Newsletter #227 — April 10, 2024
Reader Suggested Links
Highlighting links suggested by our readers. Please send us links to things that you find useful.
- Social Complexity
The Prophets: Allan Bloom — Another case in which we received advance warning about one of today's big problems and failed to take the necessary preventative measures. - Israel / Hamas War
History Goes to War in the Holy Land — A description of one man's effort to write an honest history of Israel and the Palestinians. - Israel / Hamas War
The numbers of dead in Gaza don’t add up – and there is no easy explanation — A persuasive, and critical, look at the reliability of Gaza War casualty statistics. - Israel / Hamas War
Israel Is Making the Same Mistake America Made in Iraq — A cautionary essay raising the possibility that Israel may be making many of the same mistakes that the United States made in Iraq and Afghanistan. - Israel / Hamas War
Israel Unleashed? — The worrying look at the still simmering confrontation between Israel and Iran and the continuing possibility that this could explode into a wider war. - Israel / Hamas War
Conclusion of the Investigation Into the Incident in Which 7 WCK Employees Were Killed During a Humanitarian Operation in Gaza — The official Israeli Defense Force report on the incidents in which 7 World Central Kitchen employees were killed. Contrast this with Hamas' cynical exploitation of civilian casualties. - Israel / Hamas War
How Much Is a Dead Jew Worth? — An eye-opening account of the economic incentives that Palestinians offer to those who agree to become terrorists. - Israel / Hamas War
The ‘Tectonic Shift’ in Media That Changed Perceptions of Israel: ‘What’s Left Is a System Run by Activists’ — An excellent analysis of the many factors that have led to sharp changes in global news coverage regarding Israel, the Palestinians, and the turbulent Middle East.
Colleague Activities
Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.
- Constructive Communication
National Week of Conversation | April 15 - 21, 2024 — National Week of Conversation was created for those exhausted by the division and hatred who seek ways to turn down the heat of polarization. it is a week to become inspired, equipped and engaged in bridge-building activities. - Constructive Communication
DIY Resources — These MANY! Civity-created resources can support and guide your efforts to grow civity (a culture of deliberately engaging in relationships of respect and empathy with others who are different) in your community. - De-Escalation Strategies
Resisting Polarization in an Election Season: A Four-Part Curriculum — This self-paced curriculum will help you develop the internal capacities, skills, and confidence you need to become a positive force in conversations around the election where you live, work, worship, and learn. - Constructive Communication
Conversations in Troubled Times — How can we balance the need for immediate action with the ability to check in, listen, and support each other? How do you honor a complex history and personal connections to troubling events? This conversation guide can help. - The Hyper-Polarization Threat
Polarization and Political Violence: Rachel Kleinfeld — Rachel Kleinfeld says people talking across differences isn’t enough to end polarization-- there needs to be institutional change and politicians who come together to defend democratic norms. - Constructive Communication
The All-America Conversations Toolkit — This free toolkit from the National Civic League helps people take small, specific actions that give them a sense of confidence that they can work across dividing lines to create stronger and more equitable communities. - Theories of Change
Change Makers: People Making a Difference — A 25 minute video from Common Ground Committee highlighting people who really have made a difference on polarization in their communities. And if they did it, so can you! - Race / Anti-Racism
Can Multiracial Democracy Survive? — An article by Horizon's "Chief Organizer" Maria Stephan on the relationship between democracy, autocracy, white supremacy, and racism. - Communication Complexity
Surprising New Findings on Civic Language Ft. Amy McIsaac — Amy McIsaac talks about new findings from PACE's long-term study surveying Americans on their perceptions of civic terms. Some terms, she says, are helping bring Americans together and spur them to action. - Crime / Policing / Guns
Tennesseans have different views on guns, but here's how we know solutions are possible — The authors participated in Citizen Solutions, a national civic experiment by Starts With Us that empowers Americans to work across differences to create solutions to divisive issues. - Race / Anti-Racism
Historical Monuments: To Remove or Not to Remove — Renaming or removing a namesake does not change the past, it only prevents us from educating future generations. - US Election
Why Are Democrats Losing Non-White Voters? — This article argues that the issue is religion: the more Democrats appear like a party of mostly areligious white liberals, the less they will appeal to non-whites - Civic Education
Do Americans have civic role models? — New research, by More in Common and others, indicates that we have a reason to be concerned about the status of Americans’ civic disposition. - Saving Democracy
Uncommon and nonpartisan: Antidemocratic attitudes in the American public — While American political elites increasingly exhibit an antidemocratic posture, both Democratic and Republican constituencies overwhelmingly and consistently oppose norm violations and partisan violence.
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.
- Civic Education
Why Public Administration? — A critical, but widely neglected component of democratic success -- the willingness of principled, talented, and energetic people to commit to a career of public service. - Intersectional Left
The War on Citizenship — An insightful analysis of the complex relationship between citizenship, nationalism, and the ethics of global cosmopolitanism. - Climate Change
The Coming Electricity Crisis — As the climate change emergency focuses efforts on "electrifying everything," more information about how far we are from being able to produce enough electricity. - Disinformation
Stone of Madness — A provocative essay on the nature of misinformation and strategies for constructively addressing it. - Superpower Conflict
China’s Advancing Efforts to Influence the U.S. Election Raise Alarms — An update on the ways in which we can expect geopolitical rivals to use the latest technology to attack the upcoming US election. - Class Inequity
Elite College Admissions Have Turned Students Into Brands — The story from the highest levels of higher education that suggests that the way that the meritocracy measures merit is in need of serious reform. - Left / Right Conflict
The dark side of active citizenship — The most politically active citizens are the biggest drivers of destructive polarization -- a fact that suggests that we ought to consider rethinking the norms of civic involvement. - Intersectional Left
Rescuing Identity Politics — Review and summary of an important new book that tries to offer identity politics a positive path through the backlash that is threatening its success. - Left / Right Conflict
When Hatred of the Left Becomes Love for Putin — A look at how opposition to progressive policies is metastasizing into an open embrace of Russian authoritarianism. - Developing a Unifying Vision
In defence of forgiveness — For a time of reckoning in which so many people focus on holding others accountable for their actions, an argument for tempering accountability with forgiveness. - Media Reform
How the Atlantic Went From Broke to Profitable in Three Years — For those who feared that good journalism was no longer economically feasible, a hopeful story about the Atlantic's resurrection. - Class Inequity
The U.S. Already Soaks the Rich — A thought-provoking essay revealing that recent efforts to redistribute income and wealth away from the rich have been much more successful than we might have thought (though probably still not successful enough). - Family / Gender / LBGTQ+
The Case for Saying ‘I Do’ — As support for the institution of marriage continues to decline, an argument that (in this case) cultural change may be making things worse rather than better. - Superpower Conflict
The West Needs a War Footing — A compelling and terrifying argument that the time has once again arisen for making the United States (and its allies) the arsenal for democracy. - Communication Complexity
The End of Foreign-Language Education — Eye-opening news about recent AI advances in translation software and a tantalizing look at a world in which language barriers collapse. - US Election
Trump Is No Savior — An eye-opening look into the strange synthesis between Donald Trump and the efforts of Christians to defend their beliefs. - Saving Democracy
Liberals must not use illiberal means to defeat Trumpism — An argument that liberal democracy cannot be defended by abandoning the liberal democratic principles that are its foundation. - Saving Democracy
The Great Struggle for Liberalism — An insightful essay that puts democracy's current struggles into the larger historical context of societal development and evolution. - US Election
The Democrats’ Abundance Problem Revisited — An argument that President Trump's reelection campaign cannot be defeated by promising voters increased scarcity (and that the key to electoral success is an abundance strategy). - Intersectional Left
Utah’s Promising New Anti-DEI Law — A description of what sounds like a genuinely promising effort to craft a workable legislative compromise on the regulation of DEI programs.
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