Certain problems are proving intractable - climate change; an ageing population; long-term chronic diseases; economic inequality.
Britons today remain beset by complex, intractable problems: technological change displaces workers; globalisation destabilises communities; family structures are disintegrating.
But in the two sets of cell-phone videos, taken five years apart, there are reasons to believe that, even in an atmosphere of cynicism and mistrust, seemingly intractable dynamics can change.
In no other realm was he so susceptible to pressure, nor was he faced with such intractable resistance to change (not least of it from his wealthy, self-interested wife).
However, for almost a decade Sinn Féin had been patently trying to build a peace process and unfolding events on the world stage – including the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany, and the release of Mandela – were evidence that governments, and apparently intractable situations, could change.
He concludes that if such an alternative care plan showed no further change, intractable SE described in the clinical scenario would indicate moving to a palliative care plan.
Randi Weingarten, president of the teachers' union, said she supported Mr. Levy's efforts to streamline the disciplinary process, and educational experts applauded the move for demonstrating how problems long viewed as intractable can be changed through strong management.
But the forces feeding the resistance to change remain intractable.
At the time many said it couldn't be done: governments can't change deep, intractable cultural mores.
But turning $100 million — actually, $200 million, presuming the mayor manages to raise the matching funds Mr. Zuckerberg required — into transformational change amid intractable problems may not be as much fun as it sounds.
