Western civilisation is teetering on the brink of indignity. Contempt for living things, for non-living things, and for otherness itself, has been elevated to the status of a science and a cultural norm. Many individuals and groups are working to correct this course and to experiment with alternative ways of living together that show greater respect for both humanity and nature. Most place their hope in the future, through education, morality, reason and goodwill. This is one aspect of the problem. Not that we should despair or cease to act, but we must now ask ourselves about the nature of these transformations, and what does or does not constitute radical subversion. Indeed, it is a matter of opening ourselves up to the invention of a new kind of human being rather than persisting with the counterproductive improvement of the old world.
This essay sets out to examine and challenge the contemporary cultural constants buried in the noospheric subconscious: the paradigms. Paradigms are systems of ideas that govern the development of knowledge and the application of morality. They are embedded in meta-paradigms of a metaphysical and mythological nature – the narratives that a civilisation tells itself about itself. Paradigms determine automatic patterns in thought, ways of being in the world, and modes of relating, confining actions to a ceaseless repetition of symptomatic solutions lacking any real transformative power. The change we need to bring about is no longer a cultural one, but an anthropological one.
Most people place their hopes in the future, whilst paradoxically believing that evil is an inevitable part of human nature. The good news is that this is not true, provided we are willing to delve deep into the socio-cognitive heritage that constitutes our contemporary mythology, with its two equivalent variants of mythological narrative: the deist and the scientistic.
Essay, 148 pages A5 (french)
ISBN 978-2-9595173-3-4
PDF document available to download for €18,00
(VAT not applicable – Article 293 B of the French General Tax Code)