Newsletter #284 — October 9, 2024
Reader Suggested Links
Highlighting links suggested by our readers. Please send us links to things that you find useful.
- Networking
Horizon's VISTA — An amazingly rich compilation of resources every month, but the September 2024 issue was particularly full of excellent resources on threats to democracy and responses to those threats. - Peacebuilding
The State of Civil Society Peacebuilding between Israelis and Palestinians — An astonishing report with detailed data showing that civil society peacebuilding is thriving in Israel, even during the war. - Constructive Communication
Convenings, Cohorts + Communities: Notes on so-called "impact" gatherings — Previous models of conferences and events are getting blown up and replaced with an array of experiences, interventions, connectivity practices and celebrations to foster deeper engagement and more substantial change work. - Psychological Complexity
A Revolution of the Soul — An article about one effort to craft a vision for adapting democracy to the challenges of the 21st-century. - Saving Democracy
Hahrie Han | Tanner Lecture 1 | Stories of Democracy Realized: Becoming, Belonging, Building — A series of lectures exploring the ways in which different communities (including Christian faith communities) practice democracy, - Authoritarianism
The Global Struggle: Democracies vs. Dictatorships — Thought-provoking reflections on the intensifying conflict between democratic and authoritarian societies -- a conflict that may soon frame most everything else. - Class Inequity
They Still Won't Say That They're Sorry: deindustrialization's victims and the wonks who won't acknowledge them — Thought on the ways in which proponents of globalization have failed to acknowledge (and take steps to remedy) the adverse impacts associated with their policies. - Israel / Hamas War
Israel Defends Itself—and May Save Western Civilization — From the Wall Street Journal, an argument that Israel is not just defending itself, it is defending all Western liberal democracies.
Colleague Activities
Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.
- De-Escalation Strategies
Can Humor Cure Outrage? Jonathan Bernstein Thinks So — David Beckemeyer talks to Jonathan Bernstein author of Election Day, a book that uses satire to inspire voter turnout and encourage civic engagement. - Theories of Change
Leading Systems Change from Within — Stepping into the work of changing systems is not just an additional set of activities and strategies; it is also a dramatic and intentional shift in how you show up in your own leadership. - Saving Democracy
Democracy plays no role in the UN’s Pact for the Future — The Pact for the Future, adopted at the United Nations Summit of the Future on 22-23 September in New York, is a pivotal framework designed to address global challenges with a long-term vision extending beyond 2030. Surprisingly, this vision does not include democracy. - Social Complexity
21st-Century Democracy: Building a Transnational Innovation Ecosystem — From the Stanford Social Innovation Review, an argument that pro-democracy actors and movements must move out of their silos and create strong cross-contextual connections. - De-Escalation Strategies
2024 Healing Starts Here Retreat — Essential Partners' reflection on the New Pluralists retreat, together with the inspiring video shown at the retreat. - Saving Democracy
Bipartisanship Reinvigorated — From the journal Democracy, a symposium and set of papers on top down and bottom up ways to invigorate bipartisan democracy. - Saving Democracy
More Polarization, More Election Distrust: Why We Must Avoid Temptations to Call Elections "Rigged" — Starts with Us argues that we must see that when we call elections “illegitimate” without very strong reasons, we hurt America. - Saving Democracy
Business for Democracy: A Call for Courage and Action — There is ample evidence that democracies around the world are being threatened by authoritarian populist forces, and that the best antidote to stemming this tide is broad-based, “big tent” organizing to stand up for democratic norms and freedoms. - US Election
Dignity Wins at the VP Debate — The Dignity Index scored the two US Vice Presidential Candidates at their debate, finding that both candidates scored well, treating the other with respect. - Freedom of Speech
The Great Betrayal: How I messed with Progressive Perfection. — Our colleague Ashok Panikkar explains how he came to believe that progressive beliefs are not always correct -- and what happened when he said so. - Persuasion
What If Listening Isn’t the Key to Persuasion – BCB #119 — Listening may not change minds like we thought it did. Still, there are many other effective ways to build understanding and collaboration among those who disagree with you. - Social Complexity
The Wisdom of Cicadas — Those of us paying attention to various social movements for love, dignity, and justice should recognize the natural wisdom of a periodic convergence of broods.
News and Opinion
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. (Formerly, Beyond Intractability in Context.)
- Race / Anti-Racism
How I Found FAIR — An important analysis of the many benefits of political tolerance and the organization, FAIR, which champions this approach to politics. - Developing a Unifying Vision
A Recipe for a Striving America — From David Brooks, an illuminating attempt to formulate a vision for an America that can start filling in its deep economic and political chasms. - US Election
The Abortion Distortion Campaign — Disturbing news that Democrats (who like to complain about disinformation) are, with respect to abortion, spreading their own brand of disinformation. - Corruption
Democrats Have a Corruption Problem. They Can’t Keep Ignoring It. — From Sarah Chayes, a renowned expert on global corruption, a reminder that the scourge of corrupt politics extends into the Democratic Party. - Freedom of Speech
I’ve written many dark and stormy columns on free speech. Not this one. — An upbeat observation that, as a society, we may be rediscovering the virtues of free speech. - Political Dysfunction
Is Europe Becoming Ungovernable? — An article highlighting the many ways in which hyper-polarization has made Europe so dysfunctional. - Artificial Intelligence
What if everyone is wrong about what AI does? — A contrarian look at the way in which we have been thinking about Artificial Intelligence and a reminder of the complexities involved in predicting the impact of the new technology. - Peacebuilding
How Do You Forgive the People Who Killed Your Family? — From Rwanda, an agonizing story about what it takes for society to recover from a period of genocidal violence (and another reason for preventing such violence). - Developing a Unifying Vision
The World Is in Love with America — For a time when Americans on the left and the right seem to have nothing good to say about their country, news that much of the world still sees much to admire the United States. - Culture and Religion
Is Culture Dying? — An explanation of the complex processes that are leading to the "deculturation" of so many places and reflections on the implications of this trend. - Constructive Advocacy
We Need More Costly Signaling — For a time when our politics is distorted by inexpensive and superficial virtue-signaling, an argument that, to be seen as virtuous, people ought to do something significant that really makes a difference. - Freedom of Speech
The Censorship Industrial Complex Is US Government Counterpopulist Blowback — Food for thought for those who on the left to do not understand why those on the right are so upset about efforts to combat misinformation. - US Election
Trump’s Plan Boosts Budget Deficits by $7.5 Trillion, Double Harris’s Proposal — Amid the bidding war for President of the United States, a reminder that, for every trillion dollars of deficit spending, each US citizen assumes $3000 in debt -- debt on which interest will be paid in perpetuity. - Constructive Advocacy
Teach the Conflicts: It’s natural—and right—to foster disagreement in the classroom — An argument for engaging, rather than avoiding, controversial issues in the classroom. - Social Complexity
Americans Are More Reliant Than Ever on Government Aid — Truly startling statistics about how, in recent decades, US citizens have become so dependent upon governmental financial assistance.
October 7 Reflections on a Year of War
- Israel / Hamas War
Towards a Post-Hamas Future — A hopeful essay about a postwar future in which Palestinians may be able to escape the iron grasp of Hamas and its ruinous policies. - Israel / Hamas War
Benny Gantz: What the World Needs to Understand About Iran — From a former Israeli Defense Minister, an explanation of why Israel regards Iran as a major threat to Israel and the global community. - Israel / Hamas War
A Naked Desperation to Be Seen — The report on efforts to reverse the terrible dehumanization that accompanies all-out war is like the one being fought in Gaza. - Israel / Hamas War
Iran Is at a Strategic Crossroads — After its latest escalation, Tehran may be forced to reconsider its entire approach to national security, including leveraging its status as a threshold nuclear state to counter Israel. - Israel / Hamas War
Totaling Up the Damage in Gaza After a Year of War — An inventory of the incredible human costs of the war in Gaza and a reminder of why war prevention is so important. - Israel / Hamas War
Things Worth Remembering: Mr. Biden, This Is How You Defend Israel — A retrospective look at what Daniel Patrick Moynihan had to say about Israel and the many threats it faced in 1975 -- a speech with important lessons for today. - Israel / Hamas War
Terror in a Safe Space, a Year On — An exploration of the coming collision between a dangerous and violent world and a citizenry that has become accustomed to safety and security. - Israel / Hamas War
Oct. 7 and the Iranian Nuclear Threat — A must-read article about what is now clearly a war between Israel and Iran and the likelihood that Iran, with its deep support for terror and martyrdom, will soon possess nuclear weapons. - Israel / Hamas War
With Iran’s Strikes, Arab Countries Fear an Expanding Conflict — In light of recent events, more thoughts on the way in which ongoing Mideast hostilities could escalate into a much bigger conflagration (and what might be done to avoid this). - Israel / Hamas War
The Mistakes Israel Can’t Afford to Repeat — The outcome of war is not determined by the rightness of one's cause. Instead, what matters is an ability to avoid strategic and tactical mistakes. - Israel / Hamas War
Why the Arab Street Is Celebrating Israel's Killing of Hezbollah Chief Nasrallah | Opinion — Hopeful news that there is little grassroots support for the ruinous wars launched by Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran. - Israel / Hamas War
Hamas built an underground war machine to ensure its own survival — Evidence that Hamas realized and planned for the devastating war that it's October 7 attack was designed to provoke.
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About the MBI Newsletters
Two or three times a week, Guy and Heidi Burgess, the BI Directors, share some of our thoughts on political hyper-polarization and related topics. We also share essays from our colleagues and other contributors, and every week or so, we devote one newsletter to annotated links to outside readings that we found particularly useful relating to U.S. hyper-polarization, threats to peace (and actual violence) in other countries, and related topics of interest. Each Newsletter is 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.
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