| Our Next Major Paradigm Shift |
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| Written by David Shackleton | |
| Wednesday, 02 August 2006 | |
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A cultural transition from a resource-depleting, consuming lifestyle to a sustainable one will revolve around a cultural and spiritual paradigm shift. We hear a lot about paradigm shifts, but what are they? Major paradigm shifts occur when a whole lot of people see things differently. A huge shift occurred some three hundred years ago in the western world, for example, in social power relations. The basic form of social structure in Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was feudalism and imperialism, in which a person's aspirations were pretty much predetermined by their birth status. The code of the times might be expressed as “birth makes wealth, wealth makes might, and might makes right.” But by the eighteenth century, the industrial revolution had undermined this system by creating a new class of workers: more educated, more skilled, and thus more marketable than the peasants they had been a generation before. They were the beginnings of today's middle class. As a consequence, within the span of a few years, revolutionary movements leading to democratic forms of government erupted in Europe and the USA, and on the international stage imperial colonialism began to yield to national independence movements. It's important to realize that these social revolutions against aristocratic or racial (i.e., hereditary) power didn't happen because the people were suddenly more oppressed: if anything they were less oppressed than ever before. They happened because the new circumstances created a new way of thinking and feeling, and the notion of “power to the people,” new ideas of social equality and democratic rights flowered almost overnight (historically speaking). This was a paradigm shift. It expressed itself through how people felt about freedom and equality. People suddenly became willing to die for concepts like freedom that were abstract and empty to their forebears. “Might makes right” was replaced by values founded in equality of persons, equality before the law, social justice, universal human rights and liberal democracy. “A man's word is his bond” perhaps captured best the new basis for social intercourse: trade between equals, integrity in business, commerce based on consensual contracts. This system of social principles is so much more productive, so much more efficient than the earlier feudal system that it has resulted (along with technology) in the average standard of living in the west rising to a level enjoyed previously only by barons and kings. It seems that western society is ripe for a further paradigm shift, one that will again hugely increase people's quality of life. Indeed, I believe that it is already underway. As before, it involves a profound change in how we feel about life, about rights and responsibilities and what is important, about what is right and worth fighting for. What will this paradigm shift be about? The paradigm shift of two hundred years ago was most fundamentally about social equality: the importance, the value of all people, not just aristocrats. It has served us well: our most significant ideas about democracy, equality, human rights and social justice all flow from this central foundation. Indeed, this magazine, with its focus on gender equality, is an expression of that value system. The paradigm shift that we are entering now is about the importance of the planet, about the interconnectedness of life and species. As we move into this way of thinking and feeling, it will begin to feel right to conserve resources, to reduce consumption, to support local, renewable production of food and energy, to empathize with the environment, to design products for re-use. Some of us already feel some of these things. For instance, does placing recyclable packaging into your blue box feel like a chore to you, or does it feel satisfying, important, like a job well done? If the latter, you are experiencing a part of the new paradigm. A new paradigm often seems to move into mainstream consensus through the vehicle of major social disruption, such as the French and American revolutions. It seems to me that the events that will move the new paradigm onto center stage will be driven by planetary resource and environmental limits such as the end of cheap oil, overpopulation and global warming. It is likely that these events will be serious enough to entirely disrupt normal life in the technically developed world (i.e., that dependent on cheap oil), and perhaps result in resource wars and millions of deaths. (Indeed, Iraq may actually be the first such resource war.) We in the west are not prepared for the major changes that are about to take place. In particular, the majority of people in suburban houses may be unable to heat their homes or drive to their jobs (if they still have jobs) in a post-cheap-oil world. The transition to a new stable state of reduced production and consumption is likely to be difficult. What can we do to prepare? Prepare yourself mentally: Understand what is going on. Major changes are much easier to assimilate if one knows what is happening, and why. Especially, hold a vision of where we are trying to get to. The revolutions that turned aristocracies into democracies were not just reactions against royalty and feudalism; they also had a positive vision of the democratic values and structures they wanted to create and install. If we enter, as I expect we soon will, a worldwide economic crash triggered by the failure of the American dollar, the presence of people who hold a positive vision of how this is an opportunity to move forward and create a new value system will be vital in avoiding descending into chaos. Prepare yourself psychologically: Do your personal work. Undo the value system of consumption entitlement in yourself that tells you you have a right to today's lifestyle which is built on unsustainable practices. Lower your own psychological dependence on physical resources and products. Prepare yourself spiritually for the coming disruptions, so that you will not lose your personal peace or react against what is happening. Consider whether you might be a leader-in-waiting, ready to step into societal or community leadership when the time comes. Prepare yourself physically: Retire your debt. Invest in local food and energy production. Lower your consumption of gasoline, electricity, heating oil and natural gas. Explore alternative energy solutions for your home. Grow more of your own food. Move as far as you reasonably can towards self-sufficiency in food and energy. Improve your health and physical fitness. Prepare yourself socially: Seek out and join with like-minded individuals and organizations. Connect with your neighbors and strengthen your local community. Educate and advocate for awareness of these issues, especially among your neighbors and family. The coming transition is a coming-of-age initiation for the human species. It asks us to step into global stewardship, to care about the planet as much as we care about ourselves. It asks us to transcend our evolutionary drives and become conscious of our unique responsibility toward each other and our world. It is not a tragedy, but a vital step into adult consciousness. I invite comments, reactions, questions, responses. Let's talk about these issues. Maybe GRIP can become one of the resources supporting our preparedness to transition to this next level of human society. David Shackleton is a thinker and writer on gender and spiritual growth, and co-editor and co-publisher of GRIP. Contact him at (613) 832-2284, email This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it |
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 10 August 2006 ) |
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