Round and Round

THIS Paradigm Shift

This Paradigm Shift

April 20, 2010

by Gibrán Rivera

I am honored to be presenting at the Symposium on Sustainability that is being organized by the Institute for Sustainable Social Change at Prescott College in Arizona. Following are some ideas on the themes we want to explore together:

Everything is changing, we are in the midst of a significant – and desperately needed – paradigm shift. The industrial models of the dominant paradigm no longer serve us, they are in fact holding us back.  But what does this emergent paradigm look like?  And how do we live our way into it?

I often think of it as a shift from mechanic to organic, an outlook that calls us to create the conditions for emergence rather than to drive human dynamics by trying to pre-determine our possibilities.

An organic paradigm negates the compartmentalization of life, it calls us to integration and away from a logic of postponement that continually says “we will be happy when…” It is a paradigm that pays close attention to process because it demands that we live in the world we are trying to build. The emergent paradigm dictates that how we get there is as important as getting there. What does happiness look like from this perspective? How about purpose? Justice? Spirit?

A paradigm shift is not a mild event – it is an event that affects everything. It affects how we look at ourselves and how we look at ourselves in movement. It affects our forms of organization, our economic drivers and our value systems. It seeks to re-define our relationship to being as well as to being-with. It is the lens through which we see and experience the world.

All of this can be overwhelming, but it can also be exhilarating, and many of us believe that a paradigm shift is the only hope we have for getting out of the mess we’ve made! People from all fields are entering this zeitgeist, we can see emergent patterns and we are experimenting with new processes and tools for organization and action in this new world.  Pioneers are showing us the way – it’s out turn to get on board!

“Birth of the Sojourner”, first book of the poetic trilogy: “The Odyssey of Heart”, (Createspace Press, November 11, 2011)

“The Odyssey of Heart” vol. I: “Birth of the Sojourner” is a poetic work composed in the form and spirit of the English neo-classical, and partly in the Romantic, tradition of the former 200+ years, employing as its three principal characters the voice of the Sojourner caught in a conflict between the Demonic and Sacred voices in the Heart.

At merely 70 pages, the alternation of these three voices moves the work swiftly along with contrast, comparison and an attempt at reconciliation. It is not merely a drama observed from a distance, but sets the reader upon a trial of reflection and a practical Odyssey of their own, promising fine, aesthetic appreciation and communion with the pressing and dire First Principles and cultural issues of modern civilization.

With a sense for what has gone terribly wrong, the Sojourner agonizes over the temptations of the Demonic voice (Judgment) while striving to live at peace with the Sacred voice (Mercy), contemplating the systems of the world, the brutality of injustice, and the pain involved in losing one’s innocence.

The “Birth of the Sojourner” concerns a struggle to reconcile what seems a fantasy vision of the moral universe with the realities of human nature, of life, history, and the powerful forces of political and intellectual corruption in the world. It involves a contrast of the real laws at work set against the ideal laws at work in the heart and can be understood as the contention of inhumane values (Institutional) with humane values (Personal) and the emotional/moral agony that this conflict involves for the Sojourner. As such, the work strives to ask the socio-political and (culturally) anthropological question: “What would the vision of a humane world look like, as set against the present world as constituted?”

Ultimately, the Sojourner arrives at a perception that the corrupting forces in the world actually exist in one’s self, and that overcoming these forces involves a clearer understanding and acceptance of the limitations of human nature (ignorance) without abandoning authentic, honest and humane values. There is no metaphysical ploy here, no “deus ex-machina” to resolve the conflict; only human nature and the potentials of human nature as demonstrated in experience, or otherwise informed, albeit evidently over-weighted to the Demonic voice in weight of agony (trial of faith), with a glimmering promise of an alternative measure heard in the Sacred for hope, faith and love enduring.

Through this struggle the Sojourner hopes to transmute the critical tendencies of the Demonic to the humane values of the Sacred. As both of these dispositions are natural, we see them brought to life through their own perspectives, cultivating the supporting visions that mature and embolden these dispositions for good or ill, eventually resulting in affirmations of the better angels of our nature.

It has been asserted that few themes could offer a more compelling subject for poetic composition (Judgment vs Mercy in pursuit of Justice), and few literary endeavors more rewarding or universally relevant than a careful treatment of this theme, aesthetically, socially, politically and overall culturally.

It is in this spirit that we recall the words of Thomas Carlyle: “For your nobler minds, the publishing of some such Work of Art, in one or the other dialect, becomes almost a necessity. For what is it properly, but an altercation with the Devil, before you begin honestly Fighting him?”

The author is a BA graduate of Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, MN, USA with a concentration on Cultural Criticism. One scholar’s recommendation:

“I am an avid reader who couldn’t put this work of art down. It is so well written and at the same time evokes so many emotions. It is incredible and engrossing. There is in Meissen’s writing complexity of character and an embellishment of the old making what one reads endearing. It is rich and sumptuous with detailed thought. Often we are put into Greek Tragedy. Sometimes we are blending Medieval Epic with Modern Theology. We are even pulled into a large kind of Giorgione painting filled with mystery, hesitation, and dragons. It is a great piece of musical poetry to be read and sung out loud. I urge you to read, struggle, think, and live his writing!!” ~Daniel Lloyd. Independant Scholar, Composer/Pianist. Mpls, MN.