ABSTRACT
The brochure for the 2007 Creativity Seminar opened with the words of Anne Frank. Anne's diary is an example of creativity in extreme circumstances, and though they were unique to the tragic time in which she lived, one can also imagine those circumstances as an acute variant of a particularly Dutch conflict. The history of Dutch society reveals a collective commitment either to "pump together" or risk a catastrophic bursting. Dutch tolerance, the product of extreme circumstances, is, as Russell Shorto argues in The Island at the Center of the World, embedded in the diverse and creative culture of its most famous settlement, Manhattan. At home, however, its relationship to Muslim immigrants has strained Dutch society to the point of intolerance. A little more than a century ago, Vincent Van Gogh inflamed his landscapes with the extremes of his emotional life.
