issue no. 29

uncertainty

They say if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything. Well, they also say if you see something, say something. While this article has very little overtly to do with design, everything is connected. I am only as great a designer as I am in alignment with my beliefs + principles. And for me, there is no separation between business + humanity.

We are living in uncertain times, they say. But things seem pretty certain to me. I am certain that our nation is run by a sex criminal whose insecurities + daddy issues have the potential to bring us all to ruin.  I am certain that the goal of those few leading the Ai charge is to own general intelligence, on a race to be the first to create the “inevitable” replacement of biological life with digital life - to meet “god”, at the risk of the downfall of humankind. I am also certain this is not paranoid thinking.

I am certain of police brutality + that as of 2012, “there are more African-Americans under correctional control — in prison or jail, on probation or parole — than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began.” -Michelle Alexander, law professor + author.

I am certain there are children younger than my own being torn from their homes to be sent “back” to countries they’ve never known; shipped on planes without either of their parents to places where education ends at age 7.

I am certain of delusion-that several of the leaders of this world believe they are carrying out a divine purpose; hand-selected to decide the fate of our species + planet. I am certain of racist genocide - carried out to steal resources + land, planned famine falsely portrayed as a natural disaster, abuse of power, sex trafficking, stripping away of liberties, silencing of free speech. I am certain of so much more than my heart can bear.

And I am certain of inspiration + the resilience of the human spirit- uprisings + resistance fighters against the oppressive forces that be. I am certain that there are people putting themselves in the literal line of fire to protect complete strangers. I am certain that we live in a world of unlimited potential, and we can do better than this. I am certain that white supremacy is at the helm of all that is evil + unjust, and I am absolutely, positively certain that we have the power to change it. 

Last week, our family participated in the National Shutdown- an organized general strike against ICE. We withheld labor, money, + resources from the system that thrives on perpetuating violence. As I typed each email to my respective child’s teachers + principals notifying them of the reason for their absence, planned our day’s lessons on systemic racism, oppression, and occupation, and selected the passages we would read + write about together- I couldn’t shake the ringing of a simple sentiment. Leave it better than you found it. 

As designers + architects, it is our responsibility to improve the physical realm- a responsibility I don’t take lightly. But this applies to interior spaces as much as the world at large, and should be a responsibility that we adopt collectively. So, some homework:  find one way each day to leave someone better than you found them.

Of all the things I am certain of, the most glaring is that we are capable of so much more than we allow ourselves to imagine, and we have the power to design a world so far beyond our wildest dreams. we have the power to change it.