Break the paradigm...!

The paradigm which we live in. 

Has seen many shifts in history. But unfortunately the sad part is that,

To see such a paradigm shift in society it takes way too much long time to notice that shift.

Simply because of the stubborn human behaviour.

A paradigm is a description of the world of human behaviour. Paradigms are broad viewpoints or perspectives of society.

On these paradigms people live their life without even questioning and realising things that needs to be question.

So when time to time, some extra ordinary individuals questioned the paradigm . In result, They have been killed or neglected in such a way, that their questions and the explanations died in vain.

The paradigm that which we live in ,can be seen on the individual level i.e  the smallest unit of society. And also can be seen as  the largest unit of society and world.

There are several examples of stubborn human behaviour which have lead the society to keep living hundreds of more year in the wrong description of world around us.

I will share some examples from the history that has justified the stubborn human behaviour.

If some of you people are aware of Socrates and his tragedy then you can understand the examples easily.

Socrates(469-399 B.C), he was a Greek philosopher, and viewed as the founding figure of western philosophy.

His style of teaching involved not conveying knowledge, but rather asking question after clarifying question until his students arrived at their own understanding. His most notable student was Plato himself.

The irony of Socrates, that he was accused of corrupting the youth of Athens and sentenced to death.

He is also best known for drinking a cup of poison hemlock as his death sentence.

Socrates is guilty of crime in refusing to recognise the gods acknowledged by the state, and Imputing strange divinities of his own.

Socrates's thought ,the gods were Omniscient,that the gods were aware of all the things that are said and done, and even things thought about by humans.

He questioned every single man who he met. And sowed the seed of questioning and doubting among the young.

And finally by corrupting the young ,

Socrates was accused of encouraging his students to follow the path he had chosen.

The one that led him into trouble with the radical democracy of the time.

Although he never outright rejected the standard athenian view of religion,

Socrates'beliefs were nonconformist. He often referred to God rather than gods,and reported being guided by an inner divine voice.

He was condemned on the basis of his thought and teachings. In “the apology of Socrates”,

Plato recounts him mounting a spirited defence of his virtue before the jury ,but calmly accepting their verdict.

It was in court that socrates allegedly uttered the now famous phrase

 “the unexamined life is not worth leaving”.

On his last day, Plato says, he

“appeared both happy in manner and words as he died Nobly and without fear”He drank the cup of brewed hemlock that his executioner  handed him, walked around until his legs got numb and then lay down, surrounded by his friends, and waited for the poison to reach his heart.

My second example is going to be Galileo Galilei.

Galileo was also a victim of stubborn human behaviour.

If you heard of Galileo Galilei, then you must know that he was the  first person to use the telescope in such a systematic way to observe the celestial bodies.

Galileo was ordered to turn himself into the holy office to begin trial for holding the belief that“ the Earth revolves around the sun”, which was deemed heterodox by the catholic Church.

Galileo was in the hot seat for refusing to accept Church orthodoxy that the “Earth was the immovable centre of the universe.”

In 1616, he had been forbidden from holding or defending his beliefs.

The Church has decided the idea that the sun moved around the earth was an absolute fact of scripture that could not be disputed, despite the fact that scientist had known for centuries that the Earth was not the centre of the universe.

The church handed down the following order

We pronounce, judge and declare, that you, decide Galileo have rendered yourself vehemently suspected by this Holy office of heresy, that is, of having believed and held the doctrine that the sun is the centre of earth, that it does not move from east to west, and that the earth does not move, and is not the centre of the world.

In simple words church had just denied the truth of the universe.

And further ordered that his work and the book of dialogues of Galileo Galilei be prohibited.

Galileo agreed not to teach the heresy anymore and spent the rest of his life under house arrest.

The funniest part is that,

it took more than 300 years for the church to admit that Galileo was right and to clear his name of heresy.

 

This is the tyranny of stubborn human behaviour or pradigm which we live in,

The perspective of living by the already decided ways. And stubbornly staying on them, refusing all the shifts and neglecting so many philosopher like that,

I wonder how much behind we are in this present time.

One should break the paradigm on the individual level first , then on the community level.

And see the other side of “ way of living”.