| Abstract: | An unprecedented rate of change is rapidly outdating traditional modes of policy thinking. New orientations are needed to deal with the growing interaction between global pragmatics which encompass emerging trends that diverge radically from anything previously experienced and intractable problems that do not respond to conventional solutions and future problematics which arise from the nature of the future and paradoxes underlying futures oriented thinking. Current policy thinking suffers from many incapacities and should give way to the search for a new holistic paradigm based on the twin propositions that the properties of the parts can only be understood through an understanding of the dynamics of the whole and that the dynamics of the whole may be greater than the summation of the parts. Several suggestions are made where to make a start. The new policy thinking must provide a common meaning, purpose and sense of direction. It must be anticipatory, considering both the probable and the improbable, looking both backwards and forwards. It must be crisis-prepared, innovative, multi-dimensional and capable of handling adversity, uncertainty, and complexity. Other components of governance must also be improved lest an oversized head develop on an undersized body. Meantime, hope is placed in a new type of learning that would allow for living with past mistakes and failures without being overwhelmed, one that would allow for change, perception, problem reformulation, unlearning and even debunking. It would involve questioning the appropriateness of ultimate purposes and goals, selecting new replacements, and identifying new means for achieving them. |
