Notes on a Paradigm
NOTES ON A PARADIGM: Information and Change
(A Cryptic Triptych)
Kernel Kurtz - 10/28/90
- I -
Now as we enter the closing decade of the twentieth
century, we might well take stock of where we, as a
species, stand in relation to the larger realities of the
cosmos: are we in fact any closer to understanding than
we have ever been?
My own intuitive feeling is that, of the several factors
which may now be seen to be converging, certain important
elements are of overwhelming significance. The paradigm
shift in science, for example, will ultimately change the
collective reality of our species (as has happened before)
in ways which current hierarchies of power and wealth are
equipped neither to understand nor to control. Indeed,
the changes we now face, while clearly the most
comprehensive yet, are no more predictable than they are
determinate in terms of current conventional wisdom.
Our culture is in extremis today, between, as it were, a
rock and a hard place. The conduct of business and
government, entwined in their incestuous relationship, is
hidden from the people by layer upon layer of deliberate
deceit. In a political system in which liberals are
portrayed as leftist by government and the media,
moderates are called liberals, and hardline right-wing
conservatives disguise themselves as the soul of sweet
reason, how can an enlightened electorate exist, let alone
prevail?
The results of "modern" culture's adversarial relationship
with Nature and Humanity, which are in effect holding a
gun to the head of our entire species (not to mention the
planet), have emerged as the catastrophic issues of our
time. Overpopulation, pollution, war, and the depletion
of global resources (soil, oceans, minerals, rain forests,
etc.) are the problems which must be solved before it is
too late.
Such problems are exacerbated, and their solutions made
more elusive, by the existence of self-serving political
and economic institutions, whose members, operating within
belief systems which define Nature as enemy rather than
ally, deny (and indeed militate against) the need and the
effort to save the planet.
- II -
There are of course positive trends at work as well: the
Greens, the Rainbows, and other such grassroots movements.
These activists are engaged in bypassing conventional
cultural channels in the achievement of their ends. The
agenda is not one of political opportunism, but rather of
flexibility, for the sake of survival itself: it is the
comprehension of opposing agendas, and the adaptation to
increased freedom of action, which makes this a viable and
necessary response.
Which brings us to the question of what we now know.
Modern science, in the early years of this century, came
to a startling conclusion, which has caused great
consternation (and hysterical efforts to adapt) ever
since: Human Awareness changes Reality.
(Note that such an assertion has been made of late by
various authors, including Fritjof Capra, Fred Wolf, Bohm,
Herbert, et al. Also see Metaphysics Anonymous
volumes 1, 2 and 3.)
The changes which have occurred as a result (despite the
overt political vicissitudes of the times) have created
profound differences in the worldview of our species as a
whole, beginning with the radical disorientation in global
perceptions experienced by intellectuals.
Since Galileo, proponents of science have found themselves
in conflict with established dogma. It is only in
"modern" times that the empirical viewpoint has gained
currency in the established consensus worldview.
Ironically, this new intellectual freedom has resulted in
the confirmation of exactly the sort of sloppy, mystical
insight which science holds most suspect: full circle, as
it were. Synchronicity, it would seem, is an
indispensable element of reality; not merely on the
quantum level of modern physics, but in the greater
affairs of our species within the cosmos as well.
This brings us to an ineluctable conclusion: that there
is an inescapable responsibility implicit in our awareness
which we must somehow learn how to manifest in our future
conduct, both individually and collectively, if we are to
survive.
Humans, it seems, are each constrained by our own internal
limitations. We may be less the victims of our universe
than of ourselves. However, in the effort to understand,
we may transcend ourselves; indeed, this might be the
salvation of our species. If in our attempts to know the
realities we must deal with we can learn responsibility,
then there may yet be hope for us.
It seems to me that an operational definition of reality
must take into account the individual viewpoints within
which we each must operate; that the consensus (which will
generate the paradigm shift) must be an overview of the
collective experience of reality. This recalls Eldon's
notion that "The Universe is an audience-participation
event".
- III -
As humans, we inhabit a milieu unique among the myriad
species living within Earth's biosphere: more than any
other life form, we are the creatures of our own
time-binding abilities. This means that not only our
physical and mental being, but the psychic and material
manifestations which we unconsciously assume to be
"reality", are in fact the constructs of collective human
experience; no more, no less. We are now at the end of
the formative period during which we could afford to take
these matters for granted.
This is most readily apparent at present in the dichotomy
between women and men in our society: our culture has
become embroiled in an adversarial relationship, separated
by gender, which we must reconcile in order to evolve as a
species.
We are faced with the unavoidable necessity of assuming
responsibility for what humanity has wrought. This
assumption of our responsibility requires that we, as a
whole species, now come to terms with our own psyche as it
is collectively manifest, for better and for worse. The
time has come to own our weakness and our strength, our
evil as our good, in the knowledge and the love we share
as human beings. When we awaken.
I feel we now have an unparalleled opportunity to become
agents of change: both as aware individuals and as
participants in the major trends of these "interesting
times". We have the means of affecting such change at our
disposal; as individuals and together as a species, we
have never before had such powers of global communication,
transportation, and organization. When the Live-Aid
musicians gathered to sing "We are the World" their words
may have been meant metaphorically; in "reality" however,
this statement was the simple truth. As humans, in the
power of our collective awareness, we are, indeed, the
world which we experience, and so create: and it is up to
us to make this world anew, whole and healed. We cannot
go on denying what we have done.
Inasmuch as humans have made of our world a nightmare, so
it is that many of humankind are yet asleep; it is in our
waking that we become empowered, to heal and cherish the
world we all must share. It is in the unprecedented
energy which we can collectively manifest that we may find
the power we seek: together our awareness can bring us to
a new and better world.
It's not too soon to start.
Vino and Veritas
