Newsletter #192 — January 7, 2024
Reader Suggested Links
Highlighting links suggested by our readers. Please send us links to things that you find useful.
- Israel / Hamas War
Journalistic Duty in Israel Palestine News — An excellent analysis of the difficult moral questions that journalists covering the Israeli/Palestinian conflict have been struggling with in the decades leading up to today's war. - Israel / Hamas War
Finding moral clarity on campus about the Hamas-Israeli War — Robert Reich's thoughts on the grotesque and staggering levels of violence surrounding the Israeli / Hamas war and a call for us all to help find a way to put an end to this violence. - Israel / Hamas War
In the Shadow of the Holocaust — From Masha Gessen, an analysis of how the politics of memory in Europe obscures what we see in Israel and Gaza today. - Israel / Hamas War
10 thoughts on what is happening in Israel. — As we try to decide what we think about conflict in Israel and Gaza, reflections on 10 aspects of the conflict worth considering. - Israel / Hamas War
Matti Friedman: The Wisdom of Hamas — A thoughtful argument that the opinions that many in the West have about the war between Israel and Hamas are based on serious misunderstandings. - Israel / Hamas War
Win-Win? — Israel could claim victory in Gaza but so, too, could Hamas. It depends on how they each define "success." - Israel / Hamas War
How ‘Antiracism’ Becomes Antisemitism — An essay reflecting on one of the big surprises following Hamas' October 7 attack -- the degree to which this conflict has become a focal point in the domestic US struggle against racism.
Colleague Activities
Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.
- System Thinking Strategies
The Rondine Method — A blog post from our friend Chip Hauss about innovative ways we can all copy this deep Italian approach to conflict resolution and apply it in our own lives. - Psychological Complexity
Americans do talk about peace − just not the same way people do in other countries — A reminder that different societies with different cultural perspectives think about peace in different ways. - Leadership
The Leadership Lab — The Leadership Lab does "deep canvasing" work in an effort to re-engage infrequent voters to increase voting and force representatives to better reflect their constituencies' interests. - Civic Education
Faces of Civity — Short videos in which people who have attended Civity Workshops reflect on their workshop experience, what "civity" means to them, and how they have incorporated civity in their own work. - Escalation & Violence Limiting Projects
Addressing Chronic Violence from a Gendered Prespective: Fostering People-Centered Approaches at the National Level — This report argues for reconceptualizing violence based on feminist conceptions, recognizing that societal structures, systemic discrimination and even pervasive cultural norms can be sources of violence. - Saving Democracy
Designing Resistance: Democratic Institutions and the Threat of Backsliding — This report examines democratic backsliding, detailing strategies and actions taken affecting the core institutions of democracy offers recommendations to make democracy more resilient. - Leadership
National Leadership Network — NLN is a collaboration between the 700,000+ alumni of more than 800 US Community Leadership Programs. Many operate locally, but we know – now more than ever – we could be stronger together.
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.
- The Hyper-Polarization Threat
Why we split the world into good and evil — and make decisions we regret — From Amanda Ripley, reflections on the many pitfalls associated with viewing the world primarily as a battle between good and evil. - Saving Democracy
What Biden Needs to Tell Us — From David Brooks, a must-read essay about how both the left and the right have abandoned win-win politics – the idea that our problems can be solved in mutually beneficial ways. - Psychological Complexity
Why the United States needs to stop being a nation of losers. — For a time in which politics is viewed in mostly win-lose (rather than win-win) terms, reflections on the fact that most of us tend to think they we are losing. - Constructively Addressing Complex Issues
Against Mathiness — The first, of a two-part look into what it takes to be able to integrate sophisticated (mathematically sound) analyses into public policy decision-making. - Psychological Complexity
Learning, Unlearning, and Relearning — An insightful look at a strategy for living through turbulent and rapidly changing times. - Saving Democracy
Don’t Worry About Donald Trump. Worry About Yourself. — An important reminder that demonizing those with whom we disagree is actually a direct and serious threat to our own welfare. - Domination and Oppression
The Struggle Continues: On Vincent Bevins’s “If We Burn” — The review and summary of an important new book examining the many popular uprisings against oppressive regimes that have occurred in recent years (plus an assessment of their effectiveness). - Saving Democracy
The Case for Disqualifying Trump Is Strong — From David French, a former constitutional litigator, the report on his detailed look at the legal questions surrounding President Trump's candidacy and the 14th amendment. - Saving Democracy
I Oppose Trump—and Any Efforts to Ban Him From the Ballot — From William Barr, an analysis of the many dangers associated with using the 14th amendment to prevent President Trump from running for a second term. - Saving Democracy
The State of Global Democracy in 2024 — From Francis Fukuyama a year-end update on increasingly serious challenges facing global democracy. - Saving Democracy
The Specter of Nationalism — Identity politics has always influenced elections. In 2024, it will pose a serious threat to liberalism—and to democracy itself. - Authoritarianism
How the Russian Government Silences Wartime Dissent — A look into what Russia is doing to suppress opposition to its war in Ukraine and a window into how brutal, authoritarian regimes can make it impossible to effectively challenge folly and corruption. - Social Complexity
The Welfare-Industrial Complex Is Booming — For those who thought that only the military had an "industrial complex" problem -- a look at how the welfare industry suffers from a similar affliction. - Communication Complexity
In 2024, the Tension Between Macroculture and Microculture Will Turn into War — Surprising new ideas about the significance of little recognized (but critically important) changes in the way in which we generate and share information about our world. - Communication Complexity
The Problem of Misinformation in an Era Without Trust — A provocative analysis of strategies for combating misinformation for a time when there are no widely accepted sources of reliable information. - Social Complexity
This Was a Terrible Year, and Also Maybe the Best One Yet for Humanity — A welcome reminder that, despite the many difficult problems we face, there are many ways in which the human condition continues to make important progress. - Advocacy-Industrial Complex
The Southern Poverty Law Center’s New Enemy: Americans Who Accept Biology — An in-depth (and critical) profile of the Southern Poverty Law Center highlighting the ways in which it achieved its astonishing success (and moved away from its original mission). - Intersectional Left
What is the oppressor/victim mindset and how did it conquer the academy? — From Jon Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, a pair of essays trying to make sense of the surprising surge of anti-Semitic incidents on college campuses. - Social Complexity
Income Inequality Has Been Transformed Globally — An update on changes that have occurred in global income inequality since publication of the original "elephant curve" analysis. - Social Complexity
How the Nineties are haunting millennials — A revealing look back at the end of the Cold War and the many ways in which the events of the turbulent 1990s shaped today's world. - Left / Right Conflict
Democrats! Time to Re-Embrace Merit, Free Speech, and Universalism — A plea for Democrats to strengthen their electoral appeal by rediscovering the wisdom of traditional liberal values -- values that are increasingly viewed with suspicion.
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