The Wisdom of Starbucks?

Found on the side of my Venti Latte:

"My cousin in Tibet is an illiterate subsistence farmer. By accident of birth, I was raised in the West and have a Ph.D. The task of our generation is to cut through the illusion that we inhabit separate worlds. Only then will we find the heart to rise to the daunting but urgent challenges of global disparity." -- Losang Rabgey, National Geographic Emerging Explorer and co-founder of Machik, a nonprofit helping communities on the Tibetan plateau

Just seemed appropriate for this course, somehow. And by the way, my coffee doesn't taste all that different than it did before Tuesday's nationwide "Barista retraining effort." Oh well.

Paper Abstract

This paper will address the rising problem in American society of isolation and withdrawal from those individuals who share our streets, sidewalks, fences and even walls - in short, our neighbors. Growing out of the latter-half of the 20th century (and into the 21st century), this phenomenon has been coined "Crowded Loneliness" by environmental and behavioral psychologists, and focuses on the apparent rapid erosion of relationships-by-proximity. Exploring the possible causes of this phenomenon is critical to understanding that, first, it is a problem for society and that, second, it is a problem that can be solved. Theories for the problem range from architectural, to socio-political and even technological. This paper will approach the analysis and resolution of the problem from an architectural standpoint, to investigate how residential design and planning effectively facilitate relationship-building or encourage isolation. Beyond that, individuals, collectively, will have to decide to rebuild the relationships that have been lost, or to sink further into the crowded pool of anonymity.

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