A Concise Review Of The “2004 Information Society Report To The Parliament Of Finland By Pekka Himanen” (week 4)

 

Review Of The “2004 Information Society report to the Parliament of Finland by Pekka Himanen”[1]

img url:   https://im.mtv.fi/image/1236494/landscape16_9/555/313/de642b7bc85ca07e1d32cc436721a75/xX/808558.jpg

According to my searches on Wikipedia[2], Pekka Himanen is a Finnish philosopher. He studied philosophy at the University of Helsinki. I must admit that this pdf was an extremely interesting read and I admire the brilliance of Dr Pekka Himanen. It is absolutely stunning the problems that he brings up in this document and to take the time to draft such a document to submit to the parliament is honourable, Dr Himanen has earned my utmost respect and reading the document is enough to understand that why Dr Himanen is the youngest person in Finland to ever receive a doctorate degree at the tender age of 21.

“The future of welfare society is in creativity”

Dr Himanen talks about what he thinks the future holds for Finland, a country that follows the European model for success lacking a creative economy and against the entire world in the tax competition to try and attract foreign expertise. A country with an aging population that keeps increasing indefinitely and surely adding pressure to the welfare economy of Finland. Dr Himanen proposes a new model that strives for 10 ideals to prevent the failure of Finland from succeeding in a new world where old wisdom doesn’t hold it’s value. As Dr Himanen says:

  • Confidence
  • Caring
  • Communality
  • Encouragement
  • Freedom
  • Creativity
  • Courage
  • Visionariness
  • Balance
  • Meaningfulness 

Dr Himanen believes that there is a pyramid of ideals which puts visionariness at the top and caring at the bottom with the bottom representing what is most needed. He believes that a country that is ruled with these ideals will have people that are free from fear, who have a sense of belonging, are independent, creative and live with hope. He also preaches for the sake of the rising pensioner population for the country to invest itself into gerontology so that the elderly will be able to participate in the creative economy as participating members of society.

img url:https://evaopinions.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/pyramiid.jpg

 

However, to really understanded Dr Himanen, we have to understand what he means when he mentions the creative economy in his texts and why it is important. The reason why Dr Himanen keeps emphasizing the creative economy because he believes that it is necessary to participate in it to have a future and that those who do not will be replaced by someone cheaper somewhere else. It is the result of innovation that creates new ideas and products and thinks of ways to sell them efficiently in brilliant ways never thought of before. The creative economy/creative class consists of jobs that usually rely on innovation or creativity i.e. professions like musicians, television/film stars/directors, authors, YouTube creator, designers, architects, doctors, analysts, managers etc.

 

img url:   https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/Flag_of_Finland.svg/800px-Flag_of_Finland.svg.png

As we read further into the document, it becomes clear why Dr Himanen stresses on the 10 values. He wants it to be everything that is Finnish, as Finland is a welfare state, it does not generate welfare through the taxation rate, but on taxation on how productive people are. To have a negative working environment which is dull, fearful and controlling would not make an optimal workforce, to have the opposite i.e. to have the 10 ideals and to give people innovative freedom would help people find some meaning in their work or at least not make it feel meaningless. It would also convince employees to stay in their country and attract talent from abroad. Dr Himanen believes that creativity should always be rewarded in the workplace as it saves time and gives employees an incentive to actually be creative. This should also be the case in the schools too to promote this at a young age.

 

Essentially, Dr Himanen proposes to the parliament a guide on how to optimise the workplace by introducing creativity because creativity is the future of welfare economies but also because a welfare society depends heavily on the productivity of it’s workers.

Sources:

 

 

 

 

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