Dutch Proverbs IV
Die maar één klok hoort, hoort maar één toon
“Die maar één klok hoort, hoort maar één toon.”
“He who hears only one bell, hears only one tone”
“Die maar één klok hoort, hoort maar één toon.” He who only listens to one source concerning an issue, only knows one interpretation of it. He who only hears one tone, is deaf to other tones, blind to other perspectives. He who only hears the bell of his own village, knows only of the problems afflicting his own village, but is ignorant of what is going on elsewhere. He who only listens to one side in a conflict, is blind to the conflict as it is. He who consumes from only one source of information, …
As with all proverbs, there is much to learn from the imagery used. Why the usage of ‘bell’? Let us think.
In Johan Huizinga’s Herfsttij der Middeleeuwen, an intellectual history of the 14th and 15th century in The Netherlands and France, we read:
“there was one sound, which time and again drowned out all the noise of daily life, and which, however colourfully mixed, yet never confused, temporarily lifted everything up into an atmosphere of order: the bells.”
(Huizinga, Herfsttij der Middeleeuwen, 20. Own translation.)
The bell, for us merely a sound in the distance, barely noticeable among the chaotic sounds of the city. But there were times when the sound of the bell carried more weight, more significance. Huizinga reminds that in French, sounding a bell was referred to as “faire l’effroy.” Effroi, fright. The bell signals something disturbing, it signals a problem, a crisis. The bell signals that you should turn your attention away from whatever it is you are busy with, and focus on the bell, to hear for what it is signalling. Stop tending to your land, focus on whatever crisis the bell is sounding to in the village. The bell calls our attention away from ourselves, and towards an external problem.
But as much as the bell sounds ‘l’effroy’, it also creates order. We all go our own ways in daily life, busy with our own affairs, following our own order. But when the bell sounds, one order is imposed on us all. The bell unites us, under one same problem. We suffer our own problems, but when the bell signals a death, we mourn the same life. We fight our own demons, but when the bell signals war, we fight the same enemy.
We all lead our own private lives in silence, led only by the sound of the commandments we give ourselves, the personal problems we set for ourselves. The farmer has his land to tend to, the writer has his book to complete. But when the bell sounds a problem, this problem sounds for all. The farmer forgets his own goal of tending the land, the writer forgets he has a book to write, and both are all subsumed under one overarching problem. No longer listening to our own commandments, but to the commandment of the bell.
He who knows only his own village, his own bell, listens to the bell as if it were a sound coming from heaven; irrefutable, commanding, it has to be listened to. For him, there is no problem more important, than the problem signalled by the bell. He who has travelled, can relativize the “effroy” of his own village’s bell. He who has listened to our proverb, can relativize the sound of the bell. He knows, that as much as he is now commanded to fright, perhaps there’d be no cause for worry if he were elsewhere. And if there is no cause for worry over there, then why should there be over here? He who has heard many bells, can relativize the importance of one bell, and he becomes immune to “l’effroy.” The bell might sound, but it signals only the feeble opinions of men, not the truth. The bell might sound, but it sounds only worry and fear, not a cause for worry.
These days, we do not listen to bells to signal problems that require our attention. We watch the news, we listen to the radio, we scroll through social media, etc. Our attention is not carried away occasionally, but continuously, we are continuously bombarded with “l’effroy.”
In earlier times, as Huizinga states, there were times of exception, in which the bell was sounded continuously for many hours; during battle, when a new Pope was chosen, when war broke out, when a peace-treaty had been made, etc. For us, we live in a never-ending exception, bombarded continuously with the sounding of the bell, with fear, “l’effroy.”
But this fright, is only there if we believe the problem signalled to be worthy of fright. If we still cling on to the original signification of the bell: fright, a problem to tend to, a reason to renounce your own worries. We have travelled, we have experienced the insignificance of this source, we have heard other bells. We know, that the bell lies, more than it tells the truth. We are undisturbed. But when the bell sounds loudly once again, we renounce what we have come to know. When ‘l’effroy’ is sounded once more, we fail to relativize the bell, and relativize our own experience instead. ‘This time it must be real, this time it must be trustworthy.’
As much as state-media still cling to their old role of being the ‘bell’ for everyone, of being the one source for everyone, the internet has made it easier to hear other ‘bells’, and relativize the fright we feel upon hearing of a crisis. We have learned this the hard way these past years, that the sound of he who claims to be the bell for all, is not to be listened to. That the problem signalled by the loudest bell, is not to be listened to. For all you know, the crisis is non-existent. Merely sounding “l’effroy”, without any true cause for being frightened. Only the signalling of a problem, but no real problem.
There are always two aspects to a problem; a real problematic event, and what we take to be the problem of this event. Disease happens, but what is the problem? Lack of vaccination? Or a weak and fearful population? A war happens, but what is the problem? Barbarians at the gates? Or the natural response to the arrogance of a globalist system in expansion? The natural response, to a tower, seeking to sound the bell for all?
You must know, our bell no longer sounds the problem, but only a particular and weakened interpretation of it. No longer signalling a real problem, but only commanding the fright you should feel concerning it. One should watch some media every now and then, it quickly becomes clear. No information is ever given concerning what is really going on, you are only instructed on how you should feel concerning what is going on. No problem is signalled, you are only commanded on what they want you to think the problem is.
You know this, yet you fail to learn.
You were tending to your land, when the bell sounds in the village: fright, crisis. You go over to the village, but there is nothing to be seen, no crisis to be found, only the fright created by the bell. No source for worry, only the folly of man. You go back to your land, and some years later, while tending to your land, the bell sounds again: crisis. Gripped with fright, you return to the village once more.
There is a certain stupidity, in making the same false judgement twice.
It is almost laughable, you relativize the sounding of the bell. But only this time. You criticize he who sounds “l’effroy”, but only because this time it was false alarm. Have you not learned, that if someone fools you once, it is wise to never fully trust him again? The bell will fool you evermore, if you let it maintain its power over you, of inducing fear.
“Die maar één klok hoort, hoort maar één toon.”
So listen elsewhere, until you realize you shouldn’t listen at all. So listen elsewhere, until you realize you should only listen to yourself.
Sources:
Johan Huizinga, Herfsttij der Middeleeuwen. Atlas: 1997.