The Paradigm Chooses the Researcher

Though we have talked about paradigm shift in the past, up until this week no one seems to have experienced one. This week was different. Until Tuesday evening we may have considered ourselves masters of our own fates and captains of our own souls, much as Henley's Invictus describes. Tuesday evening, we again brought our assumptions to terms.

Does it not seem more likely that, as researchers, we all audition for a part and that we are players on the academic stage, some for a performance of feminism and others for constructivism. It is not that the actors are either feminists or constructivist, but rather they play the part. Neither do the we decide which parts we will play, for that is at the discretion of the entity that casts the parts for the play. We are little more than actors on a stage, as Shakespeare said many years ago. Neither do we get a part because we choose to do so, but rather our life's narrative and pre-dispositions have prepared us for such a part. The only choice we really have is whether or not to audition, though I am not sure how much a choice herein lies. We were chosen for a job, we did not choose, we are at the beck and call of the paradigm, for it is the paradigm that chooses. The paradigm is the master of our fates and the captain of our souls, and the souls of those who went before us (Vachel, George, and Alicia). On the other hand, there have been those who have cheated fate and regained their souls, such as Faust, and there is one in out midst that has discovered the secrets of moksha.

Dave