History, Culture, Society and Politics

http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/first-things-first-manifesto-2000

In the First things First Manifesto, which was rewritten in 1999, first published in 1964 by Ken Garland. They explicitly talk about the devaluing of a designers work through the production of commercial work, as it holds no social or cultural value. Instead designers should be aiming to create more useful and lasting work that takes upon democratic forms of communication and this is something we should all strive to.

'Consumerism is running uncontested; it must be challenged by other perspectives expressed, in part, through the visual languages and resources of design.'

In the latest session in pairs we had to generate words that we would associate the positive and negative things that immediately came to our heads using the following words: 

• Politics
• Society
• Culture
• History
• History

It ended up me having the same amount for both positive and negative and the same for my partner.

After this we then had to come up with statements that we personally believed in for both the positives and negatives for the 4 words again:

Politics

Positive:

• Everyone should be seen as equal, no classifications.
• Labour
• No one person should be in charge of a country.

Negative:

• The rich controlling what happens.
• Dictatorships, no one alone should control a country.
• Corruption of politicians.
• Out of touch leaders.
• Capital Punishment

Society

Positive:

• Communities working together.
• Law keeps everyone in order.
• People who work hard.
• Families that take care of each other.

Negative:

• Scrounges of society
• People who things created for their community.
• Parent's who neglect that kids, viscous cycle.

Culture

Positive:

• It's a living evolving thing.
• Constantly generation content.
• We unconsciously take part in it.
• Different and valued differently everywhere.

Negative:

• Annoying fads and trends.
• Irritating Viral media.
• It often takes along time for something to fade out.

History

Positive:

• Makes for great movies and stories.
• Lets us learn from what does and doesn't work.
• A story of how we got to where we are, interesting.
• Features the discovery of everything we know in the world and where we had it wrong.

Negative:

• Written by the winners, everything is one sided.
• It continuously repeats it's self.
• Alot has been lost due to other people destroying evidence.
• Glorification of vile people, Genghis Khan.

Now I to summarise all of these:

Politics:
I really don't agree with the rich having more power over the poor because they already control the banks and media and I don't think politics is the place where money should have more weight. Following this I'm all for democracy and everyone having their voice heard with what happens within the country and the people should ultimately have control to an extent.

Society:
I detest people who destroy society with vandalism, damaging things created for them such as  parks and buildings, it's one of the most infuriating and selfish acts. I hold no respect for people who don't respect those around them, people who bring their children up in a similar manner just to have the repeat happen. In light of that I wish that all communities could work together to fight that but most people are all too wound up in their own lives to reach out and act against these things. I do like the Police and what they do even if they are shown in a negative light but everyone always highlights the most negative parts of everything. I do respect the people who work hard and the families that take care of one another because It can be hard to care for everyone equally.

Culture:
I really find culture interesting and the concepts and things that catch on within a group of people, for that to then spread to the rest of the world. This is now made even easier through the use of the internet and the speed that things can catch on amazes me. Most recently the Gangnam style video which even though is sang in Korean became a hit within countries that don't even speak it. Fads and trends work in a similar way, even if they are horrendously cringey. The thing with culture however is that nothing stays permanent for too long, unless it becomes a founded tradition within a countries community's own culture they themselves die as well. Through immigration cultures can merge and evolve.

History:

I also take a keen interest in history, reading about it is like fantasy and that's what I love about it. Things like  wars, landmarks, kings and queens and their relationships actually happened and it is that that amazes me. It's often good that no one could make half of it up, even though things may have been edited to change people's view of someone ultimately it's based on some truth from documentation just like today's newspapers and media show people and what they do. And because of this everything is often very biased with the history being written by the winners of battles and wars etc instead of showing it from everyone involved's perspective. Because things from long in the past are very often half the truth, we'll never know the full extent of discoveries, events and documentation.