The Landscape as a Mirror of Society

 I am not the only one who perceives this, and with a broader survey one can even find research and studies on it. In a wider context, this is not reflected only in agricultural policy. 

 Central Europe vs. Benelux 

 Dutch agriculture appears more farmer-oriented. Czech agriculture is heavily monopolized. This is evident in the landscape as well – in the Netherlands there is greater species diversity in cultivated crops and smaller plots of land. In contrast, the Czech Republic is dominated by vast fields with uniform crops. Animal husbandry also differs. In the Netherlands, livestock are often kept directly among small fields, whereas in the Czech Republic large agricultural cooperatives with extensive facilities dominate. Breeding is usually carried out in enclosed spaces with lower levels of animal welfare. 

Historically, people in the Czech Republic have been repeatedly “cut off” from individual farming – through agricultural collectivization, nationalization of industry, and centralized management under socialism. This created a mentality in which it is “normal” for the state or a big entrepreneur to decide, while individuals participate only passively. It is not only an economic reality but also a culturally rooted perception, even a psychology – some people feel a sense of security in the idea that “one strong player” will take care of things, even though this leads to monopolization. In the Netherlands, such a model would feel alien, because society there is more based on participation and shared responsibility. 

In the Netherlands there is a cultural pattern: a strong tradition of family businesses, cooperative structures (e.g. agricultural cooperatives managed by farmers, not by the state), and greater dispersion of capital. Profits are distributed among more entities – farming families, small businesses, local communities. This also creates a sense of greater freedom and responsibility. 

You can see this directly in the landscape: in the Czech Republic large fields, large cooperatives, centralized profits. In the Netherlands small plots, diversity, varied farms – and therefore also a more diverse distribution of wealth. 

Collectivization in the 1950s interrupted the continuity of family farming in Czechia. Farmers were forced to join collective farms, where they lost ownership of the land and responsibility for production. After 1989, restitution took place, but many people had no interest in returning to farming. As a result, assets and production ended up in the hands of a few large entrepreneurs or companies. 

In the Netherlands, no such rupture ever occurred. Family farms have functioned continuously for centuries. Society has always been based on the collective management of space (e.g. polders, canals), which created a strong culture of co-participation and responsibility. 

The long experience with centralized management and “handing over” decision-making to the state or large entities has led to a certain passivity in the Czech Republic. A kind of “socialist ritualism” operates there – transferring responsibility to the state or a dominant figure instead of people actively engaging themselves. Large fields and centralized production correspond to the concentration of profits in the hands of a few subjects. The dominance of a single oligarch in agriculture is a prime example of how the landscape (monoculture, uniformity) reflects the overall economy.  

In the Netherlands, small plots, crop diversification, and dispersed livestock breeding correspond to the fact that wealth and responsibility are distributed among more people. Economic power does not rely on a single player but on a network of smaller entities. The Netherlands also has a deeply rooted tradition of cooperation (the so-called “polder model”) – negotiation and power-sharing. Society relies on a horizontal network of relations rather than on vertical authority. 

The landscape is not only a space for farming – it is also a mirror of the mentality and culture of society. The Czech landscape shows centralization and passivity, the Dutch one diversity, sharing, and greater cultivation. 

 ⸻ Recommended Studies and Sources 

 1. “Characteristics of Models of Farms in the European Union” (MDPI, 2021) The study compares family farms in the EU-15 vs EU-13 (to which the Czech Republic belongs). It states that family farms in the EU-15 are larger, more efficient, use more land, and employ more labor than in the new member states. This corresponds to the idea that in countries like the Netherlands there are more family farmers, who operate larger and more diverse farms, while in the Czech Republic family farms are numerous but their influence relative to land and labor is smaller. 

 2. FAO – Family Farming Knowledge Platform: Czech Republic It states that most agricultural land in the Czech Republic is managed by business entities, not exclusively by family farms, which is a historical consequence of centrally planned agriculture. Family farms account for a significant number of entities but not nearly the majority of land area. 

 3. “Small Farms in Poland and Czechia: Development Paths” (2024) This article deals with small farms in Poland and the Czech Republic – their development, obstacles, efficiency, relation to land, structure, productivity. It provides good comparative context for how small farms function in the new EU member states. 

 4. UZEI (Institute of Agricultural Economics and Information) – study on subsidy payments The article “Why Farmers Protest” shows that in one year, large enterprises over 2,000 ha in the Czech Republic had a sharp drop in subsidy income per hectare, while small farms under 100 ha received a higher average increase. This maps economic pressures and disproportions in the distribution of support. 

 5. Eurostat / Reports of the Czech Statistical Office (CSO) For example, the article “Czechia 2025: Czechs Save on Food …” states that the average farm size in the Czech Republic is about 121 hectares, significantly above the EU average (about 17 ha). Also, farms under 50 ha make up 72% of all entities but manage only ~8% of the land, while larger farms (over 1,000 ha) make up a small portion of entities but own ~45% of agricultural land. 

 6. Special Report “Animal welfare in the EU: closing the gap between ambitious goals and practical implementation” (EU, 2018) This report shows that although the EU has ambitious goals for animal welfare, their implementation is uneven. There are areas where farm, transport, and slaughter conditions still do not meet the highest standards. It can serve as a basis for comparison of how these standards are applied (or not) in countries like Benelux and the Czech Republic.

Rethinking the Role of the DJ

 When a one became popular somewhere, and later a lot of attention was directed—I appreciated this great display of interest; it said a lot about many people. I wondered whether I should try to come up with strategies to preserve this useful thing, not just for myself. 

The answer was that this would be narcissistic. Long ago I was diagnosed with adjustment disorders with features narcissistic personality. To me, it seems ironic, because I never forced anyone to take interest in me. Similarly, Sidney SN releasing mixes was never meant as a desire to be famous. That happened as a reaction to events. I also don’t think I’m oversensitive to a events.  

Nevertheless, as soon as I told myself that deliberately persuading crowds with my person, manipulating them for my own goals, would be narcissistic, I began to reflect on the question of DJing. In a way, every DJ tries to win over crowds and manipulate people in order to be liked. If a DJ plays to gain recognition, admiration, and a feeling of power over the crowd, that can have narcissistic traits. The truth is, almost every DJ wants that feeling of power over the audience. In their case, the desire and pleasure come through music. 

Almost everyone who starts releasing music online also tries immediately to gain listeners and build a career through it. From the start, in such cases, it is somewhat self-serving. But there are also people who want to make things better through music, and so, as activists of their own goodwill, they try to speak through their music—that is the purpose of their DJing and production. 

And of course, many DJs understand their role more as a guide of the audience’s energy. They try to create a connection, an atmosphere, and an experience where they themselves are not the center of the universe, but rather the music and the shared experience. Moreover, even if a DJ desires to be liked, it doesn’t have to be pathological. The desire for recognition—one of the narcissistic traits—is quite natural for a human being. 

But in a way, every DJ wants recognition, sometimes also because DJing becomes their job and they need or want to earn money from the crowds they command. In a way, every DJ should know how to control crowds in order to sustain themselves, when the original idea of music fails. In this context, DJ often also adapts to the music a “narcissistic traits” in a given country and similar contexts, in order to keep their audience in that environment.

The Shifting Meanings of Love

 When I mix—perhaps most often with English liquid drum and bass tracks—I notice that love is a recurring theme. What I value most is not the empty repetition of phrases, but the genuine attempt to highlight human relationships, expressed by someone who pours themselves into the meaning of the music. Of course, this is not limited towards human relationships alone. Liquid drum and bass, and even deep drum and bass, carries layers of meaning—sometimes spoken openly, sometimes hidden in the subconscious. It is true, a listener may not always perceive this until they come to understand the producer behind it. And this in itself stands in contrast to neurofunk, which, in its rave context, does not engage with these questions, being more utopian technical than alive.

Sidney SN is not always concerned with the literal meaning of the tracks he mixes. From the beginning, I have sought to weave stories into Sidney SN sets—stories that may mirror my own life, though at times they do not. At times, I even transform their essence into reflections on love. A lyric may capture a particular moment—such as the love for vocalism of someone expressed through their song. In such cases, the very idea of love becomes reshaped.

I often find myself contemplating what it truly means to love, to be in love. At times I feel that love is about desire—sometimes even the desire to possess. To me, love means to care or matter. And so, it need not be directed only toward another human being. One can love a plant, a place, an object, or even a fleeting moment. This is where I sense that the meanings of lyrics in Sidney SN’s mixes may shift—finding new resonance, new significance. In a way, nearly every mix by Sidney SN reminds me of my own past, of moments and situations I have lived through. And yes, there are some mixes I cannot bring myself to revisit for precisely that reason. But to be in love is probably something I don’t know. I don’t know what it involves, what the feelings are like when you’re in love — I guess I’ve never felt it. I only know what it means to like someone. 

I said that I mixed mainly for myself—only the music I wanted to hear—and that the fact a track can capture a moment is also the reason why I first started mixing just for myself, before I ever uploaded anything.

The truth is that 99.99 percent of people’s desires—even those directed toward me—are in vain. Sometimes all it takes is asking for the truth: a truth that perhaps one does not wish to see, but which nevertheless exists. And yet, many prefer to cling to belief rather than confront their own cognitive dissonance. From my perspective, in 99.99 percent of cases, this is exactly what it comes down to. And at times, I am no different from that 99.99 percent. But because a situations, not because rejecting. What troubles me most is when I see these truths lost in the act of realization. Then I find myself asking: why realize something else, when in the past I should have reflected just as deeply on someone else? A desires or the love? 

Once, one of the lecturers for the social service workers during sexuality in social services said that the desire for s*x is nothing more than an instinct. In a way, that sounds like something rooted in humans from their animal past—something that cannot always be controlled, because the brain carries within it an irrational drive that is not always possible to master. However, I also believe that animals have s*x exclusively for the purpose of reproduction. There are people who apply this idea to themselves as well. Yet, the counterargument might be that in the human world, s*x can simply be entertainment—something a person indulges in because of their place or status in society. But in the truth, I believe that s*xual desires are just or especially an instinct, because a human evolution. In the world, there could exist beings that know nothing of such desires, because their reproduction has been in vitro throughout their entire evolution, as is the case with, for example, bees. No one bee knows these desires. This in itself could call into question human desires that may never have existed in other highly intelligent beings. Although love there exist. Yes, here could be a space for speech of asexual humans. Perhaps even better, since desires—even asexual beings for a “love”, actually the desire to possess—can be problematic—and often are—whereas in a society without them, individuals would focus on entirely different things, and thus function better as a community. It is not uncommon for a community to fall apart for precisely that reason.

I also see contradictions between individuals: when people are utterly different from one another, and yet each carries within themselves something of another person, as if fragments of “my own” self are reflected in opposites. This is like the contrast between a nymphomaniacs and someone’s who is their absolute antithesis—but both have something from you. It’s a question of what takes precedence, what are desires or love, and what is possible to realize. 

August Seventh

 After the illnesses I had in June and July…

Nothing started well at all when, on the sixth kilometre of my journey in Czechia, someone was killed in a motorcycle accident — and I was a witness. After giving my testimony, I had to find an alternative route to catch my connection to Germany, as the accident site was closed off.

In Germany, I spent a short while in a city. I was still quite shaken by what I had just witnessed.

Afterwards, the journey through western Germany was pleasant. I really like the area around Dortmund, and I enjoy it every time I pass through. The trip south through the Netherlands went without any problems.

After the illnesses I had in June and July, I finally found myself where I wanted to be. And at the North Sea. The water there felt sweet to me, as if it were regenerating me when it gently washed over me. I love the atmosphere around sunny Oostduinpark. The Hague is also a wonderful city on Europe’s western coast.

After a year, I attended an electronic music event in Amsterdam — even the same festival I went to for the last time last year. I missed Anfisa Letyago there :D, but the community was interesting enough that I felt it was worth returning to see how it is this year.

I am always quite surprised when I see reactions such as someone being a similar nukivalent and similarly related. That also pleases me.

Although nothing began well, I still had days in places where I wanted to be many times with the nice weather — though my health, and sometimes the weather, didn’t always allow it. 

Also, I’m “sick,” my throat hurts or something like that, I even cough from time to time, and I don’t feel like myself. After a day in the Netherlands, everything disappears. One might even speculate that these could be psychosomatic issues related to the environment. This isn’t the first time I’ve experienced it. And I often expect that I will suddenly start feeling better “out of nowhere.” In reality, it’s the overall life rhythm – the Netherlands has a different pace, public space and services, a different culture, which itself reduces everyday stress. There’s something to it. 

Dive Into These Waters

Publisehed 2025-07-06

 

  I just share a summer Sidney SN D’n’B mix. Yeah — this one’s all about that summer vibe.

What really makes it for me are the tracks in the mix. I’ve always been into UK drum and bass (just GEST UK, his drum and bass is now influenced by Berlin techno scene)—and Sidney SN’s Dive Into These Waters leans heavily into that UK sound: liquid with some smooth rollers and deep vibes throughout— and yeah, not neuro what is a mainstream at European continent. 

I also really liked the inclusion of Shapeshifter from New Zealand (their Blazer brought Sidney SN to the Shapeshifter music) — in fact, the final track in the mix is from Shapeshifter NZ. Or I liked American Flint, for example, he also was the person why Sidney SN exists, and first track in the mix is from Flint. Flint liquid drum and bass tracks belong to a modern liquid history, for me.

There’s also a track by one of Sidney SN’s German supporters — from the founder of C Recordings. And of course, Sidney SN mixed here classic modern liquid drum and bass tracks. Yeah, don’t forget on IYRE. With Flint is mixed intro from IYRE track. And late in the summer mix is mixed another track from IYRE—‘When Words Fail’. 

And yeah, Sidney SN is back with the summer vibes in his mix he had before 2019. The last mix with a similar feeling was back in summer 2018. It brings back memories of those legendary Sidney SN SoundCloud sets—before everything changed, before all the things we don’t need to talk about. 

 Tracklist: 

Flint – Dive, with intro from Conquest Of Space by IYRE together with pieces of Hard Feelings by imo:Lu Aperio – All Night All Summer 

Tomoyoshi – Dots & Line 

Flava D x Emz – Fluent 

Makoto – Silver Lininig 

SOLAH – King 

EIJER – Nebulous 

Subwave – Think (GEST Remix) 

Technimatic – Breath Sequence 

Nichenka Zoryana – O Rahi 

CRSV & T:Base – Auszeit 

Pola & Bryson feat. Data 3 – Hyperborean 

DØSHI & DIMOD – Electricity 

IYRE – Where Words Fail 

Euqsarosa – Aurora 

Raise Spirit – When You’re Ready 

Shapeshifter NZ – Runaway

______________

 *  For A Best World (August 2025) *

 And Sidney SN has one more liquid DnB mix for Summer 2025. Of course, you can expect full liquid mixing by Sidney SN—positive vibes, love, and an open hearts. 

Sidney SN just changed his policy. Sidney SN no longer wants it For A Better World, but For A Best World. 

  Tracklist: 

01. Polyrom - Rumbling Bass 02. Seba - Under The Sun 03. Makoto - The Points 04. Shogun Audio - Never Let You Down 05. EIJER - Strip Back 06. Breakshift - May There Be Many 07. Lally x Lens - Love The Way 08. Kyrist - NTY 09. Javeon & Operate - Dark Clouds 010. Radiata - Cafe Lunar 011. imo:Lu - Concentrating 012. Visionobi & Philth - Open Book 013. EIJER - Nebulous 014. In:Most & SOLAH - Escape 015. Jolliffe & Sydney Bryce - Everything I Know