Now that the world order we grew up with is faltering and world leaders are increasingly reluctant to use brute force, intimidation, and mafia-style extortion, you hear it more and more often: might is right. Laws, rules, and agreements no longer matter. Whether you get your way in the international arena is determined by the number of divisions you bring with you. That’s frightening for children of the welfare state. In retrospect, you can wonder if the post-war system of international treaties to protect peace, human rights, and the weak was more than thin veneer. And whether, ultimately, the law of the strongest hasn’t prevailed always and everywhere.
In 1982, we released Working In Los Alamos. It was our first real achievement on vinyl.
Working In Los Alamos is a collection of lyrically engaged songs. We recorded the Shel Schellekens-produced “Nous Sommes Très Petits” in the expensive Soundpush studio, after which we ran out of money. The other recordings were financed by the then-left-leaning Vara: we recorded the two title tracks for the radio program Vara’s Popkrant, and two other songs were recorded live for Vara’s Lijn 3. That day, The Dutch were playing live on 3FM, then still called Hilversum 3, from a stage in Bergen op Zoom, for a whole hour. That’s hard to imagine these days!
One of the songs: Might Is Always Right.
The Dutch has often tried to capture the spirit of the times in lyrics. Even after our hibernation, between 1986 and 2014, we released many politically engaged songs. But you can hear that that engagement was of a different order in 1982. Might Is Always Right is pure musical and lyrical anger, energy, and doggedness. Later, the eighties became somber, resigned, and doom-like. But in 1982, there was still the Sturm und Drang to rebel, so bad we stumbled over our words and forgot entire sentences. The message however remained, clearly audible: Might Is Always Right, goddamn!
After “See I Told You So,” we’re once again diving into new music. Some, if not all of it will again relate to the world around us. As a starter, we thought it would be a good idea to remix “Might Is Always Right”, because that song could just as easily have been made today. Perhaps even more relevant and urgent than “This Is Welfare.”
February 27, 2026