Newsletter #121 — June 5, 2023
Colleague Activities
Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.
- Making Collaborative Democracy Work
The Ohio State University's Divided Community Project's Virtual Toolkit — This toolkit is designed to support community leaders as they identify and address issues tearing at the social fabric of their respective communities with materials for on-campus and off-campus audiences. - Crime / Policing / Guns
Restorative Movement Building — A short discussion of what "restorative movements" are, how they are built, and why they are powerful, along with 11 annotated links to further readings. - Saving Democracy
ACTIVATING KEY PILLARS: Combatting Authoritarianism to Uphold Democracy in the United States — A description of how key institutional pillars, notably business, faith, and media, can incentivize pro-democratic behavior and discourage authoritarian behavior at the state and federal levels. - Theories of Change
What does theory of change have to do with justice and peace? — An explanation of what "theories of change" are, and why they are useful. - Constructive Communication
AMERICA'S DIVIDED MIND | Video Intervention — This video is an attempt to correct partisan misperceptions and create a space for Americans to cooperate to address the major challenges we share. - Left / Right Conflict
Finding Common Ground on Election Reform — Free and fair elections are at the cornerstone of our democracy, yet many Americans feel disenfranchised about their ability to cast a ballot. Can we reach agreement on how to fix that? - Overcoming Hate-Mongering Efforts
How to Encourage Civility From Politicians? Give Them a Score — The Dignity Index encourages everyone, politicians and others, to check their speech and consider whether it dignifies or degrades those they see as political opponents.
Beyond Intractability in Context
From around the web, more insight into the nature of our conflict problems, limits of business-as-usual thinking, and things people are doing to try to make things better.
- Saving Democracy
Our Weaponized Legal System Misfires — A must-read article explaining "lawfare" and how both parties are abusing the legal system in ways that constitute one of the most serious threats to democracy. - Big Picture Thinking Projects
You Are Not Destined to Live in Quiet Times — An especially perceptive, big-picture essay that places the time it which we are now living into the broader context of human history (while also helping us make sense of it all). - Saving Democracy
The Left’s War on the Rule of Law — An argument that the left is attempting to advance its political agenda by undermining the democratic institutions that it claims to be defending. - Big Picture Thinking Projects
Our Singular Century — Thoughtful contemplation about the great breaks in history – when the past suddenly becomes a much less valuable guide to the future (and the fact that we are living through a series of such breaks). - Social Complexity
Is This the End of Recycling? — An explanation of the serious challenges now facing recycling programs and why we need to move beyond feel-good programs that don't really deliver on their promised benefits. - Class Inequity
The Billionaires Who Are Threatening Democracy — Important detail on how, exactly, the super wealthy exert their influence and undermine democratic institutions. - Cancel Culture
Collective Guilt is the Most Indefensible Form of Cancel Culture — A look at how the "cancel culture" embraces a kind of collective punishment that, in other contexts, is seen as a serious human rights violation. - Theories of Change
Who Bends History? — At a time when we would like to think that the "arc of history" bends towards justice, a provocative essay exploring exactly how history gets "bent." - Left / Right Conflict
Where Is the Electoral Payoff to Progressivism? — A provocative look at whether the progressive agenda is, in fact, a winning political strategy. - De-Escalation Strategies
Cable News Viewers Aren’t as Extreme as You Might Think — An essay that does something genuinely useful – break down unrealistic and inflammatory stereotypes. - Large-Scale Violence
The United States Needs a Moonshot to Prevent Extremism from Metastasizing — From the RAND Corporation (and the military-industrial complex), an overview of the latest thinking on strategies for combating extremism. - Left / Right Conflict
If No Labels Pushes a ‘Unity Candidate,’ Expect a ‘Trainwreck,’ Group’s Allies Say — An update for those who have been following (with hope and/or trepidation) plans for a more moderate, third-party Presidential campaign. - Climate Change
Climate Change and Disaster Losses — A look at what one needs to consider if one wants to rigorously assess the impacts of climate change (and allocate scarce resources wisely). - De-Escalation Strategies
The Promise (and Peril) of Anti-Wokeness — A thought-provoking essay exploring ways of thinking about (but not being consumed by) things that make you angry. - Social Complexity
Second Order Thinking — A lighthearted look at a very serious topic -- the importance of "downside" planning.
Please Contribute Your Ideas To This Discussion!
In order to prevent bots, spammers, and other malicious content, we are asking contributors to send their contributions to us directly. If your idea is short, with simple formatting, you can put it directly in the contact box. However, the contact form does not allow attachments. So if you are contributing a longer article, with formatting beyond simple paragraphs, just send us a note using the contact box, and we'll respond via an email to which you can reply with your attachment. This is a bit of a hassle, we know, but it has kept our site (and our inbox) clean. And if you are wondering, we do publish essays that disagree with or are critical of us. We want a robust exchange of views.
About the MBI Newsletters
Once a week or so, we, the BI Directors, share some thoughts, along with new posts from the Hyper-polarization Blog and and useful links from other sources. We used to put this all together in one newsletter which went out once or twice a week. We are now experimenting with breaking the Newsletter up into several shorter newsletters. Each Newsletter will be posted on BI, and sent out by email through Substack to subscribers. You can sign up to receive your copy here and find the latest newsletter here or on our BI Newsletter page, which also provides access to all the past newsletters, going back to 2017.
NOTE! If you signed up for this Newsletter and don't see it in your inbox, it might be going to one of your other emails folder (such as promotions, social, or spam). Check there or search for beyondintractability@substack.com and if you still can't find it, first go to our Substack help page, and if that doesn't help, please contact us.
If you like what you read here, please ....
