Newsletter #351 — May 6, 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
When Establishments Fail: Trump’s 100 Days — An especially good analysis of the establishment failures that made Trump's second presidency possible (and thoughts about the implications of the new administration's unfolding failures). - US Politics
The Trump Voters Who Like What They See — More food for thought as so many still struggle to understand why there is such strong support for Trump's efforts to destroy the established order. - US Politics
What Working-Class Voters Really Want — For the meritocratic elites of the Democratic Party, another useful effort to explain why working-class voters tend to view them with such disdain. - Israel / Hamas War
- Arson terrorism against Israel reveals the Palestinian goal once again. — A report on yet another new and terrible weapon being deployed in the war against Israel -- deliberately set wildland fires.
- Violence
Gov. Josh Shapiro: Finding Moral Clarity After an Arsonist’s Attack — From Pennsylvania's Jewish Governor, reflections on anti-Semitism, political violence, and what it's like to survive an assassination attempt. - Authoritarianism
‘This Is What We Were Always Scared of’: DOGE Is Building a Surveillance State — More information about the ways in which DOGE's activities are going beyond its cost-cutting mandate and laying the groundwork for a massive surveillance state.
Colleague Activities
Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.
- Saving Democracy
From Resistance to Resilience: A Guide for Organizing Civil Society Field Hearings — This guide provides a practical approach to addressing concerns about presidential overreach by using Civil Society [Congressional] Field Hearings to harness shared intelligence with democratic participation, strengthen oversight, and create a public record that holds elected leaders accountable. - Civic Education
Daily Citizenship: A Primer — In a self-governing nation, citizenship is not a spectator sport. It is a daily discipline—a habit of heart and mind. This primer introduces the core idea of daily citizenship in the United States: what it means, why it matters, and how to practice it. - US Politics
What Trump Voters Think of Trump — Our project of “better conflict” only works if we’re able to reach people on both sides. Are we? So asks Eve Sneider and Jonathan Stray of Better Conflict Bulletin in their first-ever readers survey. This edition also looks at profiles and surveys to see what Trump voters think 100 days in. - Non-Violence
The creative playbook behind Turkey’s mass protests — The arrest of Istanbul’s mayor has sparked a carnivalesque movement against Turkey’s authoritarian turn, showing how satire can transform fear into hope. - Developing a Unifying Vision
The Paradox of Tolerance: Should We Not Tolerate Some Views? — The political left often complains that they cannot be tolerant of intolerance. In this article, the Builders Movement offers it's opinion on this critically important topic. - Non-Violence
Pro-Democracy Movement Playbook — Scot Nakagawa shares his thoughts on how the progressive pro-democracy movement can seize the moment to build lasting power. The key is not just resisting, but advancing a positive, durable vision of democracy. - Theories of Change
Why Activism Without Bridge Building Falls Flat — If we want to save democracy, we have to act like we live in one. - The Hyper-Polarization Threat
Threat Minimizes Compassion — Exploring the limited public response to the pain of government workers … and drug users. - Peacebuilding
Pope Francis’s remarkable peacemaking life — As Francis demonstrated, there's no better way to live life than to practice, teach and promote nonviolence. - Authoritarianism
Beyond Seeing Ghosts: Recognizing the Early Shadows of Authoritarianism — When fear reshapes freedom, the ghost may already be real, argues David Beckemeyer, referencing a recent article on seeing ghosts by Isaac Saul. - Saving Democracy
The Democracy Index for May 2, 2025 — “You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor, and you will have war.” This was Winston Churchill speaking about Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler. This article applies Churchill's observation to the Trump era. - De-Escalation Strategies
Three questions with Millions of Conversations founder Samar Ali — Nashville nonprofit leader and founder of Millions of Conversations, Samar Ali, talks about innovative ways to better unite people across deep divides. - Constructive Communication
Build Community Norms and Reduce Intergroup Anxiety — James Coan reflects on the findings of More in Common's "The Connection Opportunity" project and some of the examples it offers to highlight ways in which people have been able to successfully connect across divides. - Theories of Change
Spread Courage — An exploration of a critically important question, what can be done in these unsettling times to build morale and strengthen opposition to the President's excesses.
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.)
- Communication Complexity
A New Dark Age? — An examination of the many ways in which modern communications technologies are undermining the informed electorate upon which all democracies depend. - Developing a Unifying Vision
Liberalism as the Shining City on a Hill — The review of why so many think that liberalism, despite its many acknowledged faults, still offers an ideal worth pursuing. - Developing a Unifying Vision
On Humanism: the Big Picture — As we look for moral philosophy capable of binding together our culturally diverse society, a helpful summary of the key concepts behind humanistic philosophy. - World Order
This Is the Way a World Order Ends — As the Trump administration rejects the pillars underlying the global order that has prevailed in the last 75 years, a report on the new order that it is seeking to establish. - US Politics
‘I Run the Country and the World’ — A rare opportunity to hear, in President Trump's own words, an in-depth report on what he thinks of his first 100 days in office. - US Politics
In Montana, a Rare Sight: Republicans and Democrats Voting Together — Another "if it is being done, it must be possible" story -- this one focuses on the ways in which Montana is violating the stereotypes. - US Politics
Are We in a "Soft" Civil War? — The disturbingly persuasive argument that our hyper-polarized politics is crossing the line into a cold, but still extraordinarily dangerous, war. - Authoritarianism
How Does a Stymied Autocrat Deal With Defeat? — Speculation about how President Trump might respond if effective resistance to his various initiatives materializes. - Psychological Complexity
The Dark Side of Empathy — Valuable insights into the two principal meanings of the word "empathy" and an explanation of why one kind of empathy is likely to make things worse rather than better. - Psychological Complexity
The Short-Circuiting of the American Mind — A thought-provoking essay exploring the complex relationship between our hyper-polarized politics and the ways in which we think. - US Politics
How to Survive the Trump Years With Your Spirit Intact — Reflections on the ways in which various cultures and religious traditions have, over the centuries, worked to oppose leaders motivated by "pagan," "might makes right" moral beliefs. - Saving Democracy
Congress needs an expansion. A ‘high line’ could make it possible. — An overview of an intriguing, but seldom mentioned, proposal for strengthening US democracy -- expand the House of Representatives. - Developing a Unifying Vision
The Happiest Country in the World Isn’t What You Think — Food for thought for those who have been trying to an articulate an alternative to the now dominant materialistic culture that guides so much of society. - Education
The Broken Promise of Academic Freedom — As universities struggle to defend academic freedom, an article examining ways in which higher education has made this test much more difficult. - Social / Economic Complexity
Something Alarming Is Happening to the Job Market — Evidence that the transformative impact of AI technologies on employment opportunities for "knowledge workers" may be arriving much more quickly than previously thought. - Social / Economic Complexity
The Myth of a Sorted Electorate — A chance to compare the beliefs that people have regarding the size of various identity groups with objective reality. - Artificial Intelligence
The Urgency of Interpretability — The report on one of the most important frontiers in the field of artificial intelligence -- trying to figure out why AI systems behave as they do. - US Politics
One Moment That Foretold It All — The perceptive analysis explaining what may be the most important difference between President Trump's first and second administrations. - Authoritarianism
Donald Trump’s Cruel and Unusual Innovations — After acknowledging that the President has the right to deport people who are in the United States illegally, this article summarizes arguments against doing this in ways that violate due process rights. - Race / Anti-Racism
DEI’s Beleaguered True Believers, in Their Own Words — A helpful window into what DEI's strongest supporters think about building a more equitable society. - Non-Violence
The power and pitfalls of protest: how to speak out without falling victim to Trump’s playbook — For those contemplating protest-based strategies for challenging Trump administration policies, an important review of what separates successful from unsuccessful campaigns.
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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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