Newsletter #224 — March 28, 2024
With this newsletter, we are renaming our weekly Colleague and Context Links newsletter to Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Links. This change reflects the fact that these newsletters have always been focused on highlighting things that people within conflict-related fields (Colleague) and those working outside those fields (Context) are doing to promote more constructive approaches to conflict. The name change simply makes it clearer that all of these links go to activities that fall within our massively parallel framework.
Reader Suggested Links
Highlighting links suggested by our readers. Please send us links to things that you find useful.
- Left / Right Conflict
What is the Building Civic Bridges Act and Why Support it? — A set of essays from conflict resolvers, advocates, a retired four-star general, an educator, a business leader, and others about why the Building Civic Briedges Act is so important. - US Election
U.S. Supreme Court Justices Join Governors To Discuss Overcoming Political Division — Hopeful news about prominent government officials actively working to try to defuse hyperpolarization. - Israel / Hamas War
What Would You Have Israel Do to Defend Itself? — An exceptionally complete and thorough analysis of the pros and cons of the many strategies that Israel's critics have suggested that they pursue. - Israel / Hamas War
The Mass Killing in Gaza Will Poison Israeli Souls Forever — From the Israeli perspective, reflections on the terrible psychological and cultural costs associated with the war in Gaza. - Israel / Hamas War
The Great Rupture in American Jewish Life — Provocative thoughts on how the events surrounding October 7 have transformed Jewish life in United States and around the world. - Israel / Hamas War
On the Loneliness of the Jews — Reflections on what it is like to live in Israel and to be a Jew amid the ongoing war and the global explosion of antisemitism. - Israel / Hamas War
The Factions in Gaza: A Comprehensive Overview. — A surprising look at the social complexity of Gaza. - Culture and Religion
The War on Citizenship — A provocative essay on the nature and meaning of nationalism and citizenship and a primer on the conflict between conflicting views on this issue. - Israel / Hamas War
Israel Has Created a New Standard for Urban Warfare. Why Will No One Admit It? — Those who are demanding that Israel do all that it can to limit civilian casualties ought to at least acknowledge its efforts to do so.
Colleague Activities
Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.
- Communication Complexity
Is a US news ‘nexit’ underway, and how can we stop it? — Benjamin Klutsey, director of the Program on Pluralism and Civil Exchange at George Mason University' writes in The Hill about how to be a more thoughtful consumer of the news. - Interstate War
Nuclear War Impacts on Distant, Non-Combatant Countries — An investigation on the multiple impacts New Zealand might face if nuclear weapons are used elsewhere. Though the risks are substantial, New Zealand and other noncombatants can make changes now to become less vulnerable. - Authoritarianism
American Autocracy Threat Tracker — A comprehensive catalog based on Donald Trump and his associates’ plans, promises, and propositions based on Heritage Foundation’s 2025 Presidential Transition Project (Project 2025) and Trump's own words. - Conflict Advice
6 Steps for Mending a Politically Strained Relationship — 1/5 of all Americans say politics has harmed a close relationship. If you are one of them, here are six steps you can take to repair the damage and restore the friendship. - Developing a Unifying Vision
How Contempt Destroys Democracy — Zach Elwood is distributing his second ebook free to subscribers to his substack: Defusing American Anger: A Depolarization Endeavor. This is a "pre-release" but he's eager for comments. - Climate Change
The Climate Emergency, Conflict and Peace — Part of the Toda Peace Institute's Peace Seminar Series. Dr. Volker Boege discusses why it is important for peace research and practice to engage with the climate crisis. - Large-Scale Violence
The Day After Violence, The World Needs You. — Shamil Idriss is visiting Israel and reporting on the work that Search for Common Ground teams are doing in the West Bank and Gaza. - Superpower Conflict
Is the current world order a clash of ideologies: Liberal Dictatorship vs. a Pluralism of Traditions? — This article suggests that the current world order is characterized by a clash of ideologies: on one side, a perceived liberal dictatorship, and on the other, a call for a pluralism of traditions. - De-Escalation Strategies
True or False? Political Passion Is at Odds with Depolarization — One can work toward any political goal while trying to reduce toxic polarization. In fact, taking less polarizing approaches can aid one’s political activism. - Developing a Unifying Vision
Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century — A report by the Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship on how we can work together, instead of against each other to achieve a true democracy. - US Election
First Principles — The newsletter of Common Sense 250, this issue proposes a new political coalition in the U.S. based on "first principles" that are supportive of the Constitution. This issue lists what those are. - Constructive Communication
Knowledge Sharing for Collective Growth — A video of a conversation with longtime "network weaver" June Holley talking about conflict transformation, learning communities, network and knowledge weaving, and self organizing for productive change. - Runaway Escalation
The Most Engaged Are The Most Partisan. Now What? — The most educated, most engaged citizens are the most partisan. Today's biggest threat to democracy is a poisonous cocktail of othering, aversion and moralization.
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.
- Left / Right Conflict
America’s Most Overlooked Political Divide Is Also Its Most Revealing — A persuasive argument that we ought to be paying a lot more attention to the conflict between political activists and everyday citizens. - Saving Democracy
How to beat the backlash that threatens the liberal revolution — From Fareed Zakaria, an overview of his major new analysis of threats to liberal democracy. - Superpower Conflict
The Rise of Western Individualism — A look at what makes liberal, democratic, capitalistic, and individualistic societies so different (and a reminder that culture matters). - Class Inequity
Why good news about inequality is awkward for the left and right — Eye-opening news about serious flaws in the way in which we have, for decades, been calculating statistics about poverty and the level of inequality. - Climate Change
The ‘Blood Bath’ Battle and the Electric Car War — An exploration of the looming political battle over EV vehicle mandates (and the way in which that debate is being expressed in 2024 campaign rhetoric). - Discrimination
Weather forecasts have become much more accurate; we now need to make them available to everyone — News that, with respect to the weather, we actually are getting much more proficient at making predictions. - Education
The Coddling of the American Undergraduate — A look at the nature and implications of the United States' current approach to higher education. - Artificial Intelligence
Beating Back Cancel Culture: A Case Study from the Field of Artificial Intelligence — From within the AI community, an analysis of the conflict over how best to handle demands that AI produce DEI sensitive results. - Conflict Advice
How To Choose A Romantic Partner — Practical advice on how to avoid destructive conflict in, perhaps, our most important relationship. - Authoritarianism
The Long, Twisted History of Russia and ISIS — For those trying to understand the back story behind the ISIS attack on Moscow, this is a good place to start. - Race / Anti-Racism
DEI killed the CHIPS Act — With respect to the Biden administration's efforts to onshore computer chip production, a look at how deeply DEI has become embedded in everything the federal government does. - Suppressing Opponents
Governments Are Creating A Fake Hate Panic To Censor, Interfere In Elections, And Imprison Their Political Enemies — A critical look at the vast apparatus that is being mobilized to combat hate speech (as least as it is seen from the political left). - Saving Democracy
The One Idea That Could Save American Democracy — Another idea about something we could do to limit the threats to democracy in the US and elsewhere. - Climate Change
California’s Electricity Disaster In Seven Charts — If we are going to save the climate by electrifying everything, then we better be able to produce a lot of clean electricity. - Conflict Advice
Whatever You Do, Don’t Do the Silent Treatment — Sound advice for those in the midst of difficult interpersonal conflict. - US Election
Too Much Purity Is Bad for the Left — Practical advice for Democrats who want to win this fall's election, be more compromising and open to political diversity. - Culture and Religion
The Metamodern Shift in the Culture Wars — A story about a valuable new word, "metamodern," and an explanation of how it can help us better deal with the world's complexities and contradictions. - Social Complexity
Whatever Happened to Teen Babysitters? — With respect to the disappearance of teenage babysitters, story about the process of cultural evolution. - Artificial Intelligence
Plentiful, high-paying jobs in the age of AI — Hopeful news that, even in the age of AI, humans will have a valuable (and well compensated) role to play. - Hate Mongering
Don’t Let Your Disgust Be Manipulated — An explanation of a common propaganda technique and advice on how to resist it. - US Election
Democrats Are Meddling in Republican Primaries — A deeply disturbing story about how Democrats are fueling the extremes of Trumpism in hopes of making it easier to win elections. And, this is the party that wants your vote because it's willing to fight Trump! - Crime / Policing / Guns
The police are in the wrong places — An exploration of an obvious and much neglected reason why we can't effectively fight crime -- we can't afford enough police officers in areas plagued by crime. - Improving Problem Assessment
What a COVID-19 Food Fight Says About Scientific Discourse — Things that everybody should know about the ways in which partisanship often distorts the work of science journalists. - Israel / Hamas War
Port Of Hope – Part II: The Peaceful Future Of The Israel-Palestinian Conflict Depends On Ousting Qatar From Any Involvement In It — A follow-up on an earlier story we posted from MEMRI about the "Port of Hope." - Interstate War
War and Peace Data — An extensive compilation of data on the full range of war and peace issues. - Freedom of Speech
USAID Internal Documents Reveal Government Plot To Promote Censorship Initiatives — Useful new information for those trying to figure out what they think about stories of government censorship initiatives. - Freedom of Speech
Google and the Gemini Debacle — In the case of Google, more information about how DEI is altering the kind of "intelligence" produced by AI.
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About the MBI Newsletters
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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