Culture, Democracy, and the future of Humanity
As part of an effort to reduce the national debt, the Finnish Government has decided to enact a 15 % cut in state funding of cultural institutions and activities for 2025. While practically all political parties agree on the need for balancing the budget in the long run, views on the timetable and the structure of the required measures vary. The funding of culture seems to be regarded as fair game for savings in line with all other sectors of government. This may be as good a moment than any to reflect on the significance of culture in society.
In order to know what we’re talking about when we talk about culture, a definition of some kind is necessary. The 1982 Mexico Declaration on Cultural Policies by UNESCO defines culture as “the distinct spiritual, material, intellectual, and emotional features characterising a society. It encompasses arts, lifestyle, human rights, value systems, traditions, and beliefs”. This description is hard to argue with, but it is also too general and all-encompassing for the present purposes. I’ll focus on culture as those human activities which produce meaningful experiences in some mode of expression or another. I’m fully aware that this attempt at a definition may raise further questions, but I’ll go with this for now.
Culture has both intrinsic and instrumental value for human communities. The intrinsic value of culture entails the view that culture is what makes humans human – or, the other way around, humans are not human without culture. The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein may stir in his grave to point out that this is a self-evident tautology devoid of any information, but there we are.
The intrinsic value of culture has often been highlighted by the popular meme attributed to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill during the Second World War. When Churchill was presented with a proposal to cut funding to the arts in order to support the war effort, he responded: “Then what would we be fighting for?” Apparently, no source for this quote has been established, but it certainly serves to illustrate the point: culture is the core value of civilization that must be defended to the end. If culture goes, there’s nothing left to defend.
There are multifarious examples of the instrumental value of culture, some more convincing than others, some less. The health benefits of cultural pursuits are frequently mentioned. Obviously, the culture industry is seen as a part of the economy – Finland is for some reason lagging far behind neighbouring Sweden in cultural exports.
However, I would venture that the most important instrumental value of culture is the potential of cultural experiences to open alternative ways of experiencing reality. This is particularly important in the face of the serious global challenges of the day.
It is now almost trivial to say that we live in troubled and unpredictable times. It is widely believed that the values of liberal democracy are under a sustained attack by autocracies. This point of view is reinforced by the rogue state North Korea sending troops to support Russia in the brutal war against Ukraine. According to a study by The Economist Intelligence Unit, only about 8 per cent of the population of the Earth live in full democracies. For the majority of humankind, democracy is more or less flawed or completely non-existent. Indeed, in many parts of the world there is no democratic tradition at all. Contrary to Francis Fukuyama’s famous or infamous pronouncement after the collapse of the Soviet empire in the early 1990’s, history has not ended, and the worldwide victory of liberal democracy seems now Utopian.
According to Helsinki University researcher Timo Miettinen, the essence of democracy is the notion that the future is not predetermined by the past: it is constructed by the conscious aspirations of human beings. This view entails the assumption that human beings are able to choose the way forward from different alternatives. It is imperative that there are alternative courses of action to choose from. This is where culture enters the picture.
In times of crisis, humans instinctively tend to go into a defensive frame of mind. This is usually not beneficial for openness to new ideas or risk-taking in general. Exploring untrodden ground may be regarded as frivolous or even irresponsible. While this reaction is understandable from the security perspective, it undermines the very foundations of democracy and open communication. Consciously or unconsciously, we begin to narrow down our ways of thinking and experiencing – and, consequently, our ways of interacting with others will become more cautious. Nostalgia may also begin to appear a tempting option: after all, the good old times were better than the insecurity and unpredictability of today.
They were not. That was then, this is now.
The battle for democracy and open society – and everything that we count as the achievements of civilization and the development of the human species - takes place in our own minds and in our interactions with others. Human reality is constructed by means of communication, negotiation and agreement. Fear will freeze our imagination, cut down the number of alternative ways of seeing the world and curtail the variety of possible solutions to problems. Our humanity is diminished.
We cannot let this happen. We must make sure that our ways of thinking, experiencing and interacting with each other remain free and uncensored. Self-censorship always arrives before any governmental supervision of communication. Let’s keep our cultural heritage alive and build a brighter future on the foundation it provides. Let’s take good care of open communication and the free flow of ideas. Let’s beat fear and anxiety. This is where culture, democracy and the future of humanity meet. Civilization will prevail, and humanity will overcome.
The author is Pekka Sauri, Doctor of Philosophy, writer and President of The Finnish Museums Association.
