Good Culture

Creators value freedom. The freedom to wander away from the path. To plot our own route to the destination.

But no one likes to be lost. Or, more accurately, to feel lost.

One of the wonders of the Netherlands are the cycle routes. The Dutch do routes in general very well. And not just the routes, but the rules about how to use those routes. If you know and follow the routes and the rules, it is very difficult to get lost in the Netherlands. It’s a fabric of the culture.

Ineke and I got told off by a horse rider once, because we had wandered off the “walkers path” on to the “horse riders path”. And in fact it is a common experience to be frowned at or berated for breaking a particular rule when walking or cycling or driving.

However good the rules are though, it can be a little bit tough if you don’t know them as well as other people do. And even tougher if you value the possession of an artistic license which allows you to mess with the rules a little sometimes.

It’s a conundrum. I value both the presence of good rules and routes and the freedom to ignore them occasionally.

This is the fine line we walk as humans who are still in the early stages of trying to create a Good Culture that both constrains us, when helpful to do so, but also provide us with the soul food of liberty which we hunger for, and that leads to so much innovation.

There aren’t any easy solutions. It’s a work in progress.