Definitely interesting and (usually) refreshing to hear your views, even if I don't always agree with them. It'll go up on Fragments as your last blog post of the decade.

Interesting to hear your views at the start of 2010.

1. I think the time has come to differentiate between "good governance" and "democracy". The former can be viewed as the aim and end-state which can be measured, whereas the latter is one means-by. The so called democratic systems we have today (e.g. UK, USA, Canada, Singapore, Australia etc) appear to work reasonably well according to a cultural fit within their local contexts (assuming we often ignore the indigenous minority views). However, I'm not sure this form of parliamentary democracy can be transplanted to all situations. Putin's Russia may be the best of all possible worlds/outcomes for them at this time. Same with China or Venezuela where Hugo Chavez views stronger indigenous cultural links as underpinning his 21st Century Socialism programme.

2. I don't think systems thinking can be wholly dismissed. In any case, I don't think it is being used to any great extent beyond the engineering levels, and certainly not in economics or finance it would seem. Systems thinking looks at 'how', more than 'why?'. And like the word "sustainable" the concept and label is being used/abused to cover a whole multitude of non-systems thinking based activities. But I agree, in addition to the systems paradigm there needs to be your narrative-oral based paradigm and an effective means to manage the biases between the two. Our very systemic world, where the trains/planes run/fly on time (well generally in most advanced economies ignoring the vagaries of the weather, stock-market and non-exploding underwear!), seems to need more 'objectively' from counterpoint perspectives. How many are there, and are needed, for good governance at the personal, social and political levels? I'd like to know more about your distinctions between networks and nodes etc and how they emerge (i.e. from the other &/or the environment) and interact? What are the organising principles for sustainable networks beyond human scale development? Is there any substitute for ethics in good governance systems and are these universal across time and space?

3. I think you are correct in seeing the next decade as pivitol for transformational change. I am also an optimist at heart and pockets of human civilisation will survive the climate change (warming or freezing) scenarios: but I also take Lovelock's views seriously on the likelihood of a major cull -- the question is will it be evenly spread, and if not, what are the high impact/risk areas and demographics? These will be some of the serious questions for the next decade imo. Without radical change, we'll reach the Easter Island scenario long before the big melt-down or ice age arrives.