David Peat

152 From Certainty to UncertaintyWhen a social or natural system malfunctions this can sometimesbe traced to a fault in a particular aspect. More often it is a deficit of theentire system. Take, for example, the human body. Falling and breakingan arm or leg appears at first sight analogous to a defect within amachine—we can no longer walk, or lift things, because of a defectivecomponent. On the other hand this failure may be an expression of along-term defect in the entire system. The leg may have broken becauseof osteoporosis—a lack of calcium in the bones. This could bethe result of a faulty diet, but is most probably a calcium deficiencyresulting from the body’s metabolic changes caused by aging. Or a personcould have fallen because he was preoccupied and did not noticewhere he was going, or because he had been drinking in an attempt torelieve a high level of stress. In turn, people’s jobs and the need to makemore money to support a particular lifestyle produce such stress. Andso the failure of a particular component ends up being connected tomany other factors and meanings.When a group of people is exposed to the same virus some becomequite ill, some experience a couple of days of tiredness and slightfever, and others notice nothing untoward. Why is this? Why do somepeople become ill and others remain well? Issues of the effectiveness ofthe immune system touch on a wide variety of factors: on the negativeside, stress, lifestyle, and exposure to low levels of contaminants in theenvironment; on the positive, the ability to laugh, a life full of meaning,a deep interest in friends and relations, and a feeling of somethingpositive to aim for in life. In a wider sense the health of the immunesystem becomes embedded in our work, family, and the values andstructure of our entire society.In turn, what applies to the human body and the life of the individualalso applies to a society and an environment. When problemssurface, the causes may be complex and interlocking. In so many casesthey depend upon levels of meaning and contexts.Chaos theory tells us that we may not always be able to “control”or “fix” a particular situation. We know that some systems are highlyresistant to change. Others may be oversensitive so that a small interactionmay flip the system in unpredictable ways. Rather than seeingsuch systems in mechanical terms it would be more effective to feel out