Christmas and the Established Order

Christmas and the Established Order

26 December 2025

This Christmas, once again, I listened carefully to three speeches — three Christmas messages: those of the Pope, the King, and the Governor. For both the Pope and the Governor, it was their first Christmas address. What stands out is the striking overlap between the three.

All three refer to conflict, particularly international conflicts. The Pope spoke explicitly about (world) peace — or rather, its absence. About war, injustice, empathy, and justice. His message was classical, but no less

According to many, the King delivered his most personal Christmas speech to date. This was clearly linked to letting go of his children, who have reached adulthood. From there, he reflected on the world we leave to our children. He called for connection and made it clear that it troubles him that we are increasingly failing to live together as a society.

The message that resonates most closely with me is that of the Governor — simply because we are part of the same society. At first glance, it is a thoughtful and well-crafted speech. He calls for bridging divisions and for respect and humanity, particularly within the Curaçaoan context, while also acknowledging international tensions. He warns against polarization.

As causes of polarization, he mentions differences of opinion, analyses, proposed solutions, interests, and also ego. This is where my discomfort begins. What remains unspoken is the injustice and exclusion that people are pushing back against. The growing inequality between the rich and the poor. An economic system that makes the rich richer and the poor poorer, at the expense of nature. A society that offers young people too little perspective — leading them to want to leave, to leave, and then to stay away.

Reducing the problem to how we communicate with one another — to polarization alone — obscures the real issue and certainly does not solve it. Polarization is often not the cause, but the symptom. People do not harden without reason; they harden because structural injustice is ignored for too long.

What all three messages share is that they barely challenge the established order. They do not call for systemic change. This is the same problem I have with the volume De prijs van de autonomie (The Price of Autonomy): beautifully written texts by the established order about problems they should have solved, have created, or at least have helped to maintain — followed by appeals not to polarize.

Perhaps that is the deepest tension in these Christmas messages: many words about connection, empathy, and humanity, but very few about power, responsibility, and justice.

May Christmas not only call us to a gentler tone, but also to sharper analysis. To name injustice. To genuine justice. Because without justice, peace is hollow — and without change, connection remains a beautiful but empty word.

Miguel Goede