Alex Clark: Choice Topic 3: root paradigms

Root paradigms are something that we did not discuss much in class, but that looked very interesting to me. Turner defines them as “certain consciously recognized (though not consciously grasped) cultural models for behavior that exist in the heads of the main actors in a social drama, whether in a small group or on the stage of history” (p. 249). I take this to mean that root paradigms are the deep-seeded thoughts or beliefs in an individual or group that drive them, typically in a positive direction. Turner says the reach into the existential domain and take hold on matters of life and death. These paradigms come alive at life crises and are uncontrollable, having been too deeply instilled to change within the moments that they are active. The best way for me to display my interpretation of root paradigms is through examples. In the film The Dark Knight, the Joker puts explosives on two distantly separated boats, with prisoners on one boat and civilians on the other. Each boat is given a remote that will blow up the other boat if activated, ensuring the safety of the boat’s members that activated their remote. The groups are given sixty minutes before both boats blow up. After much argument, both groups make the decision to not blow up the other boat. One prisoner goes so far as to offer to do what should have been done from the beginning, and throws the remote out the window. To me this displays root paradigm. In a matter of literal life and death, ordinary civilians and hardened criminals both resort to something deep inside themselves that is good, that refuses to allow its host to selfishly kill. Despite some individuals instincts and desires, the situation went past cognitive, past moral, and into a realm that ruled over it all, into root paradigm.