Abstract

The unprecedented changes brought about by modern technology have produced radical developments in human societies of the contemporary world. So much so that things seem to be getting out of hand and human control over the course of events appears to be increasingly difficult. It may be that in a haphazard way, people have created a monster of gigantic proportions who has taken an independent existence and is growing by its own momentum.

Even if this picture is somewhat exaggerated, it contains the problematique of our times and reflects the frustration of many people in dealing with it. Evidently, the world has become a complex and volatile system which is straining our capacities to understand and control it. We consider it axiomatic that this interdependent and interacting world is a system; somewhat loose and disorderly, but a system nonetheless. This means that there is an underlying pattern to what is going on in the world; a pattern which inter-relates and explains its disparate components and the events they produce.