It seems to me that we are all searching for our purpose in life and yearn to feel useful. As our economy has dropped, so too has our need for new products, therefore, from an identity perspective, we as designers have all had to find some other way of feeling useful. Design activism seems to be that niche and its rise in popularity corresponds directly to the fall of our economy. Design has become our religion in that it guides us with a purpose, it's something we can feel passionate about, and "design-thinking" is something we want to share with others. 

 

Although we would love to admit that everyone is a designer and that our benefactors are the experts, that means that we as designers are nothing special and that we have start over in finding our purpose, darn, just when we thought we were there and are still paying back our loans from an expensive design school. SO, let us continue to search and find ways of being useful. We must do what we love and what we are good at. That's all any of us can really do isn't it? Find our way of being useful and hope that both our hearts and pockets can be filled by it, leaving enough time to enjoy the pleasures of life. But it's true, we must temper this life with caution as to not meddle and as Cameron Sinclair says, to not "use people as ginny pigs."