4.3.2 Paradigm Discernment

Realizing that paradigms exist and have a significant impact on how the world functions is the first step in developing the skill of paradigm discernment. Almost all aspects of current economies that are dysfunctional and everything that is being changed are influenced by paradigms that are insufficiently reflective of a complex, dynamic world. What a paradox that the only approaches to solving these issues that everybody is aware of are based on the same concepts. Einstein’s oft-quoted advice to seek a remedy from a different scale than the one at which the issue was formed is applicable here since society is caught in a self-reinforcing cycle that can only be solved through a paradigm change.

Using this knowledge to evaluating the nature of present economics-related thinking and planning is the next stage in developing paradigm discernment. One must get over the propensity to take established authorities and institutions at their word. Instead, one should carefully consider where their thoughts come from. The conclusions they reach make sense if one accepts their underlying premises. Should these axioms be believed, though? What do they convey about the underlying paradigms? At the same time, it’s also important to get over the propensity to dismiss concepts that are strange or challenging to understand out of hand. They should also be investigated for the underlying paradigms. The goal in both situations—comfortable or uncomfortable—is to develop paradigm awareness.

The third level entails moving away from passively witnessing paradigms at work in the outside world and starting to actively employ this consciousness to ourselves, employing it to improve one’s thinking, working, communicating, and relating throughout the day. This entails developing the capacity to plan ahead in order to start from the proper level of paradigm. It entails developing the ability to immediately notice and, if necessary, change the paradigms that are influencing one’s behavior. It also entails being aware of how one’s decisions affect other people and developing the ability to see how paradigms affect the will and conscientiousness of certain people, groups, or systems. This will increase awareness of unconscious paradigms’ pervasiveness and how simple it is to present an idea or a question that accidentally prompts a reaction from a level lower of paradigm in others than the circumstance calls for.