GLOBAL DILEMMAS AND THE PLAUSIBILITY OF WHOLE-SYSTEM CHANGE

Approaching the global dilemmas of our time with whole-system thinking implies that the much-talked-about problems of environmental degradat ion, deforestation, desertification, man-made climate change, chronic hunger and poverty, etc. are not so much problems as symptoms of a dee per-level condition that must be dealt with. This has to do with the b asic incompatibility between widely proclaimed goals and underlying sy stem assumptions. Pressures toward whole-system change are increasing in intensity. The critical issue is whether that change can be smooth and nondisruptive, or whether it will involve some disintegration of p resent structures. Constructive interventions are discussed.