SOCIAL PANACEA

hey team,
so i was going back over what we went over in our first meeting. (re: brainstorms). Back then we had outlined our common theme as "Morality" (in regard to - or in relation to its effect on - Social Responsibility). (although, i think this may need to be extended to include Matt's notion of 'critical thikning'). I also looked at other stuff we'd written down. I came up with this as the start of a more... 'umbrella' abstract.

what we see in mass culture and want to stop/change:
Nihilism, Apathy, Complacency, ignorance
(this has lead to consumer culture taking over the earth, wreaking havoc as it goes/ the current dominant)

how we're gonna do it:
by promoting critical thought, empathy, holistic thinking, love, altruism etc

but how are we gonna do that?
by using visual communication design to promote the value of these virtues in society.

we see the need to change the values which members of society currently pertain to. the current values seem materialistic, short term focused, and self-centered. we see the need to change towards a more self-less, holistic, communal set of values.

us designers are the agents of change. if we believe something needs to change, we therefore have a responsibility to change it. to misuse a quote "we have to propagate the change we want to see in the world."

One way of doing this, we propose, could be to give virtues some sort of social currency: awarding high status to those of us among us who are altruistic, empathetic, critical thinkers etc
(this came from the brainstorm directly, but we dont have to do it, its just a thought)

to do this we will study historical precedents of movements/ideals of the same nature. evaluating their successes and failures, and learning from these mistakes (maybe?)

Moreover:
we (our group) are acutely aware that the only constant is change.
we recognise that the faults we see in the current system may have been necessary at one point in the progression of the human race, but are aspects of it which are no longer needed/relevant/they're outdated/slowing progress. any changes we see as vital now, may no longer apply in time?