counts infinitely

Our relevance as western designers and design critics will ultimately be determined by the kind of prepositions we choose to employ as the world’s economic system restructures: forget about “for”; “with” is a good one; “by” even better. Adhering to belief systems and economic philosophies that prioritize personal and professional advancement over collective survival is anachronistic. As a people and as a profession designers need to get past the past. We can’t continue to practice the unsupportable, then design quick clever fixes to relieve the unthinkable. If we hope to veer from the cliff humanity is speeding toward, we need to make the momentous decision to address causes instead of effects. Designers need to be way more than clever, they need to be wise. It’s the only “best practice” that makes any sense. How to demythologize a profession striving mightily to establish its own myths? How about all the gobbledygook about Apple you’ve been ingesting since October? Stop paying attention to propaganda about the greatness of design. Remember that museums and professional organizations are really businesses that act in their own vested interest. Design is only a behavior pattern leading to an activity, not the master metaphor of existence. Make sure you are armed with a full complement of other valuable tools, including literacy, conviviality, 20/20 hindsight, and acute self-awareness before you try to terraform the earth. Otherwise, the world of the future will look as wrong in 400 years as the New York of today looks compared to Hudson’s time. And that, in any sane definition of the word, will not be good.