Charismatic speaker Jacob Gelt Dekker told the crowd in the Royal Tropical Institute about empowerment. “We can’t all go to go look for a pot of gold. But we can all go to university and get a Masters degree or a PHD.”
Mr. Gelt Dekker talked about a “little guy from Gouda”, who was embarrassed by his parents and fled to Rotterdam. Shortly after, he changed his name to Erasmus. “Erasmus did what murdered columnist Theo van Gogh did up until a few years ago in Amsterdam,” says Mr. Gelt Dekker. “They confronted people about lack of certain freedoms, lack of liberty. But, there are minorities out there who want to take away this enormous freedom. Erasmus and Theo both had to pay for it with their freedom.” But according to Mr. Gelt Dekker “in the end you can’t stop good ideas”.
For example, Spinoza had a very wild idea: “God. But I have the freedom to think, and I say that I am God, and you are God.” He had to flee, and was put to death. But his ideas still live.
50 years later Bernard Mandeville asked “vanity, greed, isn’t that the great motor of our economy?” Mr. Gelt Dekker explains this by comparing it to the car of your neighbor. “You want yours to be nicer than the one of your neighbor. Mandeville ‘invented’ this greed”. Although controversial, it became the motor of the consumer society.
“You’re sitting here in freedom, in the pursuit happiness. But this didn’t come overnight, and we are still fighting everyday to keep that freedom.”
“If you’re looking to me as a guru to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I am not. You won’t find it in religion either. You won’t find it in politics. Not me, or anybody on this stage is going to do it for you. The only person who can do it for you, is you. The pot of gold that you can reach is within you. The only person standing in your way is you. You create your own daemons, your own fear.”
“You want to be empowered by us speakers to have permission to go it. And I ask you to go do it. Don’t hesitate. Don’t have fear (and if you have fear, fight it). And don’t be afraid to fight. Don’t get discouraged. Don’t come with excuses. If you have a great idea, you have to allow yourself to be empowered.”
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