> If the citizens of the world can understand and appreciate each other through design, what else might they understand and appreciate about each other.

While I don't discount the utopian sentiment behind this, it elides the fact that it is not all citizens of parts of the world understanding each other, but rather specific subsegments of the same. So while young, well-educated, white collar urban professionals might grok each other's vibe, that is immaterial even as we head into what seems to be a new era of nationalism and tribal competition.