Shifting Paradigms…

I went to lunch with Carman Pirie last week, he’s an advertising and marketing guy who’s trying to shake things up in the local industry. His baby is Closer to the Customer, is a three-stage marketing strategy that includes “Discovery” of the issues that need to be addressed for the client, followed by “Immersion” of the organization into the contexts in which their products are consumed… and then a “Harvest” of the information through “meaningful conversations”.

Carman is an interesting guy. He’s dedicated to his profession and has some pretty radical ideas to unleash on the marketing biz here in Halifax. But, from our conversations over the past few weeks, it seems as though he’s only able to take the idea so far.

But this blog is not just about marketing. This blog is about something larger.

The reason I bring up Carman, is because during our last interaction, the term “status quo” came up a lot. The marketing and advertising business has done a lot to shape and mold the “status quo.” I referred to the industry as a modern institution – an industry and culture that has bundled with it certain traditions and practices which have been effective in upholding the status quo. So before I go any further, I want to try to define what I mean by the status quo.

Corporate execs, politicians, academics and mainstream media uphold the status quo. These are all individuals who work within traditional frameworks of the economy, governance, education and culture. As such, these professionals have accountability to the institutions they serve… perhaps even more so than the people that they serve within their capacities… we’ll call them customers just to denote the fact that they consume the products and services within the institutions.

Certain customers still buy into the status quo. They spend their lives toiling away to reach the status quo, and they view their value as human beings in relation to how well they fit that status quo mold. I would argue, however, that more and more, people are waking up to the fact that achieving the status quo doesn’t necessarily mean what it used to… that is, they’ve deviated away from the path that the institutions have laid out before them and are more interested in individualizing their lifestyles.

For theoretical musings on the process of individualization in late-modern society, I recommend James Cote’s little known book called “Arrested Adulthood: The changing nature of maturation in society”

But what individualization of lifestyle can mean is more fragmentation of the status quo. Even for those who are only making individualizing choices within the pre-packaged lifestyles available… the abundance of choice in our current conditions, make the process of fragmentation of culture and values accelerate… so much so that it is really very hard to identify the status quo anymore.

All of this to eventually say that if the institutions in our society want to remain relevant, they must start fragmenting themselves… they must start recognizing that the individuals that they serve… the customers… are no longer interested in single path trajectories… because there are no longer single identifiable points of arrival.

The situation we find ourselves in right now is one where customers are turning their backs on the traditional… because the traditional no longer fulfills their needs and they are finding ways around the traditional… in some cases, cutting the institution out all together.

Some of those operating within the traditional institutions are starting to wake up. However, it’s scary deviating away from the paradigms you have come to depend on. There is a lot of risk involved in attempting to shift paradigms.

The band Radiohead is the perfect current example of this risk-taking. A phenomenally popular band whose contract with EMI has recently expired. They’ve decided to release their latest cultural offering “In Rainbow” independently… to their fans directly. If you haven’t heard of this yet, I suggest you pay attention, because I think this Radiohead thing marks the final nail in the Recording Industry’s coffin.

The beauty of what Radiohead is doing… the huge risk that they have taken… is that they are offering their new album on a pay-what-you-can basis. “No seriously”, they say as the user continues through the order process. And Radiohead’s fans have rewarded them accordingly for this option, as “In Rainbows” is set to become Radioheads most successful release, in terms of finances.

The interesting thing, and the thing that I think many of those want-to-be paradigm shifters need to pay attention to in this lesson of new… is that Radiohead had to leave the comforts and confines of the status quo to make this possible. There is no way that they could do this confined to the heavy regulations of the Recording Industry. The best way to break the mold was by smashing it to pieces.

Listen… the potential for change is ripe right now. Taking risks for change is what it’s all about. Some risks will end in humiliation and failure, it’s true… but those ones that hit… will be thoroughly impacting.

Instant Karma’s gonna getcha?

In a sense Buddhism is the only world religion capable of helping the world achieve peace. Its fundamental teaching is that all things are Buddhas- not men alone but all things, sentient and non-sentient. And not merely the earth, but the other planets as well. Universal peace will be realized when men all over the world bow to the preciousness and sacredness of everything.” - Tenzan Yasuda

When certain world events of tragic proportions occur, those people who pay attention and care start to scramble around and figure out what they, as individuals, can do to alleviate their feelings of empathetic suffering. Some people send money, some wear little plastic bracelets, some actually are moved to go to ground zero to offer direct assistance… sometimes these gestures, regardless of their perceived value from those who believe that all is hopeless and lost, are more helpful for those who are acting rather than those who are suffering… providing slight amounts of relief from helplessness. I suspect that this blog… these blogs… these bloggers, who have opted to participate in the Free Burma Blog Day, are doing so to feel as if they are at least doing something…

Of all the world’s religions, I think that I come the closest to practicing Buddhism in my daily life. Not that I actively alter my behaviour or thought processes to adhere to Buddhist doctrine, but when I read Buddhist doctrine I find my self nodding and “mmm-hmm”ing more so than when I read, say Christian doctrine. I take comfort in the interconnectedness of all things, in the devaluation of the past and future, and in the notion of Karma.

But it must be hard to still believe in Karma after 16 years of oppression, after genocide, after tyranny.

On a global political scale, it seems unbalanced. It seems that the negative deeds present themselves as atrocities, and the counterbalancing positive ones as small victories. Perhaps my own personal belief that society is on the verge* of collapse is rooted in my belief that Karma is a great and balancing force of the universe. How can all of these injustices not go without retribution? If Karma is a metaphysical law, when will we start to see the evildoers in this world get their comeuppance?

And it would seem that only metaphysical law will help in this situation because there are no indications that earthly justice will prevail. No external intervention from the West, save for economic sanctions… which may, in fact exacerbate the problem as the brunt of such an intervention will hurt the citizens who are already hurting the most.

I try to be an optimistic person, but it is hard not to succumb to helplessness and anger in times like these. Democracy and social justice… and I mean real democracy and social justice… seems so far away from the reality we find ourselves in today. When will stability and peace come for those in Burma… in Iraq, in Darfur, in Afghanistan?

When will the Karmic Wheel start spinning a little more evenly? When will we see those who have caused so much pain and suffering start to experience the same magnitudes of pain and suffering that they have inflicted? When indeed?

How heal the phantom body of its phantom ill,
Which started in the womb?
Unless you pluck a medicine from the Bodhi-tree
The sense of karma will destroy you.

- Tesshu