Newsletter # 24 --  Dec. 5, 2018

About Moving Beyond Intractability Newsletters

Important information about the Newsletters, sign-up procedures, and strategies for overcoming possible delivery problems is found at the end of this Newsletter.   Also available are past newsletters: 9, #10, #11, #12 , #13, #14, #15, #16, #17 , #18,  #19 , #20, #21, #22 , #23 and the 2017 Newsletter Archive.

Introduction to this Newsletter

As we mentioned in the last newsletter, we have now started adding new Frontiers material again, and have decided to restructure the Conflict Frontiers Seminar to turn it into a seminar series, making the earlier "units" into their own (more manageably sized) seminars that now include, in addition to the original Conflict Frontiers posts, related material from our other seminars (e.g., the Conflict Fundamentals Seminars, The BI-in-Context Blog, and the Things You Can Do to Help Blog.

We are hoping that some of our academic readers will consider using one or more of these shorter seminars in their own courses.  If you want to do that, we'd appreciate it, however, if you ask your students to make a small contribution to BI to help us keep the site up and running.  Information about "Using BI as a Textbook" and suggested donations for various levels of use can be found at: https://www.beyondintractability.org/educationtraining/textbook-programs

Our last newsletter contained the Conflict Frontiers posts for our new Seminar 7: Application Example: Applying MPP to the Authoritarian Populism Problem. The full seminar also contains related Conflict Fundamentals posts (which were not included in the newsletter) and BI-in-Context posts, some of which were included in the last newsletter, but some older ones also which were not.

This newsletter continues with our new Seminar 8 -- MPP-based Strategies for Addressing the Authoritarian Populism Problem.  The difference between Seminar 7 and Seminar 8 is that 7 lays out the nature of the problem, while 8 begins to look at ways of addressing the problem more constructively than we have been in the past. This Seminar contains ten Conflict Frontiers Posts, ten Things YOU Can Do to Help posts, twelve Conflict Fundamentals and Knowledge Base Posts, and (as of now) two BI-in-Context Posts, although we will be adding more of those soon.

In this newsletter, we will include the Conflict Frontiers Posts that are being released on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIN this week. Our next news letter will contain the rest of the Frontiers posts and the Things YOU Can Do posts, which will be coming out over the next couple of weeks. If you want to take a sneak peek though, all of these materials are available now on the Seminar 8 page. 

Conflict Frontiers Seminar

• Meeting the Authoritarian Populism Challenge 1: Authoritarian and Partisan Conflict -- The first key to saving democracy is to understand how that differs from simply trying to advance partisan objectives.
• Meeting the Authoritarian Populism Challenge 2: “Hate Bait,” Framing, and Escalation -- Find out how you can combat the destructive conflict dynamics that are making the left/right divide so intractable.
• Meeting the Authoritarian Populism Challenge 3: Communication, Governance, and Economics -- Find out about building a "conflict mirror" (so you can understand why you make others so mad) plus other constructive conflict strategies.
• Meeting the Authoritarian Populism Challenge 4: The "Super Rich" and the "Meritocratic Elite" -- How might the super-rich be persuaded to do the right thing? How might the cosmopolitan elite better earn the public's support and trust?
• Meeting the Authoritarian Populism Challenge 5: The "Protected Classes" and the "Left Behind" -- More ideas for spanning the left/right divide: the win-win pursuit of social equity, multi-multi-culturalism, and more.

Beyond Intractability in Context Blog

• Steve Hilton (Positive Populism) makes the case against elitism and for a populism worthy of widespread support. --Steve Hilton: Why I believe we need a positive populist revolution -- 12/01/2018
• A surprising and, in many ways, alarming look at how Silicon Valley envisions the future evolution of society. -- Tech C.E.O.s Are in Love With Their Principal Doomsayer -- 11/30/2018
• A critique of tendency on too many campuses to avoid engaging the tough issues that underlie our deep divisions. --The Coddling of the American Mind -- 11/30/2018
• For those looking for more moderate, compromise-oriented conservatives, welcome news that they actually exist. --Moderate Republicans Aren't Dead -- 11/29/2018
• Illuminating infographics that make the results of the recent election much easier to visualize. -- Sizing Up the 2018 Blue Wave -- 11/29/2018

• Another intriguing idea for improving the US House of Representatives, districts with multiple representatives. -- A Congress for Every American -- 11/28/2018
• An interesting initiative from Microsoft, a Digital Peace Now campaign aimed at the various forms of cyberwarfare. --Digital Peace Now -- 11/28/2018
• Apparently we can, in the fairly near future, expect computers to be able to translate as well as human translators. --Mirai Translate Leverages Deep Learning to Perfect Language Translation -- 11/27/2018
• A persuasive argument outlining the precedents for and the benefits of expanding the US House of Representatives. --America Needs a Bigger House -- 11/27/2018
• A review of Oren Cass's "The Once and Future Worker" a book with lots of ideas for addressing working class problems.-- What the Working Class Is Still Trying to Tell Us -- 11/26/2018

• Lessons from the past: a look at the 1930s and the 1960s--times when the left dominated US politics. -- Will the Left Go Too Far? -- 11/26/2018
• An argument that the left needs a narrative for uniting US society (not just advocating for its constituents). -- Do Democrats Know What Unites Us? -- 11/25/2018
• A look at the education gap and the role that it plays in dividing US society. -- America Is Divided by Education --11/25/2018
• An explanation of how "meaning" separates artificial intelligence from human intelligence. -- Artificial Intelligence Hits the Barrier of Meaning -- 11/24/2018
• A demographic statistic with surprisingly large implications, the age of first time mothers. -- The Age That Women Have Babies: How a Gap Divides America -- 11/24/2018

• A must-read account of the threat to the United States from Hungary's new brand of authoritarianism. -- What We Have to Fear -- 11/21/2018
• A look at how Democrats are avoiding many of the tough issues associated with immigration (something they can't do forever.)-- Democrats will have to contend with immigration eventually -- 11/21/2018
• A look at the growing proportion of jobs that don't produce anything, they just fight over what others produce. -- The Zero-Sum Economy -- 11/20/2018
• A rare chance to see how an idea actually spreads through our Internet-based information system. -- Tracing a Meme From the Internet’s Fringe to a Republican Slogan -- 11/20/2018
• An easy way to listen to the other side, Wall Street Journal videos that listen and seek common ground. -- Voices From a Divided America -- 11/19/2018

• An insightful international comparison of the allure of authoritarianism and the multifaceted problems facing democracy. --The Weaknesses in Liberal Democracy That May Be Pulling It Apart -- 11/19/2018
• An in-depth look at what it is going to take to save capitalism (and make it worth saving). -- CAN AMERICAN CAPITALISM SURVIVE? -- 11/18/2018
• A worrying, but not surprising, development (given partisan hostility & ubiquitous firearms), a new left-wing gun culture. --Rise of the Armed Left -- 11/18/2018
• A look at some of the worst aspects of academia--things that are all too common and clearly worth fixing. -- Academia Is A Cult -- 11/17/2018
• Lest we forget, a history of the great recession and the decade of financial turmoil that has shaped today's conflicts. -- The Crash That Failed -- 11/17/2018

BI Newsletters - General Announcements

Every two weeks or so, we will compile posts from the Frontiers Seminar, the Fundamentals Seminar, the Things Everyone Can Do to Help Blog, and the Beyond Intractability in Context Blog into a Newsletter that will be posted here and sent out by email to subscribers. You can sign up to receive your copy on our Newsletter Sign Up Page and find the latest newsletter as well as all past newsletters here on our Newsletter page.

Also available are past newsletters: 9, #10, #11, #12 , #13, #14, #15, #16, #17 , #18,  #19 , #20, #21, #22, #23 and the 2017 Newsletter Archive.

*We note that we failed to post Newsletter 20-22 online here--this site, until yesterday was stuck on Newsletter 19.  We apologize for that.  All the interim newsletters, except 23, were sent out, however, and are linked above, as is the newly created Newsletter #23, that just contains BI-in-Context posts that exceeded the space limits on the emailed newsletters.)

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 email folders (such as promotions, social, or spam).  Check there or search for news@beyondintractability.org, and if you still can't find it, please contact us.