På konferensen Forum for Creative Europe i Prag i förra veckan var en av huvudtalarna Václav Havel, tidigare president, frihetskämpe och dramatiker.
Han började med att be om ursäkt. Sedan beskrev han sin syn på kultur. Jag skriver i dagarna en text om att mäta kulturens värden – och det är alltid bra att få påminnelser på det här, liksom att höra det så väl uttryckt. Nedan några formuleringar från talet. Havels historia om hur vad han tänker när han ser Prags katedral är också rolig. Se den här youtube-kanalen för fortsättningen.
”I believe culture naturally has its economic dimension, or economic effect. But there are two other effects of culture that I consider more important or at least equally important.
First, an indirect economic benfit. I mean a kind of cultivation of the world, cultivation of human relationships, formation of meaningful communities. This is something that culture has the potential to deliver, but no accountant can calculate its value. Therefore it is impossible to measure its direct economic effect.
That’s not all though. I think the most important effect of culture is not economic at all. In order to be human, a human being needs a spirit, to live spiritually. A human being is the carrier of awareness, of curiosity, of a desire for knowledge. (…)
Creativity is also inherent to humans. And I believe that even a country which would not earmark a single penny would still have some culture, simply because humankind cannot be without it. Because it is part of human nature. (…)
To ask why people need culture is in fact identical to asking why a human being is a human being.”