ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the calls for moral regeneration and for restoration of moral community that have recently arisen in a number of countries. In The Netherlands, during the first half of the 1990s, several leading politicians voiced their concern about the civic responsibility of the Dutch. The politicians' concern was concentrated on two issues: the disintegration of Dutch society and the overburdening of systems of democracy and law. Civic responsibility is conceived of not only as pertaining to the sphere of the state but also as a leading principle outside the public-political realm. Purification rituals vary from washing off graffiti to executing traitors. This vocabulary of dirt, danger, illness, and regeneration can be recognized in contemporary arguments about civic responsibility. Paradoxical communication arises when the act of communication denies the content of the message that is communicated. The implications of the naturalization of nationalism are stated without further ado: quantitative containment and the education of newcomers.
