CONTINUITY
It seems to me that a lot of the current talk about a post modern paradigm shift are over stated. No doubt that our culture has bought into a lot of the post modern values but in retrospect that has been happening for decades. The emerging generation is just a little more vocal about it.

Claims of a new paradigm point to an American cultural bias -- to over-emphasize discontinuity with the past. We're culturally bias toward the new and each new generation is prone to convince themselves that they are extremely important because they are totally reinventing the culture. In the 60's we were implementing a "revolution" -- the dawning of the Age of Aquarius. In the 80's we were bringing in a new conservatism. I’m not saying that there were not significant changes -- only that the over-all importance of those changes tends to be overstated -- or overestimated by those involved.

Indeed the pace of change has accelerated. But if you step back and listen to our rhetoric it sounds as though we think that we've reinvented human nature.