Can an ambivalence be detected in pronouncements on societal change that are made by some public administrators and social commentators? The first aspect of the ambivalence consists in assertions that we are in a time of fundamental change in the context of public administration practice and thinking; declarations are often heard that a "sea change" is occurring in the cultural, social, political, and economic contexts. The second and conflicting aspect of the ambivalence is an insistence that public administrators should continue to think, to evaluate, and to judge on a business-as-usual basis. It is as if a group of medieval knights, anticipating the dawn of modernity, had attempted to guess about the prospects for the coming age; they would have misguessed if they had anticipated trends within the context of feudalism (e.g., forecasting the advent of even bigger horses and even longer lances). Deconstruction is a resource that denies NSCIMBY: no sea change in my back yard.