ABSTRACT
Overdramatizing problems is a poor way to deal with them. Society is not really at a crossroads where it must choose between muddling through and optimal policymaking. There is no one intersection between these two avenues of social action that would permit either one of them to be chosen once and for all, and the problem to be definitely resolved. The real world is much more complex, dynamic, and difficult than that; its infinitude of problems are always scattered over a long time. Also, the distinction between different methods of public policymaking is not always very sharp in specific cases; there are usually many alternatives rather than a clearly dichotomous choice. Society's situation, therefore, is not much like being at a crossroads where two obvious highways both pose the need and provide the opportunity for one clear decision. Rather, society is in many ways moving in a wilderness; it must select some method for deciding which general direction it should go in, as far as the topographical conditions and the available resources permit, and must change its method and direction when the terrain or new circumstances so require.
