Do Good Design response 1

Having read the first 30 or so pages of Do Good Design, what I feel is a mixture of anxiety and inspiration. Anxiety because of how great a struggle there obviously is ahead of us as a global community and what personal struggles I will have to face my self. Inspiration because of how grand our struggle is that it annihalates an question of whether or not to be involved in the solutions and because Berman makes it seem like each individual has their part to play, and that playing that part is all it will take. We don't each individually have to change the world for everyone else, we just have to work towards it and the rest will fall into place.

When David Berman began Chapter 1: Start Now, by saying "Imagine for a moment you're just over 20 years old . . . You're proudly paying your own bills doing what you love," I thought to myself, "Pssh, I wish I could imagine that. I am just over 20 and barely keeping pocket cash around with no bills and a workstudy job." Then, add to this that we have to save the world; it becomes a very harsh reality check. However, these moments of fear I feel are washed over by the realization that purpose is everything.

When Berman presents the two timelines beginning on page 18, I am reminded that this is quite possibly the most exciting time to live- as we very literally become a global community rather than a competing mess of societies. I feel like I could read his passage on page 16 every morning as some kind of mantra to do good:
"Human civilizations have come and gone, risen and fallen.
Although most scientists believe our species has been around for at
least five million years, this approach to social organization is only
around 6,000 years old (10,000 at most). However, as science
philosopher Ronald Wright points out, after 6,000 years of experimenting
with civilization design, we humans now fi nd our selves
sailing together into the future on the one huge remaining ship of
a combined global civilization. Whether or not we welcome or
like the idea of globalization, we are witnessing in our lifetimes our
evolution into a singular, merged human community – the largest
ever. There are no more geographic New Worlds to discover: only a
shared destiny (pg 16)."
This passage sums up everything one needs to know in order to see what action to take. The only path that exists at this point is the one of teamwork, the path of dominance and control can only be a dead end. It seems clear to me that this notion of global community calls for every level of society to operate on the ideas of compassion and understanding, from the checkout line in the grocery, to the traffic on the way home, to the greatest endeavours of our nation's foreign policy.

If for some reason we psychologically need "enemies" to defeat, then as we become this global society perhaps we will recognize that there are plenty we, the entire human race, can all fight together.