The ‘new normal’ is one of the buzz words that we hear every day and it has affected the lives of everyone in different ways and local educational consultant. Bruce Phillips has shared some of his views on this matter.
Phillips quotes futurist Joel Barker: “When a paradigm shifts, all goes back to zero,” meaning that when a major change occurs an old paradigm is no longer valid and one needs to rethink and start again.
According to Barker, when one is unable or not prepared for change then paradigm paralysis occurs due to the inability to move out of one’s perceived comfort zone. Paralysis has set in when we hear for example, people saying: “If it was good enough for my parents then it is good for me.” The pandemic which has swept the world has shifted the paradigms of what we used to call, ‘normal’ We now refer to a ‘new normal’ but we have no idea what it is and we continue to react in the same way we did before the shift, we have not moved on but are suffering from paradigm paralysis, Phillips reckons.
Phillips quotes Barker’s classic example of paralysis of the young man who is enjoying a drive on a country road and as he approaches a blind corner, a car appears driving on the wrong side and swerving and the lady behind the wheel is screaming and trying to tell him something. What the young man does not know is that the driver of the other car has just swerved across the road to avoid a large pig that has stationed itself in the road. The young man reacts according to a pre-existing paradigm:
“You drive like a crazy fool and I will react by yelling at you.” He winds down the window, shouts at the driver of the other car, turns the corner at speed and drives straight into the pig.
“While we certainly were and still are exhorted to “stay at home” by those who are “in charge” the world we live in is not (yet?) able to operate “robotically”.
Working from home may well reduce harmful emissions as we use our vehicles less and less, we may even have fewer accidents on our roads, home invasions would decrease as homes are no longer left vacant, and we can add to the list of positives. But the human psyche is not ready for the full negative impact of seclusion.
Draconian measures to enforce seclusion of family members (for purposes of compliance and or safety) often made by the paternalistic remnants of our society may well result in mental challenges, depression and relationship fragmentation,” Phillips explains.
According to Phillips, we meet across the miles via numerous platforms which allow us to communicate according to rules that are reliant on an invisible internet link which we do not understand but which dictates our lives. Not only do we use this more and more but we try to make it fit our normal paradigm, one where we spoke to each other, where we saw each other in 3D, where we could pick up on the nuances within facial expressions and voice intonations.
Has the chronological age of the reader anything to do with how you felt when you read this article, he finally asked.
Story: Barry Viljoen