Junetic,
Those are good points. Top-down creation models have quite a long history of failure. Culture must evolve organically, not artificially and it seems that many designers confuse their role in this process.
“Cultural change is in the hands of everyday people, not just people labeled as designers and artists. I think the best we can do as people with those labels is provocatively communicate the values from these cultural changes; into trends for everyone to understand and act upon.”
That is an astute observation. I would like to add that designers can also inject their own values into products in addition to communicating existing ones, thus instigating cultural change. Ultimately, though, culture cannot emerge through dictate.
Scott,
‘Sustainability’ may be common sense. Just how to achieve that and at what cost are debatable.
You say:
“Not governing these practices, not only shows a lack of leadership but is really a kind of gross negligence.”
Ignoring the cost of said practices to economically developing countries, given their tragic poverty levels, (see EU environmental trade restrictions and Africa) and putting all of your faith in a) inaccurate climate models, b) the bankruptcy of interventionist economic policy and c) an incompetent government shows a certain naivete. I fully support advocating for sustainable design. Asking the government to ‘correct’ the pathologies of capitalism(?) is counterproductive.