The Impotence of Being Earnest

Wow..this article had a lot of attitude in it. Matt Soar either had a rough day when he wrote "The Impotence of Being Earnest" or he really has strong beliefs on the foundation of manifestos and today's designers. In his article he analyzed another manifesto called "First Things First" in which thirty- three of top designers in design talk about thier responsibilities in the design world. According to Matt, this is a revamp of an earlier edition and I think Matt is kind of sour about this emergence because he says, "So, at the very least, it seems that the 'First Things First' flame has been rekindled in an attempt to ignite debate where none -or not enough-existed before." And he also placed manifesto in quotes when he first presents First Things First, giving the impression that he was being sarcastic. Seems like he has a grudge against these designers or he doesn't follow along with thier beliefs.
Matt brings up a group called The Adbusters and this organization is trying to resurrect manifestos. The Adbusters have a term they call culture jamming in which social marketing "takes the piss out of consumer capitalism". Mr. Soar believed that designers should treat thier audiences as citizens before customers. Basically I felt that Matt soar is critical of today's designers and gave his opinion on how they can improve and solve thier problems.