“They declared their opposition to, quote, ‘capitalism, communism, fascism, bureaucracy, militarism, professionalism, dogmatism, and authoritarianism.’ To give you a sense of their vibe, they once published instructions for how to make a bomb out of a pineapple.” – Roman Mars, speaking of the 1960’s Dutch counterculture movement known as Provo, on the 99% Invisible podcast
Notes
Opening Quote: From Episode 531 of the 99% Invisible podcast, “De Fiets is Niets,” (“the bicycle is nothing”), which traces the complex story of how Amsterdam (and the Netherlands as a whole) opted for bikes over cars – and what the result tells us about transportation today.
Against basically everything: The Provos were also against war, air pollution, car culture, unwanted pregnancies and repression. They were FOR livable cities, bike sharing, childcare sharing, the transformation of police from guards to social workers and many other ahead-of-the-curve ideas.
I’m still learning about this movement. Here are some additional resources if you want to learn more also: a good overview and links collection on Wikipedia; a great, accessible collection at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library; an in-depth collection, especially if you read Dutch (which I do very, very minimally), at the International Institute of Social History.
What if: I was thinking about the Provos and how I wanted to learn more about them when I had the good fortune to visit the Netherlands earlier this year. On my first day there I went on a canal boat tour, which is maybe the most ubiquitous tourist thing to do, but was also a chill way to take in the city after getting off a redeye flight. After the tour, I went to the boat company’s office to pay for beer my husband and I drank on the boat, and I saw this on the wall:
It turned out that the man I paid for the beer is also the creator behind The Shite Guide to Provo (and other Shite Guides as well). It was a Provoesque moment! In any case, I highly recommend this series, too, for more about Provo.