Inside the imaginative minds of smart individuals everywhere, great companies can be built, the Steve Jobs or a dozen of them are probably walking about our Irish streets waiting to realise and materialise all that occupies their imagination. How would you spot them? Probably not in a designer suite or driving and expensive (HP) car, that could be the case but equally and more lightly a possibility is that they come in the guise of a care free teenager whose playground is the world of technology, gadgets and immersion in all things creative. Imagine taking a really bold and creative leap in addressing transformation of the education system. Sir Ken Robinson a world leader/advocate for creativity went so far as to say it didn’t need transforming, it needed scrapping. Imagine a whole new way of facilitating the management of unemployment. Imagine a justice system with a vision that recognised the accumulative affects of generations of disadvantage and social bias and took an imaginative leap towards facilitating and serving the true potential of human nature.
"Some things have to be believed to be seen!"- Ralph Hodgson
A few years ago some of our enlightened leaders put forward a proposed contribution to Irish society in the form of a new prison, millions have since been spent on this innovative field, the most expensive ‘grass’ in the world. When I heard this I wondered what seven hundred million would achieve if invested in the people and families of those destined to frequent this cage that never materialised. An imaginative shift of worldview might help to facilitate a solution, not an industry built and thriving on the problem at the expense of society. Imagine a future where our then bright leaders were announcing the closures of prisons just like the now less welcomed closures of army barracks, excess to requirements!
How do you begin any huge challenge now that money is almost extinct? I really believe if big bold thinkers are invited to gather and imagine a way, interesting things could emerge. Big free-thinking minds will find ways to save millions in ways that reduce pain not inflict more. Maybe Ireland needs a Free Thinking Society. With the billions that we owe and the millions thrown at the problem the government could spent a few million getting many of the great international creative minds to visit and help stir some real change. Imagine if the world financial market and investors copped themselves on and didn’t sacrifice society for the sake of billions of Euros/Dollars of digital debt.