Paradigms, Resistence, Science, God, Hebrew - a bit long (with cuffs please)

Tue Jul 26 07:38:16 PDT 2005

  Harrison Owen wrote:

>  
>  
> And reading Wilber and Kuhn wouldn't hurt. Both pretty bright guys. 
> Kuhn doubtless wrote other stuff, but the seminal work is/was "The 
> Structures of Scientific Revolution" -- I think it was published by 
> Princeton, or maybe it was Chicago (University Press). Wilber has damn 
> near buried the world in paper. All of it is good, but some is better 
> than the rest. A good introduction might be something like, "A Brief 
> History of Everything."  He is a wonderful writer, great storyteller, 
> totally outrageous, and a massive intellect. Other than that he is 
> pretty run of the mill. And if you are looking for other good stuff to 
> read, you might check out the section on www.openspaceworld.com 
> <http://www.openspaceworld.com> called "Literature."

"The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" [by Thomas S. Kuhn, University 
of Chicago Press, 1962, 1970] had a huge impact on me when I was in 
school in the early 70s.  It is no surprise that Harrison has done a 
fine job of capturing key points from it.  I agree with Harrison that, 
in Kuhn's role as a philosopher of science and historian at a particular 
moment in time, he was more concerned with addressing the barriers to 
breakthroughs, not what would come next.

That said, I would like to elaborate on one aspect of Kuhn's work with a 
slightly different em-PHA-sis. 

In doing so I also call your attention to Kuhn's earlier work, "The 
Copernican Revolution: Planetary Astronomy in the Development of Western 
Thought" [Vintage Book/Random House, 1957, 1959].   While there is some 
real astronomy in the book, it is fairly easy to read or skip in order 
to get to the social implications.  He also wrote a book called "The 
Essential Tension: Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and Change" 
[University of Chicago Press 1977].    This one has less "hard science" 
in it and you will recognize the how science was anticipating the social 
consequences in our lives today.

The reason I think it is important to add The Copernican Revolution is 
that Kuhn suggests that you know you are facing a paradigm shift when 
people defending the dominant belief system are prepared to enforce 
serious sanctions to maintain the status quo.  Both Copernicus and 
Galileo(reference in Scientific Revolutions) faced state enforced death 
to pursue their new views.  They were not "thinking outside of the 
box."   Their thinking, and that of others Kuhn refers to, was so far 
beyond conventional thinking that they were not even acknowledging a box 
that one might think outside of.  They were laying the conceptual 
foundations that were needed for Westerners to reframe what we might now 
call consciousness.  As much as we may criticize their linear, 
mechanistic thinking today, their's was an important step on the way to 
spiral dynamics and other mental models that we now explore...and which 
others in the future may look back on with amused curiosity.

In my view, Joel Barker's superficial analysis of Kuhn has trivialized 
what is at stake for people at the time of a real paradigm shift.  In 
both these cases the dominant culture perceived threats to its belief in 
the existence and power of God, to the power that the church had because 
of its connection to god and the power of the rich who filled the 
churches with riches.  The official punishment for such heresy was 
death.  As I read Kuhn, that's a paradigm, not a box.

I think this is more than just a matter of semantics or an academic 
debate.  Barker also has trivialized the potential depth and force of 
resistance change agents (referring to people who see the new reality 
and keep the light on it - be they members of a community or outside 
consultants - AKA, outside agitators) must be alert to in systems at the 
time of a real paradigm shift.  Not only must change agents anticipate 
and plan for the resistance, in my view (which I think is consistent 
with the inclusive values of OST) the change agent needs to understand 
that the fear rooted in the perception of what is at stake and find a 
way to embrace the resistance without embracing the beliefs and help 
create space to discover what will be required to let go and move on.  

If you think some people will resist an "outside of the box" solution to 
a problem when people have at least acknowledged there is problem to be 
solved, wait until you confront their fundamental view of 
reality...something that they did not invite anyone to do!   In 
situations like this I believe OST facilitators need to be able to 
create and hold space in a crucible of considerable strength.  Hoping 
people will "think outside the box" ain't gonna get it.  

On the other hand, the positive side of resistance is that, in my view, 
it represents and act of "passion and responsibility."   It suggests 
that the person cares about whatever the situation is.  I would much 
rather work with people who are resisting than docile people who will 
not resist.  I wonder whether they will act with passion and 
responsibility to support the new reality.

In the more modern examples provided by Kuhn the proponents did not face 
state enforced death, but they faced potential professional death 
through marginalization, loss of livelihood and other community 
sanctions.   As many of you know very well, there are times in civil 
society around the world today where people may face death for 
challenging the fundamental order of society.   My experience is that 
the people who propose "thinking outside the box" in such situations are 
people who have very little insight into what is at stake and are 
probably not going to have to hang around during the implementation of 
or living of the change.

That does not mean I think people should not engage in the risky work of 
paradigm shifts.  On some level, having discovered the new reality there 
is no going back.   Just know that if it is really a paradigm shift then 
there will be a lot at stake for the people promoting change and those 
resisting it.   I believe OST can and has helped create a container for 
working on such change.  It is why I honor the process and do not take 
my role in it lightly.

Aside 1

A much newer book I am recommending to everyone doing our kind of work 
is "Navigating the Badlands" by a futurist named Mary O'Hare-Devereux.  
While she does not use the term paradigm, she was noticing that, in 
recent years, her tools were not getting her the kinds of results she 
anticipated.  She goes back thousands of years to compare times when the 
world seemed to be evolving or developing or stagnating (behaving in 
predictable ways) and times of transformation...when the whole world 
seemed to get turned upside down (for many decades or more) before it 
returned to some degree of predictability.  For example, when humans 
started using alphabets changed the world....not one alphabet or the 
first alphabet...the worldwide use of alphabets, all kinds of alphabets, 
changed everything.

Anyway, she discovered there was a different set of patterns within the 
chaos...order emerges from chaos.  She then applies this to what she 
believes is a dramatic change cycle...maybe a paradigm shift...we have 
all been in for about a decade and will continue in for about a decade.  
She also provides insights into where to look for both the opportunities 
and resistance as we try to get through the Badlands...a space where 
things that look very familiar turn out to be something very different.  
She suggests we can (did) enter the Badlands of change alone, but we 
cannot get out of the Badlands alone.

Final Aside

The term paradigm existed before Kuhn and it did refer to deeply 
embedded patterns - especially in language.  It is interesting to me 
that one of the examples of how the term was applied prior to Kuhn was 
the reading of Hebrew.   When Hebrew is printed, like in the Torah, the 
letters that represent what we would call vowels in English are not 
included.  As a result, there are many patterns of Hebrew consonants 
that, without vowels, look identical yet have very different meanings 
and pronunciations.  However, if you are raised in Jewish culture you 
"know" the difference.  You don't notice anything missing and probably 
would not know what someone outside the culture, trained in text book or 
dictionary Hebrew, was confused about. 

I believe that much about Kuhn described as paradigms, like most of what 
we experience as culture, operates on this sub-conscious 
level...invisible to those who are a part of it.  It's not in our head 
or our heart...it's in our blood and DNA.  Thus, some levels of 
resistance are not conscious push back as much as they are confusion, 
dissonance and fear.  Even some of the conscious, intentional resistance 
may be in reaction to the conscious awareness of beliefs rooted in 
unexamined deeper beliefs learned at pre-verbal stages of life...when we 
were forming our senses of reality, not "knowledge" of reality.  No 
wonder they are so hard to let go of!

I have rambled on far too long...besides, I feel the urge to watch South 
Pacific..."you've got to be carefully taught!"  ;-)

Shalom,

Chris Kloth
ChangeWorks of the Heartland
250 South Virginialee Road
Columbus, OH 43209-2052
USA
Phone: 614.239.1336
Fax: 614.237.2347
E-mail: chris at got2change.com
URL: www.got2change.com

Think Globally, Act locally

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