Newsletter #202 — January 28, 2024
Reader Suggested Links
Highlighting links suggested by our readers. Please send us links to things that you find useful.
- Israel / Hamas War
How the Palestinians Hijacked the Jewish Culture War — A perceptive essay exploring the complex interactions between the Palestinian/Israeli conflict and the culture war conflicts that afflict Israel and the larger Jewish Diaspora. - Israel / Hamas War
Rula Hardal: Life as a Palestinian Citizen of Israel — A reflective essay exploring the thoughts of the Palestinian who is also an Israeli citizen. - Israel / Hamas War
Two States, One Homeland – an Open Land for All — A link to the website of an organization that is trying to move beyond the constraints of the Oslo "two state solution" and imagine a more attractive, alternative future for the region. - Israel / Hamas War
Top Biden aide argues Israeli-Palestinian peace is possible ‘in near term’ — A look at the Biden administration's attempt to negotiate a near-term peace deal amid the horrific ongoing war. - Left / Right Conflict
Deadly Hot Air — Thoughtful reflections on the complexities of our current political moment.
Colleague Activities
Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.
- Overcoming Hate-Mongering Efforts
Building Resilience Against Violent Extremism in Schools (2022-2023) USA — BRAVE Schools, a project of the Karuna Center, works in partnership with middle and high schools in Western Massachusetts to proactively engage students and staff in preventing violence and strengthening resilience. - Education
What is Liberatory Learning — This approach, based on Paulo Freire, argues that learning is a liberating practice that often thrives beyond the confines of educational systems.This approach benefits learners and teachers together. - Artificial Intelligence
Unpacking Democracy: Artificial Intelligence and Democracy — A video of an InternationIDEA webinar examining the impact of AI on democracy. worldwide. The panellists discussed the advantages and disadvantages of AI for democratic institutions, rights and values. - Leadership
Philanthropy Bridging Divides — This project brings together philanthropic leaders from both sides of the aisle to support bipartisan causes, and connect beyond political divides. - Saving Democracy
Essay IX: Mapping the Healthy Democracy Ecosystem: Future of Citizenship — A series of essays exploring how democracy and citizenship are both evolving and threatened, and how people are thinking about and engaging in politics and community. - Constructively Addressing Complex Issues
Affinity Diagrams: How to Cluster Your Ideas and Reveal Insights — Not limited to peacebuilding, this idea organization strategy is powerful for garnering insights from many people, and highly complex situations and issues. - Saving Democracy
Threats to American Democracy Ahead of an Unprecedented Presidential Election - Findings from the 2023 American Values Survey — A look at the state of the country in detail shows widespread pessimism, fear of and acceptance of political violence and paranoia about the other side.
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.
- Left / Right Conflict
We Are Normalizing Trump. Again. — A summary, with lots of links, to what the latest political science research is showing about President Trump's political dominance among Republicans. - Class Inequity
The Coming Working Class Election — With working-class voters comprising over 60% of the electorate -- a look at the critical role that they are going to play in the upcoming election in their relationship with college-educated elites. - Suppressing Opponents
A Conspiracy Against No Labels — For a country in which there are almost as many independents as Republicans and Democrats combined, allegations of a conspiracy against a moderate, third-party, Presidential candidacy. - Developing a Unifying Vision
What's Wrong with Liberalism: Theory — From Francis Fukuyama, an update on his latest thinking regarding liberalism and its discontents on the left and the right. - Hate Mongering
Never-Trumpers Never Had a Chance -- Animosity proved stronger than character or ideology — An argument that, at least on the Republican side, hostility towards Democrats has driven out all other political considerations. Is this true on the Democratic side? - Superpower Conflict
Visiting the Most Important Company in the World — A profile of Taiwan's role as the world's sole supplier of advanced microprocessors and an explanation of why the island's fate is so strategically important. - Superpower Conflict
How to Lower the Risk of War With China — As we continue to slide closer to some sort of direct military confrontation with China over Taiwan, thoughts about how we can walk away from the brink. - Psychological Complexity
How to Save a Sad, Lonely, Angry and Mean Society — An eloquent plea for rediscovering the many ways in which immersing ourselves in art and culture can fill the big gaps that exist in so many lives. - Social Complexity
Weird Scenes from a Shrinking Planet (Part 1) — For those who want to look at the very big picture, deep reflections on the enormous implications of declining human fertility. - Trust / Trust Earning
Trust in government: 1958-2015 — A long-term analysis of the way in which trust in US governmental institutions has collapsed over the last half-century. - Israel / Hamas War
The Israeli Quotes That the Press Got Wrong — A carefully documented investigation of allegedly genocidal statements made by Israeli leaders — an investigation that reveals how misunderstandings and missed translations can propagate in dangerous ways. - Intersectional Left
Looking Back on a Decade of Cancel Culture — A look back at the way in which the cancel culture has evolved over time and its profound impact on society. - Race / Anti-Racism
They’re Black Democrats. And They’re Suing Chicago Over Migrants. — In the context of the struggle over government assistance programs in Chicago, a look at the tension between Black residents and newly arriving migrants. - Civic Education
Follow the Left’s Example to Reform Higher Ed — A thoughtful proposal for cultivating a new academic field — civics studies — with the mission of figuring out how to make democracy work. - Climate Change
How Climate Policy Went Wrong — Hard questions about whether our climate strategy is going to be able to achieve its desired objective or whether we're just wasting money on a green energy industrial complex. We can't afford to get this wrong. - Family / Gender / LBGTQ+
America’s Families Are Not Okay — An in-depth look at a little recognized but critically important conflict -- one that divides parents from their adult children. - Class Inequity
America’s social ills are not simply due to inequality and despair — An interesting article questioning some of our most basic assumptions about the challenges facing society and possible remedies — the kind of outside the box thinking we ought to consider occasionally. - Superpower Conflict
Is Congress Really Going to Abandon Ukraine Now? — A desperate plea for the West to consider the humanitarian and strategic implications of abandoning Ukraine, giving Russian brutality a big win, and making it clear to the world that the West can't be trusted. - Israel / Hamas War
Palestinian Refugee Camps In The Gaza Strip Prior To October 7 – Part I — The comparison of refugee camps in Gaza, Syria, and Jordan. - Left / Right Conflict
Is the Electoral Fix Already In? — Amid the cascade of articles describing the many ways in which Donald Trump threatens democracy, an important counterpoint on the right's concerns about the fairness of the upcoming election. - Israel / Hamas War
Israel’s War With Hamas Has No End in Sight — A sobering assessment of the Israel / Hamas war and an explanation of why prospects for peace are so dismal. - Race / Anti-Racism
Virtuous Lies and Black Despair — When social policies fail to produce the desired results, it's good practice to ask hard questions about unintended consequences and the possibility that good intentions may be being counterproductive. - Israel / Hamas War
Oct. 7 Was Worse Than a Terror Attack. It Was a Pogrom. — From those who are concluding that there really was no such thing as the "uninvolved" on October 7, a plea: ‘Let me know of one Palestinian in Gaza who tried to save a Jew and maybe I’ll change my mind.’ - Israel / Hamas War
Hamas Official On Al-Jazeera Website: October 7 Was Scaled-Down Model Of Palestine's Final War Of Liberation — Bad news for those who were hoping that October 7 was a not to be repeated aberration, rather than a harbinger of things to come. - Race / Anti-Racism
How our treatments for “racial trauma” only make the problem worse — An article that makes the case that the way in which we typically handle racial trauma is making the problem worse, rather than better. - Israel / Hamas War
The Meaning of Gaza’s Tunnels — An exploration of the causes and far-reaching ramifications of Hamas's unique brand of tunnel warfare. - Israel / Hamas War
Too Little, Too Late — Heartbreaking questions about why the global women's rights and LBGTQ communities have been so reluctant to condemn the atrocities of October 7. - Left / Right Conflict
Political Trench Warfare — An exploration of what is likely to happen in the United States' upcoming "trench warfare" election -- an election characterized by a virtual tie and almost no one willing to consider changing their vote.
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 ....
