3 – Love & Wisdom vs. Postmodern Power: Wisdom Paradigm Part 1

With all the wealth and education and technology that we have today, why does life feel disorienting and confusing?

Why are supposedly smart people saying and doing things that are absurd and contradictory?

Why do we feel like basic morality has collapsed and we’re headed the wrong direction?

Welcome back for the third blog in a series that tells the story of how we got into this mess and how we can get out of it.

As we discussed in earlier blogs, the confusion and disorientation we are feeling are big-time indicators that we are in the wrong place headed the wrong direction.

The collapse of morality? Important people saying absurd things? A dramatic increase in depression and suicide? More obvious signs that we’re in the wrong place headed the wrong way.

We drifted off-course somewhere, and life and society have slowly broken down ever since.

We’re looking at life the wrong way. We’re disoriented. We need to find our anchor points and get back on course.

Let’s find the best way to understand life—let’s find the Truth about life—so we can pursue Happiness and thrive.

So, what was our original course? What was the original paradigm—the original way of understanding life—that we drifted from?

The Wisdom Paradigm.

The more you know the Wisdom Paradigm, the better you will understand life, and the happier and more successful you will be.

The Wisdom Paradigm is the basic way that people have understood life for thousands of years. It is common to all the world’s great philosophies and religions.

Here are the basics of the Wisdom Paradigm:

We all have the same human nature. Times change, technology changes, but human nature has stayed the same through cultures and history
We all have the same purpose in life: Happiness. Happiness is the fulfillment of our human nature, it’s our purpose, our destination in life.
Happiness comes from having good relationships.
Our lives are our unique stories of pursuing Happiness. Happiness is our destination in life. Reason tells us how to get there.
Our relationships can only be as good as we are, so become a good person with good character. Practice virtues like love, courage and wisdom until they become who you are.

The Wisdom Paradigm
The Wisdom Paradigm has been around for thousands of years. At its core, the Wisdom Paradigm is based on the idea that we all have the same human nature and therefore the same purpose in life—Happiness.

Happiness simply is the fulfillment of our human nature.

Looking back in history, no matter what culture or time period, we can see that human nature doesn’t change.

That’s why we all understand things like love, fear, courage, and joy largely the same way no matter our culture, ethnicity or time. The fact that we have the same human nature, the same concerns about life and death, and family, is what unites us as one humanity across cultures and time.

While our DNA is what makes us homo sapiens, it is our shared human nature that makes us all human.

We can read Shakespeare today because, 400 years after his death, what he said about love, betrayal, humor and ambition remains wise and relevant to us.

King David wrote the Psalms 3,000 years ago as a reflection on the challenges, achievements and joys of his life. We read them today because we find their wisdom and guidance valuable even though we live in a completely different culture and time.

Confucius wrote The Analects 2,500 years ago in a distant culture and time. We read them because they contain valuable insights into human nature and life that apply today.

Even when we go back 4,000 years to the most ancient written story we have—the Epic of Gilgamesh—we can relate to Gilgamesh’s experience of brotherhood, love, meaning in life, and mortality. Why can we do that? Because Gilgamesh shares the same human nature with us. Because human nature is timeless.

In the Wisdom Paradigm, times change and cultures change,