Anyone taking stock of the considerations outlined so far encounters a strange paradox. We observe on the one hand that moral sentiments and modern society are very much compatible. Indeed, there have been many developments in the private lives of citizens, the professional lives of employees, the social lives of volunteers and forms of popular culture where modernity and morality converge. On the other hand, we concluded that in the public realm, moral values and modern principles are diverging. What is more, there are modern tendencies in the public domain that are putting pressure on or even undermining public morals, a danger that is evident in politics as well. This underlines the astuteness of sociologist Paul Schnabel, former director of the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (Sociaal en Cultureel Planbureau), when he encapsulated the mental state of the Netherlands in the statement: ‘I’m fine, but we’re in a bad way’ (Met mij gaat het goed, met ons gaat het slecht). The ultimate question is, of course, whether this state of affairs will persist. Will the lack of moral values in the public realm ultimately also corrode the moral sensitivity of individual citizens and professionals? Or is the reverse possible: will the vast reservoir of moral energy stored in a modern society such as that of the Netherlands sooner or later be translated into political terms?

We obviously do not know what will happen in the coming decades. Nevertheless, we can elaborate on some ideas that might help to realise the second option. What we do not espouse, however, is a direct transfer of certain moral values present in society to the sphere of political and administrative action. Apart from the question of whether such a transfer might be possible, it is not free of risks. A situation could easily arise in which one moral value is pitted against the other, resulting in a kind of civil war with ‘moral tribes’ seeking confrontation. Certain tendencies in the US and other Western countries indicate that the risk of such collisions is a very real one.