Design Thinking

I hop I?m not ?that guy? who takes himself too seriously.

I would like to comment on several ideas presented in the lecture "critical legacy: the pursuit of a single right answer". While I believe in a healthy view of diverse cultures and ideas, in order to be effective designers, we must realize that all ideas are not equal. Not all cultural heritages hold equal legitimacy in our pursuit of finding solutions.

Take past cannibalism for instance. Cannibalism was a traditional cultural practice in the islands of Fiji. Now, suppose I want to recognize and honor the cultural diversity of Fiji by starting the first ever NCSU cannibalism club? You would think the idea was sickening, absurd, disturbing, and an insult to human life. My point here is that all cultural heritages do not hold equality in promoting the wellbeing and developing design or human kind in general. Just like cannibalism, some cultural ideas are just bad.

In addition to this concern, I have several questions about slide 41 from the lecture.

"Truth becomes a matter of interpretation. If you have power, truth is
interpreted in your favor. Truth, even not coerced by power, has to be
interpreted. What we think of truth is really only a kind of prejudice."

I could be wrong, but I assume this was kind of the main lesson we were supposed to learn? I really don't think such an idea is sustainable in a design community. First, when making such a statement, you are claiming that what you are saying is true. So in a sense, claiming that truth is just a prejudice is in itself a prejudice. Stating that "claims of truth are claims of power" is itself a claim of power. Everything we hear in Design Thinking is then simply a claim of power and we are forced to listen or else we will be marked absent.

 Do you see what I'm saying?  I'm I just being too dogmatic? Have I totally misunderstood the point of the lecture (that's a good possibility).