Paradigm Change

 

Crossroads is a movie investigating the current challenges of mankind in all sorts of different facets, as well on a very fundamental level, which is to speak about a worldview and how this is the root of so many problems. Choosing a rather personally empirically founded point of view, I am going to reflect upon worldview as a concept, its practical consequences and the possibility of transformation to the better.

In my eyes talking about a worldview can be misleading because it suggests this view could be universally and unambiguously described. On the contrary there is an infinite and ungraspable amount of different perspectives, which cannot even be individually isolated but have to be understood as embedded in a context of an inseparable system, constituted by both subject and object. The term is in this sense highly problematic but nevertheless very useful if understood as something describing characteristic features of a given society at a given time.

For these reasons I prefer talking about a paradigm which might have a stronger connotation towards a state of mind that is not consciously decided but refers to our glasses through which everything is perceived. A paradigm is usually anchored very deep and consequently influences and determines our actions without the necessity of our awareness. It is thus a crucial force maybe most relevant on a larger scale of time and people, which is characteristic for our contemporary global problems.

A favoured transformation of our current paradigm(s) would undeniably alter our behaviour towards our environment. The causal relation is obvious and verified through history but the crucial point for me remains how such a transformation can be triggered and directed towards a desired direction?

A paradigm change cannot merely be set on a political agenda but it is a transition process that takes time and cannot be planned in all details. Nevertheless, I believe we can influence this process by our political, economical and societal framework. Noticing things that go bad is a start, living better alternatives a required second step into the desired direction. Long-term change will be made up of many consecutive steps, taken on all levels of society. “The system” has to transform but this requires a vision to what it could possibly transform to. I believe it is possible to influence this process.

But I disagree with some voices of the movie crossroads (e.g. “there is no problem, there is only a transition”), that make it sound as if it was only a question of time until we transform to the better. A “better world” can only be understood using concepts of mankind introducing values to the world. It is in this sense not fundamental and independent of mankind. While I have a strong belief into some kind of unity that is underlying everything we have to realize that we are the ones defining ideals that we live up to. A problem is then derived as something that is in conflict with a given ideal. It is our problem and our desire to make it a better world.

Let us live our vision. Individually and collectively.

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