In this essay I propose the creation of a new paradigm for the human being, which correctly aligned would allow us to break with the socio-cultural barriers that have led us for years to the self-destruction of the human being in favor of industrialization and the enrichment of a reduced group of human beings who have accumulated money to the detriment of the worst planetary economic crisis that the world is currently experiencing.
Paradigm is a sonorous word and today people use it freely to help them understand the nature of unexpected changes.
For Joel Arthur Barkeren in his book Paradigms the business of discovering the future, defines paradigm as «A set of rules and provisions (written or not) that does two things: establish or define limits, and indicate how to behave within such limits to have success, which is measured by the ability to solve problems ”(1996, p. 35).
In a sense, a paradigm indicates: (a) the existence of a game, (b) what it consists of and (c) how to play it successfully according to the established rules. A paradigm shift is, therefore, a shift towards a new game, a new set of rules. But more important than knowing these new rules is knowing what it was that led to the change; You don't have to wait for trends to develop, but look for the people who are messing with the rules, because that's the first sign of a major change.
When a paradigm changes, it establishes new conditions and assumptions that bring with them challenges and opportunities. The success of each person and organization will depend on understanding and adapting to the new paradigms. The theory of evolution suggests that the world is one of those that is best adapted to it, however, when you reach the extreme of specialization you run the risk that when the world changes it is doomed to disappear.
Paradigms establish rules of how things should be done, limiting people to think in established situations, they block our ability to observe the world as a whole and to look for alternatives by thinking in an unconventional way. A new paradigm appears when an excess of questions that go beyond the ordinary framework accumulates and the current paradigm cannot explain. Every new paradigm implies a principle that always existed but that until then nobody had recognized, it is inclusive.
A new paradigm requires turning and starting with a blank page, it is a radical transformation of the meaning of the prevailing rules until then, and when it explains what was murky and dark until then, it gradually gains ground. After some time this paradigm begins to have cracks and a new one arises, this repetitive process is called evolution.
We are entering a new era, we are moving from the paradigm of the industrial society to that of the knowledge society, where such knowledge (translated as value, technology, skill and opportunity) is and will be the source of wealth and competitive advantage for countries and the companies. The main function of the organization will be to make knowledge productive; that is, manage intelligence.
The changes of the paradigm and the reference to paradigm are fundamental assumptions and that are a framework of thought or a reference scheme to explain and understand certain aspects of reality.
Author Joel Arthur Barkeren says that "paradigms block our ability to observe the world as a whole and to seek alternatives by thinking unconventionally" (1996, p 43).
The problem of constant paradigm shifts lies in adapting to change, in that in order to use the new paradigm, the old one must be erased from the mind; otherwise, the old's ideas will contaminate those of the new. This refers to the fact that a new paradigm is to change the page and start with a blank page, a radical transformation of the meaning of the rules prevailing until now is essential.
Fortunately, human beings have the ability to mold themselves, to redesign themselves, to refine and adjust values and attitudes, to put selfishness aside for the collective good. The reasons for reflection are: human quality, ethics, unity, and reminding our friends of the mission that each one has pending.
Human Reengineering is the new concept of man in the search for excellence. To understand this philosophy, let's define keywords and briefly understand the concept.
- Human Reengineering: Process through which a mediocre person becomes a person of excellence.
The process begins with the analysis of the person's attitudes towards himself and others.
The foundations of human reengineering are: "values and ethics. " Recovering them is the basic base to build on our personality (way of being). Once the values of honesty and love of neighbor have been placed at the base, at the bottom, work begins on the forms.
But we must meditate why sometimes with knowledge of excellent techniques, we do not achieve the expected result and it is there that we remember what Michio Morishima said in his book "Why has" Japan triumphed "and points out:
“No country can progress without taking into account its own past, which conditions every line of development. The social sciences cannot neglect historical conditions. In other words, any social scientific thought that does not pay attention to history, even if it is effective as a first approximation to reality, in the long run can even become dangerous. Similarly, economic policies lacking in historical perspective are very risky. A policy that has been convenient for Japan could be unfeasible in another country and vice versa, due to the difference in mentalities and styles of behavior of the peoples, as well as in all the other cultural characteristics that both have inherited from their past. respective. "
Morishima, Michio, «Why Japan has« triumphed »», Economy and Business Series, Grupo Editorial Grijalbo, México, 1988, pp. 249-250.
As Morishima points out, a diagnosis that does not take into account historical circumstances, as is the case of the economists' diagnosis, may be effective as a first approximation to reality, but, in the long run, it can even be dangerous. To support this opinion I present some characteristics of the Japanese development model, pointed out by Morishima himself:
«In an economy and a society like the Japanese one, the industries considered as strategic for the country are protected and promoted with great care; On the other hand, those industries that, according to the authorities, do not offer any future prospects for development do not receive any help, nor are they provided capital, but are forced to fight alone. Well, this policy of concentrating economic growth on certain priorities, a policy of inequality by which the government, taking into account, of course, the opinions of industrialists, financiers and other people with proven knowledge and experience, selects strategic industries and it invigorates them while sacrificing others - it is the one that has continued in Japan after the war. "
Morishima, op. cit., p. 239.
In other words, Japan adopted a protectionist model, like those adopted by other Latin American nations. But why does Japan now have a Per Capita Domestic Product that is, in general terms, 10 times higher than that of some Latin American countries? Given these circumstances, it is essential for the country to explain why in Japan protectionism works and why not in others. To explain it, you have to go to the historical background of the towns and contrast with the Japanese. This is a job primarily for sociologists. Only if they are taken into account can a proper diagnosis be made of the failure of the stabilizing development model. Only in this way can the success of economic policies be guaranteed.
Studying the historical antecedents of a people means studying the evolution of its culture, understanding by culture the values and attitudes that a society instills in its people through various socializing mechanisms, such as, for example, the home, school, the Church., etc. As various authors have pointed out, the culture of a country, (much more than any other of the factors that influence development)it is the one that mainly explains, in most cases, why some countries develop more quickly and fairly than others. The cultural environment greatly influences the process through which leaders obtain their positions, the priorities they apply in creating policy lines, and the people, institutions, and practices they use to implement those policy lines.
Society's vision of the world is the source of its value systems and attitudes. This view is shaped by a set of influences including geography, economic organization, and the vagaries of history. The worldview and value systems are constantly changing, but usually at a very slow pace, measurable over decades or generations.
An important contribution to understand the vision of Latin Americans that, from my point of view, would also be applicable, in general terms, to Ecuadorians, is that of Lawrence E. Harrison. According to him:
«Human development is frustrated in the majority of Latin American countries (and in most Third World countries) by a way of seeing the world that prevents political pluralism, social equity and dynamic economic progress from being achieved. This way of seeing the world has been driven, without major deviations, by the momentum of the centuries. "
Harrison, Lawrence E., “Underdevelopment is in the mind. The Latin American case », Noriega Editores, México, 1989, p. 247.
This vision of Latin Americans would be, to a great extent, a heritage of Spanish culture. For the Spanish conquerors "government" meant arbitrary order that had to be blindly obeyed. The wealth was obtained through war and conquest; the work was for the slaves and trade for the Jews, who had just been expelled from the Peninsula.
López, José Ramón, "Peace in the Dominican Republic", p. 102, quoted in Harrison, Lawrence E., op. cit. p. 113.
The main defects of this world view would be:
- A totally inadequate educational system. A corrupt and abusive government. The indisputable power of the "boss." The corruption of public institutions. Lack of respect for the law. Lack of respect for human life. Unconscionable "individualism."
For Harrison, the creative capacity of human beings is at the heart of the development process. What produces development is our ability to imagine, theorize, conceptualize, experiment, invent, articulate, organize, manage, solve problems and do hundreds of other things with our minds and hands that contribute to the progress of the individual and humanity in general.. Natural resources, climate, geography, history, market size, government policy, and many other factors influence the direction and pace of progress. But the engine is human creative ability.
Harrison, op. cit., p. twenty.
There are seven ways in which the expression of human creative capacity is encouraged:
- By creating an environment in which people expect and receive fair treatment Through an effective and accessible educational system: one that provides basic intellectual and vocational tools, that nurtures curiosity, critical faculties, dissent and creativity, and by making it easier for people to solve problems by a health system that protects people from debilitating and killing diseases by stimulating experimentation and criticism by creating a medium that helps people to discover their talents and interests and to provide them with the right jobs. Through an incentive system that rewards merit and success (and, conversely, discourages nepotism and "corruption").By creating the stability and continuity that make it possible to plan ahead with confidence. Progress is made much more difficult by instability and discontinuity.
Therefore, according to Lawrence E. Harrison, they are of vital importance for development:
- The temporal focus of the world view (past, present and future). To what extent the world view stimulates rationality, and The concepts of equality and authority that it propagates.
Orientation towards the future implies the possibility of change and progress. That possibility, as Max Weber pointed out, must be achievable in this life. If worldview fosters the belief that human beings have the ability to know and understand the world around them, that the universe works according to a largely decipherable set of laws, and that the scientific method can unlock many secrets out of the unknown, you are clearly imparting a set of attitudes closely related to the ideas of progress and change.
On the other hand, the fundamental factors mentioned above greatly influence three other cultural factors that play an important role in the way society develops, which are:
1.- Attitudes towards work.
2.- The rigor of the ethical system.
3.- The breadth of identification with others.
For example, regarding the social consequences of widespread mistrust, Samuel Huntington points out:
- «… the absence of trust in the culture of society provides formidable obstacles to the creation of public institutions. Those societies lacking a stable and effective government also lack mutual trust among their citizens and in the skills and organizational capacity… In Latin America… traditions of self-centered individualism and of distrust and hatred against other groups in society have prevailed. »
Huntington, Samuel P., "Political order in changing societies", p. 28, quoted in Harrison, Lawrence E., op. cit. p. 28.
To draw up and organize a coherent program of cultural change that can work, it is necessary to identify those values and attitudes that stand in the way with those that need to be introduced or strengthened, which means a process of sincere national introspection that produces a whole of objectives to achieve cultural change.
The next step is to choose the means to use. Harrison proposes seven means, although he accepts the existence of others, which are:
- leadership, religious reform, education and instruction, mass media, development projects, administrative practices, and child-rearing practices.
Let's clarify that the forms are the methods, techniques, to achieve an objective, a goal, a mission. It is the use of motivation, preparation, work, study, commitment to achieve a goal, an objective and fulfill a mission.
Let's continue defining other concepts
- Attitude: Behavior or disposition of mind Reactive: Person who reacts impulsively to circumstances, so that others and circumstances decide his life Proactive: Person who has control and the last word to decide how he will react to circumstances; he places himself above the circumstances and does not allow himself to be carried away by the first impulses; is more cerebral and intelligent in his decision-making and in his reactions to others Mediocre: Person who has to do things with very little will, disposition Attitude of Excellence: Person who wants to do things with great will and the best disposition.Mission: Work to which a person is committed to achieve a task, a task, a duty, a job.Person of Excellence: It is a person with an attitude of excellence,Proactive and committed to a mission with solid bases in ethics. She is a person who uses forms as tools to achieve her goal.
The main mission of the human being is to provide and have well-being. Carry out a job that allows us to improve the quality of everyone, preventing the future with health and life insurance, obtaining a house where you can live with dignity, knowing that yours and your property are safe, having a retirement program that give peace of mind in old age and worry about others.
Let's make this mission our goal in life. Let's not lose sight of it. Let us be people of excellence committed to seeking the welfare of society where we all win.
Now let's conceptualize the ways to achieve a goal:
- Competitiveness: The objective of COMPETITIVENESS should be to promote fair and honest competition, where micro and small family businesses, the engine of the national economy, have the opportunity to be successful.
We must fight for the regulation of competition by sectors, and levels: regional, national, and international, basing it on professional ethics.
FAILURE TO DO SO, WE RUN THE RISK OF CREATING GLOBAL MONOPOLIES THAT EXTERMINES ANY COMPETITION IN THE NAME OF COMPETITIVENESS.
- Technology: The objective of developing technology should be to make life easier for man, to give him more time to develop other human aspects, such as sports, family life, reading, studying, the arts, recreation, etc.
WE DO NOT USE TECHNOLOGY TO SUBSTITUTE THE HUMAN RESOURCE FOR A MATERIAL. WE DO NOT USE TECHNOLOGY TO GENERATE UNEMPLOYMENT AND POVERTY. WE DO NOT LOSE THE HUMAN FACTOR, THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE HUMAN BEING. WE DON'T LOSE OUR GOALS ON THE ROAD.
- Knowledge: The power of man is that of knowledge, that of information. Through knowledge, education we will be able to fight for the above objectives, we will be able to fulfill our mission in life. Let's not lose sight of it.
Human reengineering invites a CHANGE OF CONSCIENCEwhich is the axis on which all work revolves and is essential to achieve change. When we speak of change of consciousness, we are referring above all to educating the great popular masses. Taking Freire, we can say that education is the only weapon we have to fight, it is the only thing that will give us true freedom. Education is not neutral, it responds to specific historical situations and prevailing economic conditions. The education that we propose should not be a mere reproduction of the foundations of the system; We aim at an education in which reality is invited to recognize and critically discover reality. This education does not refer only to the formal one, but to an education in all areas of life. Not only school education, but life education, guided mainly by their social environment, and if possible,with the example of the rulers. The education that has been implemented today has as a medium future the efficiency of the students in order to program them mechanically to fulfill economic functions mainly; this is what Freire calledDomestication. Education must be a means for the person to receive adequate training that allows the free execution of their rights, of their ideas, and it must be fundamentally a process in which the student is an active subject who has much to teach; This differs from our reality, where the learner is considered a mere empty and passive receiver, who must be "filled" with "knowledge." It should not be a curtailing education like the one we have today, which requires the fasting of dozens of teachers, symbolically representing the decline of our public school. An education is needed that encourages the consolidation of positions, that freely distributes a range of concepts that will later allow the formation of a critical position on various topics bordering on reality,An education that participates with biased conceptualizations that represent the interest of certain sectors is not necessary. It is time for us to realize that people are not sold or bought, it is better that we train intelligent, critical, idealistic, but also realistic people, people of whom we are sure that they had the sufficient range of knowledge that allow the correct guidance of the community. But these achievable desires must be accompanied by the effort of people interested in having their thoughts open to the entry of attitudes and skills, to liberating knowledge.it is better that we train intelligent, critical, idealistic, but also realistic people, people of whom we are sure that they have a sufficient range of knowledge to allow the correct guidance of the community. But these achievable desires must be accompanied by the effort of people interested in having their thoughts open to the entry of attitudes and skills, to liberating knowledge.it is better that we train intelligent, critical, idealistic, but also realistic people, people of whom we are sure that they have a sufficient range of knowledge to allow the correct guidance of the community. But these achievable desires must be accompanied by the effort of people interested in having their thoughts open to the entry of attitudes and skills, to liberating knowledge.
Let's contribute a grain of sand to the training of better citizens through a continuous education project that ranges from health and the environment to the economy, urban development. Only with information, knowledge and education will we be able to aspire to a fairer, more prosperous Ecuador where well-being reaches all families.
Let us have the courage to change the things we can change… the strength to accept the things we cannot change, and the wisdom to distinguish between the two.
This paradigm brings many reflections to mind, and I consider that two factors among others will be causal that prevent the application of this model. The first factor is fear, which prevents the human being from moving into the unknown, many times we prefer to cling to error, failure for fear that change will damage us, affect us, destroy us completely, our sense of survival many Sometimes reason and thought block us, we enter a phase of "mental coma" that neutralizes our vision and obscures our creativity.
There is no worse enemy to development than "Fear", "Fear", which generates in us "uncertainty" and "mistrust", which leads us to be incredulous, not to trust anyone or anything, having a society without illusions, without dreams, without hopes.
Another factor that I assume will be preponderant to prevent the application of this model is "pride", which prevents us from recognizing our mistakes, inflexibility to change, prevents us from rectifying our procedures and humbling ourselves to accept the correction. It creates an unreal image of self-sufficiency, of believing that we have the absolute truth, that I know everything but we invent it, but behind it it is only hidden, ignorance and petulance, intellectualism and erudition are nothing more than ornaments, a kind of mental ballet at best, which does not provide any practical solution to the real problems that happen to us in our daily lives.
What our world needs are practical men and women, powerful minds, pure and positive thoughts that give rise to a new way of life, a New Civilization. Cities fall, but are rebuilt, heroes die, but are remembered, there is no better time than today, now. There is no better reason for change than to start, rethink, relearn, creating a society that moves out of the nintendo culture and into the culture of reading. Let's create a counter culture that modifies the current "MATRIX" like the movie, where the environment, the economic forces, have generated an unreal world for us and that has manipulated our senses, where we only see what they want us to see, we say what that they want to hear, we do, what they want us to do.
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