Newsletter #334 — March 23, 2025
by Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess
Reader Suggested Links
Highlighting links suggested by our readers. Please send us links to things that you find useful.
- US Politics
Trump Voters Love Him More Than Before. Four Conservative Columnists Pinpoint Why. — A really helpful discussion for those struggling to understand the loyalty of Trump supporters and why society has turned so sharply away from Democrats. - Developing a Unifying Vision
Can Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson Save the Left From Itself? — Bari Weiss interviews Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson about their new book "Abundance" and the possibility that it offers for escaping our hyper-polarized politics. - US Politics
It's About Ideology, Not Oligarchy — A critical look at efforts to frame the Trump administration as an effort by our society's oligarchs to strengthen their ability to control and exploit us. - Superpower Conflict
Niall Ferguson: A User's Guide to Wrecking the Global Financial System — A critical look the way in which Trump administration policies are affecting the economy. - Education
I'm a Liberal at a 'Conservative' University. How Did I End Up Here? — An essay exploring the University of Texas at Austin's (UATX) efforts to reform higher education in ways that they hope will allow it to once again earn the public's trust. - US Politics
There Is a Way for Democrats to Stop Trump and Save America — More food for thought as we consider how best to address the failures of the Trump administration and the Biden administration that preceded it. - US Politics
Both Left and Right Are Wrong About Mahmoud Khalil. — An article that tries to look at all sides of the debate over efforts to deport Mahmoud Khalil. - US Politics
Tom Friedman: Trump Is a 'Small Man in a Big Time' — Tom Friedman reviews the enormously consequential era in which we find ourselves and the ways in which he believes that the Trump administration is unprepared to deal with this era.
Colleague Activities
Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.
- Saving Democracy
Modernizing Congress with Lorelei Kelly — Lorelei Kelly joins The Great Battlefield podcast to talk about her career in working to build a more informed and responsive democracy and founding Georgetown Democracy, Education and Service to continue working on congressional reform. - Bridge Building
Bridging Movement Collaborative — BMC is the new name for the Bridging Movement Alignment Council. This document describes their background, their theory of change, and lists some of their accomplishments. - De-Escalation Strategies
How stance-taking and stance-criticism can weaken depolarization efforts and unnecessarily drive people away — Zach Elwood argues that depolarization work requires the avoidance of stances and criticizing others' stances, which he sees as a form of activism. - US Politics
In-Group Backlash: Amy Coney Barrett and Gavin Newsom — An article from The Builders on the within-party backlash experienced in recent weeks by Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett and California Governor Gavin Newsom. - Constructive Communication
Community Mediation: Finding the Center of Hope with Guests Cassie Lively (CCR) and D.G. Mawn (NAFCM) — In this episode of The Other Chair. Cassie Lively, Executive Director of the Center for Conflict Resolution (CCR) in Chicago, and D.G. Mawn, President of the National Association for Community Mediation (NAFCM) are guests. - Developing a Unifying Vision
Surviving the Storm: Strategies for Resilience in a Fractured America — Authoritarian movements aren't invincible---the challenge is being ready with a better alternative. - Constructive Communication
Millennials, Boomers, and the Struggle to Be Understood — For decades, each generation has had its complaints about the one that came before. But when it comes to mental health, wellness, and the weight of expectations, the disconnect between millennials and boomers feels particularly stark. - Bridge Building
The Tennessee 11 — A documentary capturing the drama and triumphs of eleven Tennesseans working across difference on gun rights and safety. - Peacebuilding
Conflict Tipping Podcast 41: Creating Spaces for Transformation with Prabha Sankaranarayan — An interview with Prabha Sankaranarayan, president and CEO of Mediators Beyond Borders International, on her career, including discussion of societal conflict in the United States. - US Politics
Resistance to Trump is everywhere --- inside the first 50 days of mass protest — A Waging Nonviolence analysis says mass actions are diverse and multiplying and are already having an impact. - Interstate War
How to Agree an Armistice in Ukraine: Lessons from Korea — The armistice agreement that ended the Korean War in 1953 has been mentioned as a possible model for how to end the fighting in Ukraine. This makes sense, but it doesn't seem to be Trump's plan. - Bridge Building
The Connection Opportunity — A report from More in Common exploring American's interest in and barriers to connecting across race, politics, socioeconomic status and religion. - The Hyper-Polarization Threat
Has "Polarization" Become Polarized? — The word "polarization" is apparently a bad word that has been flagged for removal by the Trump administration. We need new ways to think and talk about what divides us. - Constructive Communication
Using Empathy Reflection at Home and Work. — A video presentation on how empathy circles can help families and executives function better at home and at work.
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.)
- Superpower Conflict
Conquest Is Back — Evidence that the global security system is rapidly abandoning a rules-based international order in favor of ruthless "I'll fight you for it" rules. - Developing a Unifying Vision
The Political Fight of the Century — From The Atlantic, Derek Thompson's summary of the key arguments that they make in their thought-provoking new book "Abundance." - US Politics
How Deep Is the Hole Democrats Are In? — An effort to help Democrats better understand why so much of the country is rebelling against their rule and so much of the political edifice that they constructed. - Superpower Conflict
Arsonist, Killer, Saboteur, Spy — From Foreign Affairs, a report on the many ways in which Russia is actively working to undermine US interests and skepticism about the ability of Trump policies to defuse the situation. - US Politics
The Great Demolition — A look at just how radically our society is being changed and the challenges we will all face as we collectively decide what comes next. - Left / Right Conflict
Why I Am Not A Conflict Theorist — A critique of the conflict theory that lies at the core of so much of the progressive, left's thinking. - Climate / Environment / Health
What It Really Means to 'Give Infectious Disease a Break' — A report on one way in which Trump administration policies are posing a genuine threat to our very survival --- a threat that goes beyond understandably partisan efforts to dismantle progressive governance. - Family / Gender / LBGTQ+
Fertility on demand — An in-depth look, with lots of statistics and charts, at the complex relationship between motherhood, careers, and children. - Psychological Complexity
The "Everyone Is Biased" Bias — A thought-provoking exploration of the complexities of "bias" and an hypothesis that concern about bias has actually become a form of bias. - Social Complexity
Six-Chart Sunday -- Predictable Unpredictability — In the context of the Trump administration's unfolding policies, a look at why events that are predictable still spawn so much uncertainty. - Disinformation
The War on Government Statistics Has Quietly Begun — Our understanding and ability to manage our complex economy depends upon reliable statistics --- statistics that are now being destroyed in the name of partisan politics. - US Politics
The Danger of a Flood of Anti-Trump State Lawsuits — An eye-opening examination of the complex legal landscape that surrounds efforts by state attorneys general to challenge federal government policies on both the left and right. - Saving Democracy
A Battle for the Soul of the West — An examination of our hyper-polarized politics that centers around the conflict over whether "enlightenment values" are worth defending. - Civil Society
Citizenship Without Partisanship — An insightful exploration of the tension between one's partisan political objectives and one's obligation as a citizen to protect the interests of all fellow citizens. - Education
How Trump Can Lead Higher-Education Reform — An example of a constructive response to President Trump's attack on higher education --- instead of blindly defending everything, use this as an occasion to pursue reforms that could strengthen our universities. - Saving Democracy
It May Not Be Brainwashing, but It's Not Democracy, Either — A review, with lots of citations, of the role that the tech elite is playing in the Trump administration. - Social Complexity
The New Control Society — A very long and quite comprehensive and thought provoking analysis of the ways in which information technology has transformed our lives and the society in which we live. - Authoritarianism
One Word of Truth Shall Outweigh the Whole World — From Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, one of history's great voices against authoritarianism, an urgent message for contemporary audiences. - Race / Anti-Racism
Morgan Stanley Went Big on DEI, and No One Is Happy About It — Another case study of the way in which DEI policies and programs have transformed a major corporation. - US Politics
Trump's Flood-the-Zone Strategy Has a Big Weakness — An analysis of the weaknesses associated with the Trump administration's focus on unilateral executive action and its neglect of the legislative process (and the more durable laws that it can create). - Israel / Hamas War
How to Match Ends and Means in the Middle East — From Dennis Ross, a man who has long worked to reduce the destructiveness of the Middle East's many conflicts --- thoughts about where to go from here.
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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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