Newsletter #187 — December 19, 2023
Colleague Activities
Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.
- Leadership
If you care about movements, you have to care about leaders — Leadership is the single most important indicator of the likelihood of success for any movement, for good or for ill. - Effective Problem-Solving
Make it a Habit: Be Hard on Issues But Soft on People — A quick "how to" (and why) from Starts with Us as a good way to reduce polarization, improve relationships, and get more done. - Effective Problem-Solving
IREX and the Community Solutions Program — A report on innovations in networking and cooperation, looking at ways to build trust, overcome the free-rider problem, and inspire participation in collaborative projects among widespread participants. - Artificial Intelligence
AI and Geopolitics: How Might AI Affect the Rise and Fall of Nations? — Regardless of whether AI poses an existential risk to humanity, governments will need to develop new regulatory frameworks to identify, evaluate, and respond to the variety of AI-enabled challenges to come. - Saving Democracy
"How Scared Are You?" Mapping the Threat Environment of San Diego's Elected Officials — This report from the Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice discusses the extent of threats and harassment towards elected officials in San Diego County. San Diego is certainly not unique in this respect. - Saving Democracy
The Global State of Democracy 2023: The New Checks and Balances — A report from International IDEA observes that the global state of democray is "complex, fluid, and unequal," but that democracy has continued to contract worldwide. - Constructive Communication
Three Dirty Little Secrets To Improve Your Political Conversations — Being conscious of harmful habits leads to more meaningful political conversations. We don't really listen or even understand our own views.
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.
- Intersectional Left
Why liberalism and leftism are increasingly at odds — A really thoughtful analysis of the increasingly significant conflict that is emerging between social justice progressives and traditional liberals. - Family / Gender / LBGTQ+
Why I'm Increasingly Worried About Boys, Too — From Jonathan Haidt, an important article looking at the tough challenges facing boys and young men, plus thoughtful ideas about how we might best respond. - Social Complexity
Fertility Free-Fall — An analysis of ongoing demographic changes that, for those concerned about social sustainability, are deeply worrying. - Race / Anti-Racism
Higher Ed Has Become a Threat to America — A critical and undoubtedly controversial look at the impact of DEI programs on the ability of universities to fulfill their core missions. - Terror
Aiding Terror: How Terrorists Exploit Humanitarian Organizations — A timely and important look at the at the ways in which terrorist organizations have been able to exploit humanitarian aid providers (and fund the continuing cycle of violence). - Superpower Conflict
What Happens When the U.S. Overestimates Its Power — Americans tend to think of themselves as all-powerful, either as an exceptional beacon of freedom or the most exploitive of the colonial powers. This article asks whether the US is really that powerful. - Race / Anti-Racism
Making Race Skin Deep — An article about race that demonstrates the value of looking at such an important concept from the perspective of multiple cultures (and not just assuming that our way is the only way). - Developing a Unifying Vision
Humanism and Its Discontents — A review and summary of an important new book looking at the evolution of humanistic philosophy and the difficult struggle to build societies based on that idea. - Communication Complexity
How Social Media Is Turning Into Old-Fashioned Broadcast Media — Just when we were starting to think that we had social media figured out, important news that it is transforming itself (and its social impact) once again. - Climate Change
Bone-Chilling — The story about how important it is that we maintain our infrastructure in ways that allow it to cope with extreme events. - Race / Anti-Racism
Inside Ohio State’s DEI Factory — Thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request, we now have a rare window into how universities actually use DEI criteria in their internal deliberations. - Social Complexity
Where Does Religion Come From? — Amid the Mideast's ongoing collision over religious beliefs, thoughtful reflections on the origins of these beliefs. - Saving Democracy
It’s Time to Fix America’s Most Dangerous Law — A persuasive plea for Congress to clarify the 1792 law that contains loopholes that could give an unscrupulous President the power to mobilize the federal government against his political rivals.
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 ....
