Recently, two editorial members of De Groene Amsterdammer analyzed the policy of the Dutch government with regards to the Covid crisis. Margreet Fogteloo shows that due to a lack of a clear narrative from the government, mutual solidarity between individuals and groups in society is under pressure. This lack of narrative and a coherent policy that accompanies it in the long term, which could serve as an orientation point for citizens, would function as a counterweight against the hyperindividualism which has permeated society.
This has to be connected to the analysis of Rutger van der Hoeven, which shows that in countries where the free market and cost efficiency have been embedded in healthcare (the Netherlands among them), the pandemic healthcare and death due to Covid-19 are high.
Privatized healthcare is less equipped to deal with a pandemic, with disastrous consequences. This neoliberal approach also plays an important role within the European Union, where healthcare seems to be becoming a victim of the interests of lobbying, profit-oriented companies.

Exactly these two aspects are given explicit attention in my article, Short-term thinking, religion, and uncertainty-tolerance. In the article, I research foremost the meaning of the focus of the government (and many citizens) on infection rates. Against the background of the research by Anne-Mei The about the manner of communication between lung cancer patients and their health practitioners, I interpret the focus on daily or weekly infection rates as a collision between government and its citizens, based on a technical or instrumental approach of the problem (Covid-19) with a narrow, short-term perspective as a consequence. The long term – which much more concerns meaning, values, and quality of life, but simultaneously also failure, loss, and tragedy – remains out of view. The long term story is about how we coexist, close-by and far away, now and in the future. It concerns the responsibility we have for each other, and when we fall short. Using Roman Krznaric’s work I introduce the question whether we are good ancestors, and whether we incorporate this question into a wider narrative.
Memories are especially important. No future without history. Ultimately, it seems that religion is a powerful human phenomenon that precisely can introduce a transcendent story, which outstretches our time and space, a narrative that can stimulate a wider humanitarian solidarity.
The Christian concept of the original sin acknowledges that we, as humans, fail, but also opens up the perspective on human responsibility for each living animal and for the world as a whole.

In such a frame the tolerance of uncertainty can grow, which with the narrowing of consciousness to the short term and to purely technical measures can be avoided. The intention of the article is not to offer concrete policy alternatives for the Covid crisis measures, and also not to sketch that broader story. The goal is to name a variety of conceptual frameworks which can contribute to answering the question: How can it be that both the government and its citizens are so focused on daily numbers and infection rates, what can help us to broaden this limited perspective, and to what extent can religion play a role in this? How can both government and citizen look wider and think wider during the pandemic, and through this approach, stimulate the mutual solidarity in society?

Are you interested in the full article by Sjaak Körver, in Dutch? It is available open access in the journal Religie & Samenleving (Religion & Society): Korver, S. (2021). Kortetermijndenken, religie en onzekerheidstolerantie. Breder kijken en denken in een pandemie. Religie & Samenleving. 16 (2) 91-114.