Newsletter #152 — September 3, 2023
Colleague Activities
Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.
- Psychological Complexity
Exploring the Collaboration Cycle — Community change is not linear, but more of a cyclical process. This mirrors phases of development found in ecology. - Theories of Change
Essentials of Social Innovation - Articles — from the Stanford Social Innovation Review, a starter kit for "leaders of change" who are beginning to explore social innovation . - Effective Problem-Solving
Tamarack Institute — The Tamarack Institute develops and supports collaborative strategies that engage citizens and institutions to solve major community issues across Canada and beyond. - De-Escalation Strategies
Why Your Presence Alone Is Surprisingly Powerful — Just sitting with someone can reduce pain and anxiety; making eye contact reduces perceived social distance and improves cooperation. - Effective Problem-Solving Efforts
Network for Responsible Public Policy — NFRPP provides stories that educate, inform, foster civic engagement, and generate a sense of shared purpose to help keep US democracy dynamic and viable. - Saving Democracy
Berkeley political scientists chart a promising course to ease toxic polarization — New research co-authored at UC Berkeley details the psychological processes that demagogues exploit to erode support for democracy — and show a way to bridge the dangerous divide. - De-Escalation Strategies
Are Our Political Rivals As Bad As We Think They Are? DTH Episode 161 with Daniel F. Stone — A conversation talking about how to understand the mistakes we make about those on the other side of the political spectrum — and how they drive the affective polarization that is tearing us apart.
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.
- Social Complexity
America Is Often a Nation Divided — An informative look back at historical periods in which the US was as deeply divided as it is today. We got through those tough times and we can get through today's (if we work at it). - Cancel Culture
Social Justice's Forbidden Word — An important observation and criticism of the social justice movement that centers around its failure to recognize the importance of forgiveness. - Freedom of Speech
Why civility should not trump free expression: Part 10 of answers to bad arguments against free speech from Nadine Strossen and Greg Lukianoff — For those trying to think through what limits should be placed on free speech, a link to thoughts on one part of the argument plus links to 13 articles addressing other aspects of this complex issue. - Suppressing Opponents
Moms for Liberty: ‘We Do Not Co-Parent With the Government’ — A story about a case in which efforts to challenge political opponents crosses the line into dishonest hatemongering. - Effective Problem-Solving
Can Plastic Recycling Ever Really Work? — An example of a small, but effective effort to challenge the misleading labeling of "recyclable" plastics in ways that expand the market for true recyclables (and limit "greenwashing"). - Developing a Unifying Vision
What Is Integralism? — An exploration of the two major ways in which conservatives think about the relationship between individual liberty, government action, and social morality. - Saving Democracy
Small Donors Are a Big Problem — A disappointing report on the the success of efforts to strengthen democracy by replacing big money with small donor fundraising. - Freedom of Speech
Tolerating Intolerance: The Free Speech Paradox — An exploration of one of the toughest challenges facing efforts to build a diverse democracy based on mutual tolerance – the unwillingness of some people to tolerate political opponents. - Developing a Unifying Vision
Democrats and Republicans share core values but still distrust each other — Good news that Democrats and Republicans are actually in agreement on many core moral values. Unfortunately, they still distrust one another. - Domination and Oppression
Another Ethnic Cleansing Could Be Underway — and We’re Not Paying Attention — A reminder that efforts to prevent "ethnic cleansing" and genocidal violence require constant vigilance and an ability to act in low-profile cases that escape global attention. - Class Inequity
Superstar Cities in the Age of Zoom — An introduction to the field of economic geography – an attempt to understand exactly why some economic localities are favored, why others are disadvantaged, and what to do about it. - Large-Scale Violence
Terrorism — From Our World in Data, statistics that look at the threat of terrorism from a more informed perspective. - Saving Democracy
Can Liberalism Save Itself? — A thoughtful addition to the larger debate over the nature of liberalism's difficulties, how to save it, and whether it should be saved. - Social Complexity
What Is a Minsky Moment? Definition, Causes, History, and Examples — From economics, a useful concept – the Minsky Moment -- the point at which "things that can't go on like this, don't" (and catastrophe ensues).
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Once a week or so, we, the BI Directors, share some thoughts, along with new posts from the Hyper-polarization Blog and and useful links from other sources. We used to put this all together in one newsletter which went out once or twice a week. We are now experimenting with breaking the Newsletter up into several shorter newsletters. Each Newsletter will be 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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