{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.031018206338503034, 'fraction_numerical': 0.008091706001348618, 'mean_word_length': 4.936, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
The Spirit of Our Age: PA-think as Uncovering

PA-think has been inefficient, but not idle, in uncovering false assumptions in its own thinking. One such false assumption is that, with impunity, PA-think can avoid analyzing the spirit of our age. This PA (public administration) shortcoming in unveiling its own limitations makes governance not only more inefficient than it should be, but also makes it more vicious than we deserve. But it is an inefficiency shared by other social science and action subjects. Let Martin Heidegger be an inspiration, if you like, in his description of truth as an uncovering, as unveiling! Truth or aletheia, for him, is disclosedness. Let us try to uncover false assumptions, without being obligated to produce a one-minute recipe for the elimination of said assumptions. A first false assumption—the main discussion in this column—is that PA-think needn’t recognize the spirit of our age, illustrated below by claiming that PA should not avoid engaging the delusional mentality that is discussed by James Carroll (2006). A second false assumption is that PA-think can stick with business as usual, and this is illustrated here by pointing to the claim in Nisbett (2005) that social science thinking will be transformed by the increasing influence of East Asians. Illustrating that it’s not just PA-think that nourishes false assumptions, the third false assumption—appealing below to Amartya Sen (2005)—is that democracy is simply a Western gift.