#130 The year I discovered politics
From a year full of new stories, I choose a moment during this year’s Springtij festival on the Dutch island of Terschelling. Springtij brings together makers and shakers in sustainable innovation, and at the moment I refer to, some fifty of them were gathered in a tent to explore a new methodology to protect nature. The methodology could help me (and my employer) move the needle on a strategic ambition, so I offered to be a panelist. Not by virtue of deep knowledge or long experience, but because I happened to have a colleague in the UK who was willing to teach me everything she could in the days leading up to the event.
Bravado has always come easily to me, but here I was surrounded by people forty times as qualified as I am. Luckily, they were also kind and generous, and the facilitator was exceptionally good. When I joined in to give an impromptu masterclass on the methodology, lightheartedly, because I couldn’t yet do it more justice, an intense joy came over me. During the session, we propelled the idea of Biodiversity Net Gain forward, and in the weeks that followed the idea took flight, carried by a growing coalition of advocates. It may have been relief at not having fallen through the ice as a newbie, but I still think back to that session as one of the most fun I participated in during a year that included hundreds of sessions for dozens of great ideas.
In 2025, my employer awarded me the privilege of time to follow my curiosity and to develop my leadership skills. To the best of my ability, I turned that opportunity into an agenda: to increase my impact on the world one hundredfold before I turn fifty. First 10x, and then another 10x. That agenda urges learning: how to change systems, how to scale platforms, and especially how to play public politics.
Having read close to one hundred political biographies, ranging from Empress Dowager Cixi and Princess Margaret to Richard Holbrooke and Saladin, the theory of politics isn’t my weakest link. Practice is. After decades as a citizen of the world, and now a denizen of a well-off suburb, I lived in the luxury of not having to care much about politics. My politics worked for me, as the general trend of the world rewarded my preferences. Two things changed that: Donald Trump and my agenda.
Donald Trump challenged my political aloofness because his movement exposed the unsustainability of my lackluster idealism. No longer would the most influential political decisions conveniently benefit both my wallet and my worldview, simply because my wallet and my worldview cannot be satisfied simultaneously. If I truly believe in a world of equality and harmony, I will have to make sacrifices to achieve that: living simpler, working harder, deserving less. I may not like that, but blaming Mr. Trump for placing this reality front and center will not change it.
So in 2025, I started listening to intellectual right-wing podcasters to better understand where my ideas and ideals fall short. Especially The New York Times’ Ross Douthat continues to be a delight, on par with reading Niall Ferguson, whose ideas also make me deeply uncomfortable.
Douthat taught me about the role of practical Christianity in politics, how to distinguish between wrong and right conspiracy theories, and the value of exploring radically different value structures.
More importantly, he taught me that if I want to disagree with the politics of the conservative right, I’ll have to do better. There are many lunatics on the conservative right, but there are also very solid arguments, undeniable facts, and stellar storytelling. The progressive left will have to build a counter to all of that. And more.
My agenda also challenged my sense of unconnectedness. I cannot scale my impact tenfold by working harder; let alone one hundredfold. That requires engaging in politics, and doing so with the same craft, intellect, and creativity as Douthat’s most esteemed guests. Thankfully, my employer gave me the time and freedom to start doing the legwork needed to develop this craft.
I got to watch lobbyists at work and occasionally stuck my toe into their handiwork. I sat front row during the coalition-building and haggling required to change legislation. And I was invited to partake in the quiet magic that turns ideas into movements. Near the end of the year, for instance, when we proposed Biodiversity Net Gain in the Netherlands as a way to restore nature while accelerating other necessary transitions. It was wonderful to see how the initiators (among them a bank, nature organizations, and others) skillfully assembled a coalition, bridged differences, and presented something acceptable to business, politics, and the future. I will draw on this experience for years to come as I continue working to multiply my impact.
I’m never quite sure where the boundaries of politics lie. As I understand it, if the economy is a set of agreements about how we deal with value, and culture is about the ideas and stories of a society, then politics is about how decisions are made and enforced. In a democracy, decisions are formally made by the people, but if one engages in decision-making only at the ballot box, most decisions are in fact made by others. Opting out of politics by merely voting, I’ve learned, is not neutral democracy; it is a political act in itself, one that almost always works in favor of those who already hold power.
When one is faced, as I am now, with a host of future-defining challenges and a solid, powerful, creative, virile, and competent opposing worldview, politics means applying your full self and your best effort at every opportunity to make the world a better place. 2025 introduced me to how much fun it can be to do exactly that. I look forward to spending the years ahead turning this introduction into a profession.
Have a wonderful 2026, stay in touch!
— Jasper
