“21st-C Paradigm Shift: The Agents Provocateurs Among Us”

Waking Point

by Helen Noakes

“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius—and a lot of courage—to move in the opposite direction.”

—Albert Einstein

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—(Weekly Hubris)—3/1/10—There are agents provocateurs working in our society intent on changing the world and moving it “in the opposite direction.”

They’re not violent militant groups—quite the opposite. They are people just like you and me, young and old and somewhere in between. Their one focus, their prime directive, is to change what has not been working in this world for so long and to shift global consciousness from a place of “me” to a place of “us.”

At the beginning of 2009, I met a handful of these people, who come from various walks of life. They introduced me to fellow agents of change, who introduced me to more, until I realized that this was a growing grass-roots movement that is creating a salient transformation in our basic perceptions of commerce, art, and the business of daily living.

When, in 1962, Thomas Kuhn published The Structure of Scientific Revolution and coined the term “paradigm shift,” he defined it as an intellectual revolution where “one conceptual world view is replaced by another.” He was talking about scientific innovation.

This change, this movement away from the self-centered model of fulfilling individual needs at the expense of a global community, most certainly represents the transformation from outdated ways of thinking towards a new paradigm.

Groups and ideas are forming rapidly around one prevalent concept—the self is part of a greater whole and that whole must be nurtured in order for the self to survive, thrive and be fulfilled.

At times, it may seem as if this concept is impossible to embed in our current socio-political systems but, on closer inspection, it becomes clear that it is the only way that our current world situation will be improved.

These agents provocateurs are challenging our perceptions. They are making it clear that we cannot continue to perceive ourselves and our world in tight, finite terms. They are showing us ways of taking a quantum leap into a present that will reshape our future.

It is my view that science is the accelerant behind the movement.

Quantum physics, cosmology, and astronomy have redefined our views of the universe we inhabit. The discovery of DNA has changed our perceptions of ourselves on a cellular level. It informed us of our connection to every living creature and to star matter.

Men such as Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking have introduced us to the vast unseen potential in our universe. Or, perhaps I should say our “multiverse,” for we are told by astronomers and cosmologists that we are not alone. We are told that there is evidence of other universes metaphorically or perhaps even literally “rubbing up” against ours.

The concept of time can no longer be tied to a linear model, what with images of the Big Bang being transmitted to scientists who are busily recalculating the date of its occurrence.

It is quite clear to me that these agents provocateurs in our midst are fueled by these scientific ideas. They are gripped by the enormity of the revolutionary concepts and realities being articulated by our scientists. Because they can clearly see that many of us can’t understand how we might be affected by these new ideas, they have devised ways of bringing them to our attention.

These agents of change, these catalysts of metamorphosis, are intent on showing us that we are all, subtly, directly, and evidently, affected by the new paradigm. That the concept of six degrees of separation might be altogether irrelevant; that separation is an illusion.

This change will not happen if we simply sit about glowing with the lovely concept of world unity. I’m not talking about daydreamers here, although there’s nothing wrong with a dream or two. I’m talking about people getting together to create backyard vegetable gardens to help people feed themselves, people who offer healing to those who cannot afford to pay hospital prices, people who offer counseling to the sick of heart, people who get together and organize restaurants to donate unused fresh food from their kitchens to organizations that feed the homeless. You get the picture.

Some of you might say that this is happening already. Not enough. More, in this case, is just right.

Consider this: if we stop to help those who need it and ask only that when they get on their feet they do the same, what kind of change will we see in the world? If we reach out to communities foreign to us, Christians to Muslims, for example, and see how alike we are, what sort of change will we see in the world? If we, as citizens of this particular country, push for legislation that provides equal amounts of expenditure for the care and prosperity of its people as it spends on arms, what kind of change will we see in the world?

It is my privilege and delight to consider myself an active agent provocateur, both as a writer and an organizer. It is my great honor to draw together a kinship group of such “agents” to take this message out into the world and actively to pursue the various avenues of change we wish to see. It is my great joy to present the upcoming Spring FLOWSHOP in the San Francisco Bay Area, where several of these wonderful “agents” will engage on a new phase of the journey towards a paradigm shift.

I hope you’ll join us and form communities within your own towns, and plant these seeds of change. The time to begin is now.