whatever you want as long as you are not hurting anyone else." While this simple line of reasoning requires more explanation on more complex issues, when it comes to sex and drugs, I think that it can remain simple. With this in mind, I feel that Amsterdam is a city that follows this credo. It is a city that on one hand is filled with humour and lightheartedness, and on the other ready to openly discuss moral and ethical dilemmas.
First of all, let's consider the humour. When you walk through the streets of Amsterdam, you are immediately overwhelmed by the overabundance of phallic symbols surrounding you. On every street, to keep you from walking blindly into the road, there are several small poles topped with round caps bearing a striking resemblance to penis heads. At the centre of the city, you will find a large monument whose most prominent feature is a long, thin cylinder that narrows to a rounded top and is pointing straight up to the heavens. Before you know it, everything seems to look like a penis, and you begin to wonder whether or not the town planners were playing with your mind, or all of the time you spent in the porn shops is manifesting itself in delusions and free association. Either way, Freud would be proud.
Amsterdam is far more sexual than poles resembling penises. At night, you can stroll through the red light district looking for a hooker whom you can pay 100 Guilders (fifty bucks) for a suck and a fuck. Even if you're not looking for a good time in bed, you can still have a good time window-shopping. While passing through the red light district, you can stop at any one of the many porn shops and find just about anything sexual your heart desires. If it is nudey magazines you are looking for, then look no further than an Amsterdam porn shop, because they have every variety. You can settle on a simple magazine of nude women, or be a little more extravagant and go for a lesbian magazine, or a raw sex magazine, or even one with women having sex with dogs, horses, or snakes. If you want toys, then look no further. Whips, chains, leather, handcuffs, dildos, vibrators, gags, blindfolds, edible underwear, flavoured condoms, robo-sucks, inflatable Annies, you name it. Sex is not taboo in Amsterdam; they will help you in any way they can.
My favourite museum that I've been to in Europe (and I've been to the Louvre), has to be the Sex Museum. In the U.S.A. sex is taboo. It is something you do in the privacy of your own home and something that isn't really openly discussed. Often, porn shops are frowned upon and titty bars are protested. Men who go to these places are either sick or dirty old men. In Amsterdam, sex is art. The sex museum portrays sex in a way that is much more artistic than in nudey magazines. There are statues and paintings that show sex as sensual, erotic pleasure. There are also many pictures that show the humorous side of sex. There is a birdfeeder whose rim is made up of several penises. There are several comical paintings exaggerating sexual organs to objects in everyday life. I find this approach to sex to be far more enlightening and entertaining than the simple repression of it all, like in the United States. In Amsterdam, sex can be discussed and explored openly, without any social stigma.
Television in Amsterdam is another means of exploring the depths of possibilities and thought. There was one melodrama on that involved three couples. Each of the couples had more than their fair share of problems, typical of any melodrama. However, there was something more blatantly sexual about this soap opera. Often, the dialogue revolved around sex. At one point, the group agreed upon an orgy that they would have that would solve all of their problems. However, on the night of the orgy (which never actually happened), it was revealed that one guy's quest in all of it was to get down the pants of another man's wife. It was quite an odd situation.
Besides being overtly sexual (one car commercial showed a man getting sexual pleasure by getting in his car and having the lady in the passenger seat buckle his seatbelt), Amsterdam television deals with many other social issues. One movie, which starred M.C. Hammer (no shit), was the most violent I'd ever seen. M.C. Hammer was a Mafia leader who at one point had his henchman suffocate a man with a plastic bag. Another scene showed a man set another on fire by shooting flaming gasoline at him out of the pump. While this may not really deal with any issues, it is certainly entertaining; it is violence as an art form. Besides all of the violence, the plot was quite intricate. There was a man who had to pull the plug on his own daughter after a convenience store robber shot her. The man wanted revenge (which I felt he deserved), so he went after the robber. The problem was that the robber was being protected by the F.B.I. because he was a witness who could put M.C. Hammer behind bars, so he couldn't even be prosecuted. It was quite an ethical dilemma...which is what most of the contrast between America and Amsterdam comes down to-ethics.
In the U.S.A., it is ethically wrong (or at least illegal...so if you believe that law is based on ethics, than what is illegal is unethical) for you to smoke marijuana. In Amsterdam, you can smoke it coffee shops legally, and people freely smoke in the streets. It seems that this approach hasn't caused too many problems, and in fact, once per year, marijuana is openly sold on the streets during a sort of festival. So what is wrong with this? What is the problem? Amsterdam is doing quite fine despite the drugs. It is quite amusing that Amsterdam allows marijuana use and has a 21/2 Guilder coin, and also the smallest 10 cent coin I've ever seen (smaller than the dime by far). It is too bad every drug isn't legalised because right now, you can get any drug from in one way or another-either from a coffee shop, a mushroom store, or a guy on the street... "Coke. XTC," as they say. At least legalisation means some sort of standardisation.
I think that perhaps the U.S.A. isn't ready for such steps though. I don't think our population is smart enough to deal with the freedom. We have been spoon-fed for so long now that the freedom to ingest drugs will lead to people thinking, "Uhhh, if the government says it's OK to do drugs, then I can do all the drugs I want." We don't realise that with freedom comes responsibility.
I think Amsterdam caters to the upper I.Q. population. In Amsterdam, you must always be aware of your surroundings. There is always someone there to take you for a sucker. When we first arrived in town, there was this "New Yorker" (or so he claimed) that said he was just hanging out and noticed that we were from the U.S.A. and thought he'd "help us out" by showing us the place he was staying. He then tried to lure us into staying at this totally shady hotel, which it was blatantly obvious he was working for. You have to watch out for people on the street and have sense enough not to buy drugs from them, but you still have the choice to do so if you please. Amsterdam also often forces you to think about ethical issues. While someone may watch a woman get raped by her husband (as I saw on that soap) and feel the desire to do the same, many will be appalled and think more about how often that sort of thing happens, and how it is wrong, and how we can prevent it. The other movie showed a black child being lured into a life of guns and drugs and money. While some may say, "hey that is cool, that is the good life," many will realise that life is not that simple, and these sort of things are ethically reprehensible-not because the government tells you so, but because you can use your life experiences to decide for yourself. That is what I like most about the city of Amsterdam, you are free to think for yourself and decide whether or not you want to smoke pot in the coffee shop, or get a hooker from the red light district. You can use your own judgement of what is ethically right and wrong and come to your own conclusions-even if that conclusion is "Amsterdam Sucks."
Then I went to Amsterdam. I have to admit that at first I was shocked, but pleasantly so. I must first say that my political beliefs lie on the far left. I would consider myself a libertarian if I were forced to chose a political party. So basically, I feel that the law's underlying principle should be "do whatever you want as long as you are not hurting anyone else." While this simple line of reasoning requires more explanation on more complex issues, when it comes to sex and drugs, I think that it can remain simple. With this in mind, I feel that Amsterdam is a city that follows this credo. It is a city that on one hand is filled with humour and lightheartedness, and on the other ready to openly discuss moral and ethical dilemmas.
First of all, let's consider the humour. When you walk through the streets of Amsterdam, you are immediately overwhelmed by the overabundance of phallic symbols surrounding you. On every street, to keep you from walking blindly into the road, there are several small poles topped with round caps bearing a striking resemblance to penis heads. At the centre of the city, you will find a large monument whose most prominent feature is a long, thin cylinder that narrows to a rounded top and is pointing straight up to the heavens. Before you know it, everything seems to look like a penis, and you begin to wonder whether or not the town planners were playing with your mind, or all of the time you spent in the porn shops is manifesting itself in delusions and free association. Either way, Freud would be proud.
Amsterdam is far more sexual than poles resembling penises. At night, you can stroll through the red light district looking for a hooker whom you can pay 100 Guilders (fifty bucks) for a suck and a fuck. Even if you're not looking for a good time in bed, you can still have a good time window-shopping. While passing through the red light district, you can stop at any one of the many porn shops and find just about anything sexual your heart desires. If it is nudey magazines you are looking for, then look no further than an Amsterdam porn shop, because they have every variety. You can settle on a simple magazine of nude women, or be a little more extravagant and go for a lesbian magazine, or a raw sex magazine, or even one with women having sex with dogs, horses, or snakes. If you want toys, then look no further. Whips, chains, leather, handcuffs, dildos, vibrators, gags, blindfolds, edible underwear, flavoured condoms, robo-sucks, inflatable Annies, you name it. Sex is not taboo in Amsterdam; they will help you in any way they can.
My favourite museum that I've been to in Europe (and I've been to the Louvre), has to be the Sex Museum. In the U.S.A. sex is taboo. It is something you do in the privacy of your own home and something that isn't really openly discussed. Often, porn shops are frowned upon and titty bars are protested. Men who go to these places are either sick or dirty old men. In Amsterdam, sex is art. The sex museum portrays sex in a way that is much more artistic than in nudey magazines. There are statues and paintings that show sex as sensual, erotic pleasure. There are also many pictures that show the humorous side of sex. There is a birdfeeder whose rim is made up of several penises. There are several comical paintings exaggerating sexual organs to objects in everyday life. I find this approach to sex to be far more enlightening and entertaining than the simple repression of it all, like in the United States. In Amsterdam, sex can be discussed and explored openly, without any social stigma.
Television in Amsterdam is another means of exploring the depths of possibilities and thought. There was one melodrama on that involved three couples. Each of the couples had more than their fair share of problems, typical of any melodrama. However, there was something more blatantly sexual about this soap opera. Often, the dialogue revolved around sex. At one point, the group agreed upon an orgy that they would have that would solve all of their problems. However, on the night of the orgy (which never actually happened), it was revealed that one guy's quest in all of it was to get down the pants of another man's wife. It was quite an odd situation.
Besides being overtly sexual (one car commercial showed a man getting sexual pleasure by getting in his car and having the lady in the passenger seat buckle his seatbelt), Amsterdam television deals with many other social issues. One movie, which starred M.C. Hammer (no shit), was the most violent I'd ever seen. M.C. Hammer was a Mafia leader who at one point had his henchman suffocate a man with a plastic bag. Another scene showed a man set another on fire by shooting flaming gasoline at him out of the pump. While this may not really deal with any issues, it is certainly entertaining; it is violence as an art form. Besides all of the violence, the plot was quite intricate. There was a man who had to pull the plug on his own daughter after a convenience store robber shot her. The man wanted revenge (which I felt he deserved), so he went after the robber. The problem was that the robber was being protected by the F.B.I. because he was a witness who could put M.C. Hammer behind bars, so he couldn't even be prosecuted. It was quite an ethical dilemma...which is what most of the contrast between America and Amsterdam comes down to-ethics.
In the U.S.A., it is ethically wrong (or at least illegal...so if you believe that law is based on ethics, than what is illegal is unethical) for you to smoke marijuana. In Amsterdam, you can smoke it coffee shops legally, and people freely smoke in the streets. It seems that this approach hasn't caused too many problems, and in fact, once per year, marijuana is openly sold on the streets during a sort of festival. So what is wrong with this? What is the problem? Amsterdam is doing quite fine despite the drugs. It is quite amusing that Amsterdam allows marijuana use and has a 21/2 Guilder coin, and also the smallest 10 cent coin I've ever seen (smaller than the dime by far). It is too bad every drug isn't legalised because right now, you can get any drug from in one way or another-either from a coffee shop, a mushroom store, or a guy on the street... "Coke. XTC," as they say. At least legalisation means some sort of standardisation.
I think that perhaps the U.S.A. isn't ready for such steps though. I don't think our population is smart enough to deal with the freedom. We have been spoon-fed for so long now that the freedom to ingest drugs will lead to people thinking, "Uhhh, if the government says it's OK to do drugs, then I can do all the drugs I want." We don't realise that with freedom comes responsibility.
I think Amsterdam caters to the upper I.Q. population. In Amsterdam, you must always be aware of your surroundings. There is always someone there to take you for a sucker. When we first arrived in town, there was this "New Yorker" (or so he claimed) that said he was just hanging out and noticed that we were from the U.S.A. and thought he'd "help us out" by showing us the place he was staying. He then tried to lure us into staying at this totally shady hotel, which it was blatantly obvious he was working for. You have to watch out for people on the street and have sense enough not to buy drugs from them, but you still have the choice to do so if you please. Amsterdam also often forces you to think about ethical issues. While someone may watch a woman get raped by her husband (as I saw on that soap) and feel the desire to do the same, many will be appalled and think more about how often that sort of thing happens, and how it is wrong, and how we can prevent it. The other movie showed a black child being lured into a life of guns and drugs and money. While some may say, "hey that is cool, that is the good life," many will realise that life is not that simple, and these sort of things are ethically reprehensible-not because the government tells you so, but because you can use your life experiences to decide for yourself. That is what I like most about the city of Amsterdam, you are free to think for yourself and decide whether or not you want to smoke pot in the coffee shop, or get a hooker from the red light district. You can use your own judgement of what is ethically right and wrong and come to your own conclusions-even if that conclusion is "Amsterdam Sucks."
Copyright © 2013 Russell Eric Dobda
