What is a paradgm?

What exactly is a Paradigm Shift and why do I call this thing Paradigm Shiftyness?

The first time I heard the term "Paradigm", was probably when I was taking some business class in college way back around 1977. Along the way I have heard the term in time travel movies & books, "Don't change any thing when you go back in time or you will cause a paradigm shift to the future." The dictionary says it is pronounced par' a dime and means: a pattern, example or model. It also means An overall concept accepted by most people in an intellectual community, as those in one of the natural sciences, because of its effectiveness in explaining a complex process.

CHANGE FOR CHANGE SAKE

Okay...now that really explains what it is if you are some egg head geek who talks like that. But for the rest of us, as was explained to me by one of my college teacher many years ago: anytime a new process comes along and replaces an old way of doing something, this is a shift in the way things are done IE a paradigm shift. When a group of people such as the government changes things the way we have always done it through a new law and makes the change camouflaged, no will notice how the change affects them. Let's say some group has an agenda to stop people from earning a living as farmers in California's central valley they could find a little bitty fish that is almost extinct and mandate the government turn off the water to the farmers. One might ask why would one group of people want to stop another group of people from earning a living. If there are no pesky humans on the land the land stays pristine and untouched. One can never underestimate the mindset of people.

CHANGE CAUSES STRESS

During the past 200 years the social fabric of the world has gone through many changes and yet mankind is still here and still coping with change after change. It seems like as the years go by that change for change sake is snow balling and the hill this snow ball is on is only getting steeper.

CHANGE AND THE 20TH CENTURY

Can you imagine what it must have been like living during the first part of the 20Th Century?
Take for example a person makes buckboard wagons for a living around 1910, by 1920 his buckboards have been replaced by Ford trucks and cars. Another example is the March of Dimes. During the late 1940s and on into the early 1960s, the purpose of the organization was to raise money to fight Polio. You probably remember that President Roosevelt is on the Dime and he had Polio, thus the name and the logo of the organization. After Polio was eradicated in the United State by 1960, the March of Dimes was in a quandary of what to do; disband or find another form of childhood medical problems to raise money in order to stay in business. What they came up with was the term Birth Defects and since the term covers such a multitude of deceases and maladies that will never be cured they are still in business. This would be viewed as a paradigm shift where by the organization was flexible enough to change.

STUDEBAKER

Other organizations have not been successful when facing changes in technology or social order. Car companies have come and gone over the years, some lasted longer than others because they were able to make the required changes and others have not. Examples of car companies that did not have the moxie or grit to adjust to the times would be Packard, Hudson and Studebaker. Studebaker is an interesting example of what I would call a delayed failure. During the 1800s Studebaker made wagons and carriages and actually were able to move from horse drawn wagons to horseless carriages. Studebaker even survived The Great Depression and continued making cars and trucks until the mid 1960s. They made some of the most advanced cars on the road.






1956 Studebaker Golden Hawk.

1963 Studebaker Avanti


Sometimes I still wonder what went wrong why could they not change and continue to be accepted by the American car buyer? Some felt it was because the cars were simply too far a head of the times but maybe it was something else. In the weeks to come I will continue to explore what it was that caused Studebaker to close up shop

A PERSONAL PARADIGM

I myself, like others before me, have gone through hundreds if not thousands of personal paradigms. These could be caused by job change, accidents, marriage, birth of a new son or daughter, locating lost relatives or winning the Lotto.

FLO CHARTING CHANGE

Another class I took in college pertained to introduction to computers. This was so long ago we were taught about punch cards instead of key boards and personal computers. I don't even think the Mouse had been invented yet. Anyway one of the exercises we had to per form was to create a flow chart. A flow chart showing all the decisions we had to make driving into school. Every time we came to a stop, made a turn, flipped on the radio or looked in the Morrow. Each time we make a decision on anything that affects our future life is a change in the direction of our personal future. Say for instance you are going to work and when you get to your car you realise you forgot your keys. You go back inside and spend another five minutes searching for the keys and along the way, you dear old mother calls you to let you know that Clyde Johnson who once lived across the street from your family when you were 10 years old has died. Even though you can not remember who the hell old Clyde was you say,"Oh really that is so sad, but I am sure he had a wonderful life." And your mother spends the next five minutes reminding you what a terrible person he was to you as a child.

Finally finding the missing keys, you run out of the house realizing you are going to be late for work. After driving for 2 blocks you come upon a long line of cars and there is flashing lights up ahead, someone has had a fatal accident. The ironic thing here is that if you had left your house when you had started to you would have been in that fatal accident.

DEALING WITH TRAGETY

Another way that paradigm shift play into our life's is when a loved one dies. This happened to me November of 2007. My wife and I had been married for 37 years, our two sons were grown up and moved on with their lives. She had been sick for several years but as they say death came unexpected. The Friday before she died I had just finished my last landscape construction project for the year, she told me she didn't feel well and went to bed early. Over the weekend I tried to get her to eat and get up out of bed but with no success. The following Monday I was bound and determined she was going to eat something and get out of bed. I found her still in bed and she was in a comma. All of a sudden I was alone for the first time in over 37 years. During the next couple of months I went through all the guilt and anger that happens when a loved one leave us and worse of all after the funeral it seemed like everyone I knew shut me out, I guess they felt I wanted to be alone in my grieve. I had never felt so alone in my life. Days would go by where I would spend the entire day just staring out the window and watching the winter snow falling down around me. After a couple of months I could not take the endless days of existing and decided to get a part time job. To do something to fill the void until the Spring, when new construction jobs would become available. At the same time I toyed with the computer dating as away of meeting new people. After several first dates at Starbucks, I gave up and canceled my subscription to the E Harmony. After about a week, I got an Email from a woman who asked me to give her a second look. Finally, we met in person and about 7 months later we were married. Overnight I went from having two grown married sons and a married step daughter and 6 grand children to three grown married sons and two married daughters. My new wife Ruth, who is 8 years younger than me is a bi-lingual teacher and had been living alone for over 20 years and all of a sudden this old geezer is sharing her home with her. Right off the bat I understood that she had developed a life for herself over the past 20 years, was self reliant and in all that time never needed a man to make her decisions for her. I did not want her to change her friends or her life style for me, yet in the past year changes have happened by her choice as we have both adjusted to our lives together. I think we each had had a void in our lives and we each filled the other's void sort of like a man and woman spooning.

CHOICES

When one is faced with a paradigm shift there can be three different responses:

1. Be flexible and change with the shift

2. Fight the Shift

3. Let the shift make you depressed and in some cases it can actually cause death.

The problem is that sometimes we are faced with a Paradigm Shift and have no clue it is happening or why. I call this a Camaflaged Shift.

CAMAFLAGED SHIFTS

One of the really big things I want to look at and hopefully get some discussion going on is the Paradigm Shifts that we do not even see. These are the ones caused mostly by the government, big business or some other large organization we are a part of. Most of the Camaflaged Changes are caused by people in government and some of these people are not elected and yet they have more power sometimes than those we elect. We all have private interests we try to champion but some people are in positions where by they are able to use public money to further their interests, causes and agendas. Is it fair for one person to take the money of the tax payer and give it to another group who is in competion with you? In order to level the playing field sometimes the government appointees will put up roadblocks for the average person that benefits other people in society. If a person happens to be born with a differnent color skin or is a female instead of white male they could be given extra points in life to get a better life. During the late 1950 and into the 1970 the civil rights movement fought to level the playing field as they said and now it is level yet the quota practice still goes on. Now what I call Creeping Dependence continues as an accepted institution from generation to generation. As they say if you tell a lie enough times it become the truth. Anytime the government puts into place a hand up eventually it will be come a "Non-Renigging Benefit", or it is easier to give than cancel or take away.

NON-RENIGGING PERKS

Picture in your mind that during a time when a company is making lots of profit the owner decides to provide the employees with free coffee and other perks. These were new perks and the employees had not expected these new bennies. A few years go by and bad times come on the company and the owner decides he can no longer afford the free coffee and other benefits so he stops the free stuff to the employees. The employees on the other hand are now used to the free coffee and view the now accept free bennefits as part of their pay check and go out on strike to get their "rightful" bennefits back.

THE FUTURE

In the months and years to come I will look into hidden agenda driven changes taking place not only in our country but around the world. It will be an exciting mental trip for me and I hope you can join me as we discover all the crazy stuff out there where by groups of people try to control other people through laws and lies.