Well, as I'm working on music, writing scripts and screenplays, and generally trying to make the days pass more smoothly, I spend a lot of time thinking about absolutely random things. I can remember, for instance, when I discovered that time is not actually a constant, but is affected by even simple things like gravity, momentum, and even physical wellness. One of the most startling discoveries I've ever made, incidentally, is the Oscillation of Paradigms, which is a term I invented for a much more broad understanding of those things we call paradigm shifts.
Allow me to explain:
Paradigm shifts occur throughout human history due to certain factors, chiefly our environment and our UNDERSTANDING of our environment. When our environment consisted primarily of rocks, trees, caves, and winter, and the sky was mostly dark and there were animals out there that could easily gobble us up, our conception of the universe was very different from the conception of the universe held by most people in the 19th century. The conception of the universe (and/or reality) of the 19th century even differed very radically from the concept in the 20th century, but I'll get into that later. For now, suffice to say that as time progresses and we explore more, we learn more, and we change more. Conservative politicians call this phenomenon "flip-flopping."
All kidding aside, conservative notions of the universe (and everyday life, for that matter) should be mostly discredited, since they are, in fact, simply the trickle-down remains of ideas that were once radical themselves; since none of us have ever met a Whig or a Federalist, I think that will serve as a good indicator of my point. In order to retain their grip on reality, people often feel the need to cling onto anything they deem correct, understandable, viable, in the face of a vastly changing set of circumstances. Ergo, if you are raised to believe that the Earth is very young, Man is King Turd of this Rather Smelly Mountain, and that sooner or later all the GOOD people are going to get prime real estate in Heaven, your behavior, mentality and lifestyle will be very different than someone raised with different beliefs, or, indeed, no beliefs at all. HOWEVER, it is just as likely that someone raised the exact same way will respond DIFFERENTLY, which brings us to the root cause of paradigm shifts: imagination.
"Imagination"
The imagination, more than language, religion, literature, music, the arts, ANYTHING, is what separates us from all other life on this planet. So far we are the only animals (that we know of) who have the ability to abstract, intuit things beyond our normal capacity. This trait was considered extremely dangerous, at least for the most part of human history, because it brings change. However, the more people who are happy, the more dangerous imagination is deemed. If fewer people are happy (or, indeed, if most of the people on a single continent are dead, as was the case directly following the Black Death in Europe in the 1300s) than it is less likely that imagination will be considered dangerous, if only for the simple fact that most people are trying to recover from Nature's version of Shock and Awe: hence, the Renaissance and other wonderful little growth spurts.
Paradigm shifts were once enormous and painful periods of labor in human history: the struggle towards a viable Democracy in America is a prime example. Some would say it took from 1775 til 1781; other might say it took til 1813; still others might say it took until 1865, and still OTHERS might say it didn't even really happen until 1945, at the end of World War II and with the explosive growth of our nation. I myself could find arguments for 1964, 1981, 2001, and 2008, all predicated on specific moments of dramatic change in some fundamental aspect of the country. However, rather than focusing simply on the United States (as we are wont to do here) I will try to focus on humanity at large, as we all deserve a fair shake in this, not just the ones who beat everyone to the top and then threw rocks at the noobs below.
"Religulous"
Let's take a look at a specific period of human history: say, the birth of Christ leading up to the collapse of the Roman Empire. If we follow the logic that Christ was put to death in 33 AD, and the Roman Empire collapsed roughly 300 years later (give or take a little "pontifficating"), we see some fascinating things during that time... chiefly, the almost virus-like spread of Christianity, in several distinct forms: Catholic, Greek, and Russian, not to mention all the little ones who were quickly pushed aside by the majority. (Majority rule really isn't anything new, I don't understand how special interest groups always seem surprised by that...)
Anyway, as Christianity spread, so did unrest: the Roman Empire, despite its flaws, managed to contain itself fairly well for a long time. But on the fringes of everything were people who did not want to be part of the greatest power in the world, who wanted their own autonomy and rights and system of government and aqueducts... well, yes, the aqueducts were kind of nice, weren't they? So, quick quizz: What destroyed the Roman Empire? Was it:
A) The Ancient Mediterranean Chapter of NAMBLA?
B) Legalized Prostitution?
C) A Changing State Religion?
D) Constant Warfare?
E) A Series of Intricate and Well-Designed Roads That Were Easily Accessible By Barbarian Hordes, Forever Immortalized Inside the Giant Golfball at EPCOT?
F) A Freak Ice Age?
G) All of the Above?
If you answered G... you would probably just be guessing, anyway. The truth is, we can attribute the collapse to many things, mainly because we weren't there, and we could say it was actually aliens who saw how quickly we were advancing and decided it would be a good idea to throw a wrench in our plans, if we wanted to: WE SIMPLY WEREN'T THERE. Whatever the case was, a dramatic shift left Europe pretty much paralyzed and emotionally stunted for almost a thousand years. Even before the birth of Christ, the seeds of collapse were sown, but until the Dark Ages, there were very few times in the known parts of the world (a.k.a. Civilized) where anarchy truly held sway for a long, long period. However, all over the world, other civilizations were doing fine: the Mayans, Aztecs, Indians, Chinese, and many others, despite their own issues, were discovering things and creating tremendous works of art and buildings that make engineers today scratch their heads in wonder. Islam was born during the Dark Ages, and thankfully gave the roaming knights something to do other than harass Jews and rescue maidens from their hymens and over-protective fathers.
"A Bird in the Hand is Worth Less Than a Flaming Bush"
Now, don't get me wrong: religion has done some incredible things. It evokes a sense of union that binds people together in a way that few other things can. The idea that there is someone (or, Someone) looking out for you, guiding your life in small or even large ways, is extremely comforting, and promotes general wellness, a sense of fulfillment, and also encourages artistic expression (provided it is handled appropriately, and you don't paint The Last Supper with three Christs in it). Religion is the first great step of the human race towards a larger understanding of the universe, because it relies on a line of thought that goes something like this:
"I am very small, and it is very dark, and there are things out there that would like to eat me, and I wish I knew what to say to that pretty girl/handsome guy to get her/him to mate with me, and so in order to keep myself from just walking out of this cold, damp cave right into the jaws of whatever predator is passing by at the moment, I have to have... faith. Faith that things will get better; faith that life is fair; faith that in the end, there will be someone (or, Someone) to welcome me with open arms and say 'Good job.'"
Nowadays, atheism is not nearly as controversial as it once was. Atheism is extremely easy to align yourself with, especially if your car starts when it's supposed to, your bi-monthly paycheck comes when it's supposed to, and you get to (ahem) mate when you're supposed to. As far as I can tell in my observations, for most people, Christians and others alike, it appears that God is similar to government: It's fine and dandy when we need him, but when things go wrong, we blame him. Or someone else's version of him. Sorry, Him.
The ability to completely discredit the existence of god in any way, shape, or form is not something I have within me: I cannot justify this, as there is no proof of his lack of existence, JUST AS I HAVE NO PROOF OF HIS EXISTENCE, EITHER. For those of you out there saying "Look, hundreds of people died in the 2005 tsunami for no reason, that proves God doesn't exist," or "Oooh, look! A rainbow! That proves God exists,"
...NO. BAD. SIT. STAY.
Casually throwing out these things is not proof of God, either for or against; it is proof of YOUR specific belief in or about God. God is a construct that requires us to believe in Him (or Her), because, even for religions that do not require the salvation of everyone, such as Hinduism or Buddhism, if no one else knows what you know, then no one else believes in your SPECIFIC god. It is fair to say, in all actuality, that EVERYONE on the planet has their own personal god, even atheists, for there must be SOMETHING, some THING that they picture when they discredit Its own existence. It is a puzzlement, and it is the best showcase of our imagination I can come up with.
"The Red Shift of Paradigms"
Now, as for paradigm shifts: the most curious thing about them, if we observe trends in a specific field, such as science, is that they come faster and faster all the time. The most significant example and the one that will be easiest for most people today to identify with is technology: it is estimated that technology expands twice as fast in its next phase as the phase before, meaning that the space of time between the creation of the Antikythera Mechanism and the Macintosh compared to the time between the creation of the laptop and the creation of the iPad demonstrates a rapid ramping up in technological advancement. Thus do we come to the heart of the problem: these paradigm shifts do not appear to be predictable, but rather to have a random (though certainly continuous) rate of acceleration. This bring me to the analogy of "The Slinky."
"The Slinky"
Picture a slinky falling down the stairs; for those of you born after about 1992, stairs are what we had before obesity made them fairly obsolete. For those of you born after about 1984, slinkies were coiled metal springs that you could curl up, launch downstairs, and have hours of entertainment watching them collapse and expand, collapse and expand. The rate of their descent is fairly constant, it would seem; however, that is because most of us only had one flight of stairs in our homes, if any at all. If a slinky were to fall down an infinite flight of stairs, it would inevitably begin to speed up or slow down, depending on the angle of the stairs, imperfections in the surface material, air pressure, all sorts of variables. Therefore, if the slinky is human knowledge, and variables include a better diet, imagination, LSD, unions, black presidents, etc. etc., eventually the slinky changes velocity. Try to imagine a slinky hitting terminal velocity; that is essentially what is happening to our technology, today. In the end, either technology will oust us and claim dominance of the planet, no longer needing our guidance because it is so smart it practically invented Jeopardy... or we will obliterate anything that is not reliant on technology, and interact solely through technological mediums, thus ensuring our extinction. The one factor which will inevitably contribute to the outcome (whatever it may be) is the utter and total collapse of our traditional way of life based around cheap fuels and overabundance... but that is not what I am talking about. That's SEP: "Someone Else's Problem," as whoever is in power at the moment likes to say.
(In truth, it isn't, but apparently the internet has no bottom, so I'll just write another post about it later.)
Anyways, since the slinky analogy only works so far as we can imagine it, we also have to look at another toy example: the yo-yo.
"The Yo-Yo"
The divine secrets of the yo-yo are indeed quite ancient; using simple physics long before we even knew what physics were, people understood how to do tricks with string and a rounded object carefully aligned with it. The yo-yo goes down; the yo-yo comes up. Simple, and elegant; those of you born before about 1980, you can go wikipedia it, under the entry "yo-yo (disambiguation)." The yo-yo behaves this way, however, for the same reason the slinky behave the way it does: because outside forces act upon it. Once again, simple physics, an object in motion and so forth. But the yo-yo has something very different from the slinky: it can perform tricks. It can cats-cradle; it can loop-the-loop; it can walk-the-dog; it can do all SORTS of things.
The slinky... can slink.
The slinky represents Man's ability to keep going forward, to always advance, but with a constant clinging onto ideas and beliefs that are no longer in vogue or that even make any sense. Despite scientifically proven evidence to the contrary, there are people who simply do not believe anything they are shown, because it would completely obliterate their sense of reality. Given the fact that many of these people own guns and have heavily sheltered compounds, not to mention kegs of kool-aid at the ready, letting them have their reality might not be such a bad thing. Religion and physics are quite fascinatingly similar, in that they often deal with absolutes, and are predicated on old concepts of the universe that have come to be accepted as absolute, fundamental truths. Quantum physics--quantum reality--present us with another truth, something which we had not truly considered before, and it goes a little something like this:
Normal Physics/Religion:
1) I am right.
2) I think.
3) I am.
4) My Sky Cake beats your Sky Pie, and if it does not, you must die.
Quantum Physics/Religion:
1) I am right.
2) You are also right.
3) Neither of us are right.
4) ALL AT THE SAME FRIGGIN TIME!!!
Quantum reality allows for possibility. It creates space for things which we cannot fathom, or would ever imagine. It is imagination, scientifically personified. Therefore, quantum physics insists that there can be a god, and there cannot be a god; quantum physics insists that reality is stable, and yet it is not; quantum physics means we could travel through time... but aren't we doing that already, right now?
In the beginning, there was spirituality, and it was good. Then Newton said, "Let there be gravity," and there was (and other neat stuff, too). Eventually other people said, is the gravity really there? And then Scientology came to pass, and yea, there was much tsouris...
Our ability to hold onto reality is predicated on our strength of consciousness, our self-awareness; people who think they are someone else, genuinely know that they are someone else... for all intents and purposes, THEY ARE THAT PERSON. If we do not agree with them, we run the risk of running head-on into their reality, and creating quite a mess in the process.
The most frightening lesson I learned for this discovery, the Oscillation of Paradigms, is that they are incredibly unpredictable. The paradigm which shaped Germany from 1915 through 1945 is utterly terrifying, but it existed because an entire group of people believed in the same reality. Although these may seem like abstract concepts, their influence on everyday life is quite realistic. Anyone who has ever seen a Bible camp or Congress in session or a football game will agree. The mind is a very frightened thing when it is isolated, so it craves groups, it lumps things, ideas, people, together... but there are times when tremendous disparity exists between fields of thought... even from person to person... periods of oscillation, from one group dynamic to another. Right now we are in a very dark dynamic, a place full of blame, paranoia, accusations, and self-righteous indignation based on lies-that-are-no-longer-lies-because-we-say-they-aren't.
What we oscillate to next... is going to be very interesting, I'm sure.
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