When aca­d­e­mic Antanas Mockus became mayor of Bogotá he used the oppor­tu­nity to run a social exper­i­ment on a grand scale. Soon enough, crime was reduced, road deaths were down, and there were 400 trained mimes improv­ing both traf­fic and cit­i­zens’ behav­iour. Seriously.

“The dis­tri­b­u­tion of knowl­edge is the key con­tem­po­rary task,” Mockus said. “Knowl­edge empow­ers peo­ple. If peo­ple know the rules, and are sen­si­tized by art, humor, and cre­ativ­ity, they are much more likely to accept change.”

via Seed