A Designer’s State of the Union: An RFP for the New Dream

The US is a leader and a bully. It is never insular in the political, economic, academic, or design scene. It has become increasingly difficult to discuss to any accuracy the US in absence of its global context. Yet the US has strictly defined boarders and rigorous policies which clearly separates itself from its physical and virtual neighbors. Our anthem claims “One Nation, Under God, Indivisible” but never in our history has our country been more divided- politically, religiously, racially, financially, and familially.

A couple of generations ago, before this effluxion of western methods throughout the globe, the world in which people (meaning, the average American) lived was smaller. They knew their neighbors, shopped at the general store/post office/grocery market and felt accountable to uphold their responsibilities as a member of society. Even in metropolitan areas, which back then was simply an amalgamation of smaller towns paying taxes to a central jurisdiction, the community was the backbone of any successful industry or collective venture.

Today, due to complex factors such as a swift rise in population, the American Dream and its promise to provide each household with property and private transportation, and many others I could never sufficiently discuss here, the younger generation of Americans feels less connected to their societies. In suburbs and cities, anything larger than a small town, there are so many pressures and opportunities for young adults that their responsibility to their community is diminished. Every child is expected to complete high school, excel in college and even earn an advanced degree if they are to be “successful.” While education in itself is a wonderful convention, with all this thinking and learning going on, when is there time to participate in the community, raise a family, and develop a healthy home/work balance? Women are no longer required to remain domestic and subordinate to their husbands and Men are no longer expected to be the sole fiscal provider to their families and so there is an increasing inability to relate to and respect the methodology of preceding generations.

We are smarter, richer, and more mobile than our parents; but we are also fatter, busier, and facing much larger problems than our parents. Even as this is the case, everyone else in the world is looking to the US for clues on how to live richly and happily. In particular with developing countries, they see our lifestyle as the definition of success and are looking for their chance and the American Dream, often foregoing their own cultural identity to acquire it. It is wrong to deny them the luxuries that for decades we have taken for granted, but it is also a simple fact that the Earth does not have the resources to accommodate this Dream for every family in every country.

The Dream must change, but how? Who will be the creators of the new Global Dream of the future? Surely the US government must be involved, as we can suppose this Dream would be a modification to the American Dream. Also given our country’s global influence, it is crucial that the US be the initiators and example-makers of the Dream’s forms and systems, but should the government itself be the one to define it? I would propose that no, they should instead look to its architects, planners, and engineers – smarter and more qualified than ever before – and they should conduct policy accordingly.

This Global Dream then, is a tremendous opportunity for the design profession and could mean an elegantly successful solution to our degraded communities here at home, and in effect the entire world.