Art, metal, happiness

 

**

As readers* my editorials in Braidwood's Changing Times will know, I tend to bang on about the importance of the arts quite a bit. The arts, from the individual participatory level right up to the major national theatre companies, orchestras and the National Gallery itself all suffered during the years of the Morrison government. Not only did the government strip funding from the arts across the board and abolished the Arts portfolio in government, but it also promoted, through its jobs'n'growth mantra, the notion that no activity or pursuit has any value beyond making money. This attitude has infected us to a crippling, but not, I hope, terminal degree.

I live in a town where the arts are celebrated. There are about 25 published authors living in and around this town, as well as award-winning visual artists, acclaimed musicians, arts administrators and film makers. Yet, in a conversation with a local friend the other day, he told me he'd heard a local business owner lamenting that the town was "being held back by bums and artists." This is an attitude borne of a decade of pushing jobs'n'growth to the exclusion of all else and it just leads to dissatisfaction.

Last week the World Happiness Report named Finland as the world's happiest country for the sixth consecutive year. The New York Times published an in-depth report on what makes Finns so damn happy. Interviewing a range of Finnish people from diverse backgrounds, parts of the country, age groups and occupations, the secret seems to be, as the report put it, "knowing when you have enough." Gratitude and resilience also figured as factors. There was, however, one other defining factor: the value of the arts in Finnish society.

Almost every person interviewed for the report, noted access to, government support for, and social appreciation of the arts. For artists, musicians and writers, being able to pursue one's craft with the support, rather than the derision of one's community (see "bums and artists" ref above) and with the support of the government, contributes to overall well-being. It also contributes to a more well-rounded society.

One of the Finns interviewed for the NYT report is a violinist who plays in a Finnish folk metal band. Naturally, this led me to seek out the band and, happy revelation! Korpiklaani is the band you didn't know you needed to hear but you'll be glad you did. If this is what can come out of a country with a fifth of the population of Australia but where support for the arts is an entrenched part of the social fabric, then no wonder they're so happy***! Then, of course, this could be another factor. 😏

Or maybe it was just three years of rolling lockdowns that did it.

 

* I think there's only two of them: my mum and my publisher, and I think the latter only reads them to make sure we're not going to get sued by anyone.

** I'm reliably informed that Churchill didn't actually say this, but I like it anyway, so it stays.

*** My knowledge of the Finnish language is precisely zero, so I have no idea what they're actually singing about here. It could be something dark and depressing ... but I somehow don't think so.