“Maybe we learn best from disasters. Detroit is floundering in high unemployment, and, with three oil crises, four unusually cold winters, two major droughts leading to water shortages, extensive floods, a global energy shortage, and a major recession behind us, this book has been slowly accepted even in the United States over the last thirteen years” – Victor Papanek, 1985.
The quote is from Victor Papanek’s foreword to the second edition (1985) of his 1971 classic, Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change. Twenty-four years on, the same words could have been written about our current situation. Sadly, Papanek’s message of design as a tool for the betterment of humanity has still not gained widespread traction. Instead of empowering and liberating the people who need it most, much of design still panders to the disposable income and fleeting fancy. It is an inspiring and challenging book.
Having become repeatedly betrayed by my own best-intentioned rational thinking, I have decided to adapt my life philosophy with greater emphasis on living in-the-moment. Wish me well. If we live (and design) in-the-moment, do we escape or soften the future judgement of our actions? Without wishing to over dramatise, how did the creators of the atomic bomb reconcile the (perhaps) happy thought that they were living in the moment with the (likely) horrible sense of dread and guilt when they witnessed the fruits of their labour?
