[rwwff]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'I') always thought it funny how John Galt and his buddies ran off and started a commune in the mountains. Of course Rand stressed they were a little island of perfect capitalism each on their own small plot contributing to the group each in their own way, taking no more than they contributed.

Looked like an Eco-village to me tho ;^)

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('rwwff', 'N')ot a hippy though!!

[BigTex]

Remember, though, that the captains of industry in Atlas Shrugged bugged out to show the world that it could not function without them. What we are saying today is that if the captains of industry bugged out it would be a good thing because the relentless and mindless consumption might slow down a little bit.

Same bugout, but entirely different context.

The idea of a bunch of CEOs and other executives living in a commune working as blacksmiths, cobblers, etc. is actually a pretty funny image. I'm imagining Michael Eisner pounding an anvil, Bill Gates making shoes, Ted Turner could be the sherriff. I'm sure that would be a REAL cooperative setup.

[galacticsurfer]

wikipedia's definition and history of concept paradigm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradigm

Paradigm shifts tend to be most dramatic where they are least expected, as in Physics. At the end of the 19th century, physics seemed to be a discipline filling in the last few details of a largely worked-out system. In 1900, Lord Kelvin famously stated, "There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement." Five years later, Albert Einstein published his paper on special relativity, which challenged the very simple set of rules laid down by Newtonian mechanics, which had been used to describe force and motion for over three hundred years. In this case, the new paradigm reduces the old to a special case (Newtonian mechanics is an excellent approximation for speeds that are slow compared to the speed of light).

In The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Kuhn wrote that "Successive transition from one paradigm to another via revolution is the usual developmental pattern of mature science." (p.12) Kuhn's idea was itself revolutionary in its time, as it caused a major change in the way that academics talk about science. Thus, it caused or was itself part of a "paradigm shift" in the history and sociology of science.

Philosophers and historians of science, including Kuhn himself, ultimately accepted a modified version of Kuhn's model, which synthesizes his original view with the gradualist model that preceded it. Kuhn's original model is now generally seen as too limited.

Probably the most common use of the word paradigm is in the sense of Weltanschauung. For example, in social science, the term is used to describe the set of experiences, beliefs and values that affect the way an individual perceives reality and responds to that perception. Social scientists have adopted the Kuhnian phrase "paradigm shift" to denote a change in how a given society goes about organizing and understanding reality. A “Dominant Paradigm” refers to the values, or system of thought, in a society that are most standard and widely held at a given time. Dominant paradigms are shaped both by the community’s cultural background and by the context of the historical moment. The following are conditions that facilitate a system of thought to become an accepted dominant paradigm:

1)Professional organizations that give legitimacy to the paradigm
2)Dynamic leaders who introduce and purport the paradigm
3)Journals and editors who write about the system of thought.
They both disseminate the information essential to the paradigm and give the paradigm legitimacy
4)Government agencies who give credence to the paradigm
5)Educators who propagate the paradigm’s ideas by teaching it to students
6)Conferences conducted that are devoted to discussing ideas central to the paradigm
7)Media coverage
Lay groups, or groups based around the concerns of lay persons, that embrace the beliefs central to the paradigm
Sources of funding to further research on the paradigm

So according to the article basically the idea of paradigm shift seems to start in the scientific arena and spread outwards to lay people-(Newton and Einstein started biggest changes in Paradigm in this sense or Darwin for example).

An individual can take the Red pill or the blue pill as in Matrix films but the recognition of the paradigm starts with an original genius. Once the "genie is out of the box" it cannot be put back in. Fire has been with us for a million years or hand tools for example. What are the limits and consequences of the new paradigm for us?
Is it a powerdown/limits to growth scenario or ultimately a dieoff scenario?

Maybe we must just be humble and learn we are not God. Our fancy machines are just using stored energy of millions of years. We still rely on Mother Nature as before when it is gone and have no more "savings", bar the perpetual motion machine/zero point energy. I think the scientific revolution was a Pandora's box of the worst sort. GM food, nukes, chemicals(not to mention CO2 and methane gases) could kill us all in the end.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora

Pandora was created to ruin mankind.

Until then, mankind had lived a life in a paradise without worry. Epimetheus told Pandora never to open the jar she had received from Zeus. However, Pandora's curiosity got the better of her and she opened it, releasing all the misfortunes of mankind (plague, sorrow, poverty, crime, despair, greed, vice, old age, sickness, insanity, spite, passion, famine, etc.). Once opened, she shut it in time to keep one thing in the jar: hope 1. The world remained extremely bleak for an unspecified interval, until Pandora "chanced" to revisit the box again, at which point Hope fluttered out. Thus, mankind always has hope in times of evil.

Perhaps however there is hope as in the greek myth.