Throughout the ten years of my career in the creative industry, I have lost count of how many times I have heard such statements. Too many times, in fact, that last weekend I decided to make an automatic minutes-of-meeting generator. The idea was too simple, really — nothing ever changes in the discussions, so why not just use the template, change a few words here and there, and call it a day?

A few things, though, struck me as more annoying than others. And it’s not just in the creative industries that it gets thrown about, either.

Every Problem is Moralized…

Indonesia, as I suspect many other developing nations, is plagued by that interesting mix of low self-esteem on the one hand and a disproportionate, shameless national pride in the other.

One thing is clear: We love to talk bad about ourselves. Which is why, every single economic problem gets reframed into a moralistic “cultural” and “character” ones.

We have no culture of reading. We have bad taste in television. We are too consumeristic. We are lazy. We are selfish, unprofessional, myopic, cheap, shallow, oblivious, arrogant bastards. What have you.

But, somehow, some-god-knows-how: We love to say we have talents. And plenty of them! Check out these Indonesian guys doing this shit, isn’t that so incredibly cool? Holy shit, you guys, Indonesia is awesome!

It’s not just small talk, either — this bipolar tendency to both praise and slam Indonesia at the same time extends far into governmental regulations. Jokowi’s entire campaign was revolved around the idea of a mental revolution. Education is all about character building. Governing’s hottest craze post-SBY is “ketegasan” —the strong-man fad.

…Until It Gets Too Abstract to Understand

You’re absolutely sure these kids will become almost saintly if we give them twelve hours of religious education per week, right? And that our pop art products will be the next big craze if we just collaborate to exploit more Wayang? Wait, why are we blowing up those foreign ships again?

The thing about moralistic approaches is that they tend to obfuscate rational reasons into an abstract, overly generalized, and immeasurable views that hardly anybody can disagree with, lest they be branded as blasphemous dissenters.

When there is no room for an objective measure, there is no room for actual analysis. Research consists mostly of interviews, group discussions, all these ever-so-popular community meetings, and books written from these things.

I don’t trust people. And neither should you.

Because when people get together in groups, only one thing can happen: groupthink. And, as any good designer knows, groupthink of abstract notions is the antithesis of design.