It is perhaps all too easy to perceive a
sea-change in perception when the reality of societal change is much more
gradual. There is something to the argument that John D. Rockefeller’s
reputation was salvaged in the 1930s not because the old man was passing out
dimes, but, rather, simply because he had outlived his critics. Similarly,
Thomas Kuhn, in his text on paradigm changes in scientific revolutions, bemoans
that the advocates of a default theory must finally die off before their
darling can finally be replaced by a new one. In other words, any given person
is not apt to shift paradigms. The culprit, I suspect, is pride, which
Augustine suggests in his writings is inherently self-idolatrous. I believe the
human brain is capable of accepting inter-paradigmatic change, just as a person
can be humble. That this is not the norm does not mean that we ought not raise
our expectations to it.
