Old Paradigm, New Paradigm

Paradigm has become a buzz word for theorists of the emerging world. The term, from the Greek paradeigma, means an example, a model, a pattern. People in business schools, in think tanks, in the White House, use paradigm as a sort of reality thresher -- a way of comparing past and present, an implement for sorting out history at a moment of tumbling global change. Paradigm is a buzz word that does not sing, of course, but never mind. Buzz words, being often tricky, insincere or brainless, are part of the Old Paradigm anyway.

The term paradigm, however, is useful, like...