Antti Arjava

Suomen Kulttuurirahaston entinen yliasiamies. Ornitologiaa harrastava klassillinen filologi.

[Jukka Savolainen @JukkaSavo]

Jason Arday olisi voinut arvioida Suomen Akatemian hakemuksia.

Mun uusin @Verkkouutiset

@jarkkotontti @ivanpuopolo
@mikamerano @ramikurimo

https://t.co/Xs6Y6phXBa

[Zap @zapagito]

Andá a explicarle a un romano que un talle XL es más grande que un L.

[Taylor Lorenz @TaylorLorenz]

1908: the Lancet, one of the most respected scientific journals, calls for 18 age limit on reading in bed amidst a moral panic surrounding children becoming "addicted" to novels, which were "designed to keep kids hooked" and destroy their attention/mental health

[Antti Arjava @AnttiArjava]

@EduardHabsburg Of course, my aunt translated it into Finnish, with perfect rhymes.

[Lloyd Legalist @LloydLegalist]

My ability to remember song lyrics from the 70s and 80s far exceeds my ability to remember why I walked into the kitchen.

[Nick Newman @Ncknwmn]

My #Odyssey toon for @thetimes

[Tommi Elo @tommielo]

Eläkkeellä on kuulemma niin kiire siksi, että kaikki asiat joutuu tekemään omalla ajalla.

[Aristocratic Fury @LandsknechtPike]

This the trailer for the upcoming Croatian epic historical movie about Roman emperor Diocletian.

The movie is in Latin language!

I translated the trailer so you can see what the movie will be about. The movie will be in cinemas on 29 October 2026.

[Kathleen Winchell ❤️🤍💙🇺🇸🇺🇸 @KathleenWinche3]

Probably one of the most memorable clips in this movie 🎥 🍿 ! I am sure you remember it well! I do! Name of the movie in the comments!

[Johanna Kukka @JohannaKukka]

Isän korkeakoulu🤓

✏️Historia: Silloin kun minä olin sinun ikäisesi…
✏️Oikeustiede: Niin kauan kuin asut minun talossani…
✏️Kasvibiologia: Luuletko, että raha kasvaa puissa?
✏️Eläinbiologia: Meidän pitäisi jutella kukista ja mehiläisistä.
✏️Psykologia: Koska minä sanon niin!

[The Ways of A Gentleman @Gentleman_Ways]

Tsundoku is a Japanese word referring to the practice of accumulating books that are bought but not yet read. Might be my new favorite word…

[🇺🇦🇫🇮Maaninka🇺🇦🇫🇮 @Maaninkavaara]

MITÄ LAPSET AJATTELEVAT?

1. Anoppi on rangaistus siitä, että avioidut jonkun kanssa, jota et tunne. Pauli,7v
2. Kun ihmiset tulevat vanhaksi, sitten ne ei enää sano, että rakastan
sinua, vaan kysyvät, haluatko kahvin kanssa keksiä kans ?
Tarmo 7v.
3. Ihmisellä on monenlaista nahkaa, esinahka on ihmisellä edessä ja takanahka on takapuolessa.
Teresa 6v.
4. Naiset on koottu munasarjoista ja ne ajattelee enemmän.
Siiri 6v.
5. Miesten ruumiissa on enemmän etuosia.
Julia 6v.
6. Vanhojen ei tarvi autossa istua lastentuolissa, riittää kun niillä on kapea vyö ympärillä.
Jos sattuu kolari, ei ole mitään hätää, sillä ne kuolee pian pois kuitenkin.
Aleksi 7v.
7. Että lapsia saada, siemenien pitää kilpailla.
Jos siemenet oikein kovasti spurttaavat, voi tapahtua, että syntyy kolmet kaksoset.
Juhani 7v.
8. Huonommalla säkällä saa neljämunasia lapsia.
Ville 5v.
9. Ei tarvi välttämättä mennä naimisiin kirkossa, sen voi tehdä myös sosiaalitoimistossa.
Tai voi muuttaa yhteen niin, ettei puhu kellekään mitään.
Niina 6v.
10. Alussa tuut soluksi, sitten tuut lapseks, sitten tulet äidiksi, sitten isoäidiksi, sitten tuut isoisoäidiksi ja lopussa mullaksi.
Maria 6v.
11. Nenä on oikeestaan hengityslihas, sitä voi käyttää kans rään kuljettamiseen.
Eemeli 6v.
12. Hermot on kuin villapaita, minkä jumala on meidän sisään kutonut, jos yks lanka katkee, niin tuut hulluks ja naamasta kummalliseks.
Roope 7v.
13. Maalaiset nauravat paljon, sillä ne saa niin paljon raitista ilmaa.
En usko että niitten lapset pitää päiväkotiin mennä, koska niillä on kotona pihassa paljon raitista ilmaa.
Kaiken lisäksi ne syö kukkia, sillä se on terveellistä.
Maalaiset näyttävät hyvin koulutetuilta, etenkin takaapäin. Mutta jos on sumua, niitä ei nää.
Viktoria 6v.
14. Aatami oli mun mielestä kristillinen, se söi Eevan omenaa.
Mutta vaan yhden kerran, sitten oli kaikki pielessä.
Mikko 7v.
15. Kuna ajattelen isoisä lapsena, kuvittelen sen mustavalkoiseksi.
Leena 7v.
16. Ennen oli oikeita tonttuja, nyt ne on kaikki valtion töissä.
Pertti 6v.
17. Rakkautta on silloin, kun näät jonkun, mutta tunnet sen mahassa.
Sofia 5v.
18. Häissä ei sovi nauraa eikä puhua.
19. Monet ihmiset ei tuu koskaan järkiinsä, vaan jäävät höperöiksi.
Tuomas 7v.
20. Jos isän siemen ei mene äidin munan sisään, sitten syntyy tavallinen omeletti.
Mikael 6v.
21. Jos jaksatte olla yhdessä 50 vuotta, saatte kultamitalin, sitten pidetään kultahäitä ja juodaan ja juhlitaan.
Jos olet eronnut, saat vaan jonkun peltimitalin.
Kari 6v.
22. Monella vanhalla tädillä on partaa, mutta sitä ei saa nille sanoo, sillä ne alkaa reagoimaan.
Juhani 5v.
23. Vanhat ihmiset rikkovat paljon luita, sillä ne kaatuvat paljonkin mattojen reunoihin ja ämpäreihin.
Yhdellä tädillä, joka oli vissiin muu kuin mun isoäiti, murtui ensin takimmainen jalka ja kun se parani, murtui etummainen jalka.
Roope 6v.
24. Monia asioita ei passaa vanhainkodissa tehdä. Niinkun nyt ajella rullalaudalla, syödä purkkaa, tai kulkee lyhyissä ruudullisissa pöksyissä.
Lauri 7v.
25. Kun olet kuollut, sitten laitetaan käärinliinoihin tai voidellaan. Jos valitsen jälkimmäisen, se tarkottaa, että susta tehdään kreemiä.
Mutta se ei ole vaniljan makuista, vaan ihan tavallinen harmaa kreemi.
Jaakko 6v.
26. Keisarinleikkaus on se, kun vauva leikataan takaportista ulos.
Maarit 6v.
27. Ihmiset on tehty kehosoluista. Solut on niin pieniä, että niitä pitää silmien kanssa tuijottaa, muuten niitä ei nää.
Tuomas 6v.
28. Olut muuttaa ruumiin usein epäsymmetriseks.
Heikki 9v.
29. Kun rahaa ei juurikaan ole, monet rupeaa köyhäks.
Matti 7v.
30. Ne lehmät, jotka enemmän laitumella juoksevat ja utareita ravistavat, ne tekee jugurttia.
Leena 6v.
31. Tyypillinen sika on vaaleanpunainen ja sillä on kuonossa kaks reikää.
Paula 6v
32. Isoäideillä on kauheen isot rintaliivit. Ne on niin suuret, että yhteen osaan mahtuu koko mun peppu ja molemmat polvet.
Toiseen mahtuu mun veli.
Katja 6v

[Jari Sarasvuo @SarasvuoJari]

Vuosien aikana kertyneiden havaintojen perusteella pitäisin Bill Maheria liberaaleihin kallellaan.

Ja hän on yksi lukemattomista ajan hengen tulkeista, jotka syvästi pettyivät demokraattisen puolueen onnettomaan kehitykseen, joka suuresti tuki Trumpin paluuta.

Miksi wokeentuneet eivät vieläkään kykene itsereflektioon tässä asiassa? Eivät jenkeissä, eivätkä varsinkaan meillä.

[Daron Acemoglu @DAcemogluMIT]

Thinkers in the liberal tradition used to have a much more expansive view, emphasizing human fallibility, community and ethical responsibilities – not just radical individualism and an overarching emphasis on autonomy. They were also diverse: Hayek, for example, should be thought of as a liberal (something today’s progressive would vehemently deny).
More important perhaps, though less emphasized by Rosenblatt: they were typically in opposition. They were in a position of speaking truth to power in the 18th and 19th centuries. Liberalism was thus, in part, a philosophy of a criticism of how power was exercised by traditional economic and political elites.
So my hypothesis is that liberalism failed because it came to power and it did not adjust to this new reality. It became too dominant and not sufficiently self-critical. Let me explain this point using the US case, though I believe the story is similar in many other parts of the world (including Turkey, though in most of the developing world, liberalism never became completely dominant and it often merged with globalism, so creating some similar and some different tensions).
For the US, in a 1965 book, M. Stanton Evans wrote: “the chief point about the Liberal Establishment is that it is in control.” He was referring to New Deal liberalism. Republicans accepted many important tenets of liberalism, from Dwight Eisenhower (who described himself as a “moderate Republican” meaning that he accepted the New Deal) to Nixon (who, despite his conservatism, signed many of the iconic regulations of the era). https://t.co/SOGHA4QJlz
True, the Goldwater-Reagan revolution rolled back some of the New Deal era regulations, reduced taxes, and favored large corporations, but three tenets of New Deal liberalism survived and gradually became stronger: (1) cultural liberalism, with emphasis on individualism, autonomy and progressive cultural attitudes (which was weaker in the United States when Democrats were the party of the Deep South and became dominant later); (2) the empowerment of educated elites, in the form of both technocracy and meritocracy, but going beyond just technical matters and extending to issues such as moral values; (3) an emphasis on establishing procedures for predictable implementation of laws and regulations.
Each one of these three tenets had positives and negatives. The problem was that there was little balance of power. These tenets were not seriously questioned from within the Democratic Party in the United States and many center-left parties in Europe after the 1980s. Any criticism from the outside were not powerful or coherent enough.
The hypothesis I am entertaining is that the ascendance of these three tenets – without adequate opposition – is the source of liberalism’s failure.
Cultural liberalism: first we have to admit it has paid off in many respects. Civil Rights is one of the most important achievements of 20th-century America, and ethnic, religious and sexual minorities face much less discrimination today than they did before. But the balance here is a delicate one. It is one thing to defend minorities (and this is very consistent with liberalism as an opposition movement); it’s an entirely different thing to impose values on people who do not hold them (for example, telling people what language they can and cannot use). Without the adequate balance of power, cultural liberalism shifted more and more towards the latter.
Empowerment of the educated elites: Michael Sandel’s The Tyranny of Merit tells the story brilliantly. https://t.co/x4YpqL5cJB
The last four decades have seen a steady increase in the economic, social and political power of college graduates and more recently of post-graduates and those with degrees from elite universities. College graduates also became the dominant force in center-left parties in Europe and in the Democratic Party and the United States. They justified their ascendance with meritocracy and identified their social power with “rule by expertise”.
The rest of society, in part as a reaction, came to view meritocracy as a rigged game and a way of blaming the victim ­– a type of sermon that almost claimed “if you are not acquiring college education and not adjusting to the post-industrial economy, then it is your fault that you are poor”. It also supported a non-responsive, insular technocracy that complemented cultural liberalism, imposing things top-down without consent on the population.
Procedures: a big promise of liberal democracy was to deliver widely accessible, high-quality public services. This is what the UK poet laureate John Betjeman pithily summarized when he wrote “Our nation stands for democracy and proper drains.” Yet, democracy came not to stand for proper drains anymore. The 20th century witnessed a proliferation of regulations to deal with safety and risks from new products, ranging from cars to pharmaceuticals. Additional paperwork to deal with federal regulations on the environment and anti-discrimination provisions followed. These procedures have multiplied over time. Worse, special interest groups have been able to use these procedures to push their own agendas (from NIMBYs stopping public housing to progressive groups piling on additional anti-discrimination paperwork on federal contracts). The consequence has been a pronounced decline in the efficiency of public service provision. Recent research Leah Brooks and Zachary Liscow finds that from the 1960s to the 1980s, government spending per mile of highway increased more than threefold. https://t.co/7CRAcTXtwt
The authors blame this staggering increase on additional regulations and procedures often introduced to ensure that different groups of citizens are not harmed by new highway construction (and in practice policed by activists and special interest groups).
Other economists have found similarly mounting inefficiencies in the construction industry. Their explanation is also similar: onerous land-use regulations. https://t.co/67GXqvwqwP
In fact, there may be structural reasons why a procedure-based agenda could run into such problems, which go back to ideas articulated by James Scott in Seeing It Like a State. https://t.co/IZ7elnTnfI
In a nutshell, a procedure-based agenda will have to make society “legible”, by forcing it to conform to its rules and procedures so that it can understand this world, which is a precursor to regulating it. But this agenda often does not work as well as originally planned and creates discontent among the people.
These three tenets combined create the impression among many people that liberalism is hectoring them, is arrogantly putting them down, and is not even efficient in what it attempts to do. It is true some of this discontent is manufactured by talk shows and right-wing media and social media. But some of it is real. The title of a recent Pew Research Center report says it all: “More than 80% of Americans believe elected officials don’t care about what people like them think.” https://t.co/iUW85fb4B6
I see these tensions in other liberal democracies as well, though the extent of liberal domination varies (and in Europe, “liberal” means something else, so there this would be more “social democratic” or “liberal democratic” domination).
If this hypothesis is correct (a big if I admit), then we need a new liberalism, both because the older liberal ideas on freedom and constraints on power are sound and even more necessary today in the age of mega firms and super-powerful governments, and because I believe the center-left (including American Democrats) need liberalism.
I think it could start with the following principles:
1. Much greater emphasis on freedom of speech and a repudiation of “thought-policing”. This doesn’t mean that certain types of social media cannot be regulated. But it does mean that liberals themselves should welcome diversity of viewpoints and criticism, and should give up on social pressure on those who deviate from the accepted lines, whichever topic it is. It also means that elite universities should be more welcoming of different ideas, including conservative thinkers. They should also more generally try to diversify their social-economic base.
2. An explicit attempt to have greater social economic diversity among political activists and elites. Part of the problem and a major source of the lack of balance of power is that progressive activists are all from the upper middle classes, with elite education degrees (and no ties to working-class people or manual work). Center-left parties explicitly welcoming and promoting more working-class people, more manual workers and more people without college degrees into their leadership ranks would be an important first step.
Such policies can work. Research by economists Timothy Besley, Olle Folke, Torsten Persson and Johanna Rickne shows how gender quotas implemented in the 1990s by the Swedish Social Democrats, requiring local candidates to alternate between men and women, were effective in both raising the representation of women and increasing the quality of the candidates. https://t.co/8xvKmEjk0a
3. Reduce paperwork and regulatory roadblocks. The modern state, and especially liberal parties and politicians, have to find a way of implementing necessary regulations with minimal paperwork and procedural roadblocks. One way to do this is to empower politicians more so that they can streamline the regulatory process, and are then made accountable ex post – meaning that rather than restricting what politicians and bureaucrats can do before policies are implemented, the accountability should come after policy implementation and according to the success of the policies.
In all of these cases, the devil is of course in the detail. Experimentation is key (which is by the way another liberal idea that has been forgotten).
Where can this start? Perhaps among the US Democrats? The Democratic Party may be viewed as the worst offender for all of these problems. But now there is soul-searching among the Democrats, and why not try something new?

[Ville Pernaa @VillePernaa]

Miten turvata suomalaisten hyvinvointi seuraavan sadan vuoden aikana? Uhkia riittää: esim. lasten ja nuorten pahoinvointi, syrjäytyminen.

Ratkaisuja haetaan @THLorg'n ja @Skr_fi suurhankkeessa. Aloitan hankkeen valmisteluvaiheen johtajana 1.8.2023.

https://t.co/ymHcGRsT9T

[Museoliitto @museoliitto]

A big and proud moment: the first Finnish museum audioguide in ukrainian was launched in Suomenlinna by Madame Ambassador @olgadibro and CEO Carita Wilenius-Rantala from Ehrensvärd Society. There will be many more, thanks to funding by ⁦@Skr_fi⁩. #museums #Ukraine

[Antti Arjava @AnttiArjava]

@AxelleDavezac @Skr_fi Great visit to the heart of French philanthropy. Thank you @AxelleDavezac, Frédéric Théret and @Fondationfrance for hospitality, friendship and professional discussions. The Board of the Finnish Cultural Foundation was both entertained and edified.

[Antti Arjava @AnttiArjava]

@OttoMeri Oletko koskaan käynyt Salpausselän pohjoispuolella?

[Antti Arjava @AnttiArjava]

#kulttuurirahastontuella @skr_fi

[Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra @Yle_Rso]

”RADION sinfoniaorkesterin solistina soittanut 12-vuotias huippukyky Lilja Haatainen valloitti yleisönsä täysin musikaalisella taidokkuudellaan, varmoilla otteillaan ja valoisalla ja avoimella olemuksellaan.” https://t.co/KjSw7gBroe

[Janne Pitkäniemi @jpitkani]

@Skr_fi https://t.co/OSKzNAEzO3