“The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New World Disorder Constantly Surprises Us And What We Can Do About It” by Joshua Ramo investigates our current state of affairs and examines why in spite of our best efforts to solve our problems the situation is not improving. He challenges the false belief that there is a logical relationship between the power of states and the physics of change.

Part one of the book is based on the “sandpile effect.” Ramo presents a clear explanation of Per Bak’s thesis that after an initial period sand that is falling into a pile “would organize itself into instability in which adding just one grain of sand could trigger a large avalanche – or nothing at all.” Although the sand piles looked relatively stable they were actually quite unpredictable which he terms self organizing criticality. Ramo applies this principle to the world around us. We have seen this recently – consider the act of self-immolation in Tunisia which has touched off a fire storm in the middle-east.

Ramo is not only descriptive but also prescriptive in part two of his book. He emphasizes it’s going to take an new way of looking at the world around us and reinterpreting how we view those events. We need to be resilient by being prepared to face an unknown and uncertain future. A great danger we face is that we rely on what we can precisely measure giving us a false confidence that we truly understand; whereas there are a multitude of non-quantifiable variables that affect the outcome.

As l reflected upon this book it seems we need a healthy dose of humility coupled with an acknowledgment of the sovereignty of God. Take comfort in the fact that “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1).