Newsletter #247 — June 23, 2024
Reader Suggested Links
Highlighting links suggested by our readers. Please send us links to things that you find useful.
- Israel / Hamas War
Israelis Are Not Watching the Same War You Are — The Israeli journalist Amit Segal discusses Benny Gantz’s departure from the war cabinet, Israel’s shift to the right and whether a new theory of security is emerging in Israeli politics. - Israel / Hamas War
Hamas terrorists are playing the West for fools — An argument that many in the West are being tricked by Hamas into supporting policies and actions that they would normally find abhorrent. - Israel / Hamas War
I Went to Cover a Protest. I Was Surrounded by a Mob. — A personal account of what it was like to be a Jewish reporter at the recent pro-Palestinian protests in Manhattan. - Constructive Communication
What J.D. Vance Believes — An interview with Republican Senator J.D. Vance that tries to get beyond simple, left-wing demonization and understand his point of view. - Family / Gender / LBGTQ+
Things Worth Remembering: The Indispensability of Men — Amid all of the criticism of men as patriarchal oppressors, a welcome Father's Day article highlighting the contributions that men make. - Theories of Change
Is the Partisan Divide Too Big to Be Bridged? — A major New York Times report on the many ways in which people are trying to bridge the political divide. - Israel / Hamas War
Is Israel Guilty of Perfidy? — In the context of the Gaza war and the recent hostage rescue, and exploration of the concept of "perfidy" -- prohibitions on launching military attacks while pretending to be civilians.
Colleague Activities
Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.
- Leadership
Revitalizing Political Leadership — A special issue of the journal Democracy, examining ways in which talented and civically minded citizens can be encouraged to enter public service and presenting case studies of where that has already happened to good ends. - Civil Society
Wicked Problems-Wise Cities - Intro video 1 — This first of 3 videos by Martin Carcasson focuses on how the wicked problems lens can help reframe public issues to transform engagement in more productive ways. - Saving Democracy
Generate Democracy! — An open LinkedIn Group for the Inter-movement Impact Project, an effort to build a "movement of many movements," all working to strengthen U.S. democracy in myriad ways. - Civil Society
Trust for Civic Life — Trust for Civic Life pools funds from philanthropists and invests them in locally-led civic programming, bringing Americans together to solve shared problems and move our democracy forward. - Constructive Communication
Elon Musk is making political debate more toxic — here’s how to change course — An op-ed by our colleague Zachary Elwood using the Elon Musk story as an "attention getter" to get readers (and high profile media outlets) to start thinking about polarization as a serious problem. - Developing a Unifying Vision
Thriving Together Springboard — A systems approach to recovering from COVID, this "springboard for equitable recovery and resilience in communities across America" can be applied to future challenges as well. - Civil Society
America Must Face Its Civic Crisis — Politics is no longer a space for civic inquiry, argument, and creativity, but a place where civic hope goes to die. But it’s not dead yet. Everyday Americans are demonstrating how a little civic hope can ignite a chain reaction to build more. - US Election
Not Invited to the Party Primary: Independent Voters and the Problem with Closed Primaries — This report examines who independent voters are, how many there are, shows how they are excluded from primaries, and presents solutions to that problem. - De-Escalation Strategies
Are You Willing to Walk a Mile in Their Media Shoes? — Distorted views of our political opponents often lead us to interpret their news and their positions in the worst possible way. Try watching "their" news to see where they are coming from. - Peacebuilding
Toda Peace Institute Global Outlook - June 20.2024 — Global Outlook articles from Toda Peace Institute’s expert commentators focus on significant developments in treaties and agreements, geopolitical relationships and international legal decisions. - Psychological Complexity
A new kind of political compass: The BridgeUSA Temperament Scale — This scale is a measurement of how willing someone is to engage with people from the other side of the political spectrum whose fundamental beliefs are very different. - Social Complexity
On Relational Infrastructure — Relational infrastructure refers to the social connections, interactions, and collective intelligence that underpin a community, enabling them to work together effectively, pool their resources, and amplify their impact. - Saving Democracy
Reclaiming Our Democracy' book urges advocacy beyond hashtags and petitions — Sam Daley-Harris talks about how everyday people can take democracy back into their own hands.
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.)
- Terror
The Terrorism Warning Lights Are Blinking Red Again — News that the US counterterrorism establishment is growing increasingly alarmed about the possibility that tensions swirling around Gaza will lead to renewed terrorist attacks in the West. - Saving Democracy
Can the Constitution Reconcile America? — A first rate, must-read article defending the U.S. Constitution and its many mechanisms for forcing citizens to compromise and work together. - Israel / Hamas War
At $25 Each, Cigarettes Are Turning Gaza Aid Trucks Into Targets — The report on the surprising relationship between the movement of aid into Gaza, cigarette smuggling, $25 apiece cigarettes, lawless gangs, and the suffering of the people of Gaza. - Left / Right Conflict
Far-Left Extremism Enabled Right-Wing Victories — From a more conservative perspective, a pretty persuasive argument that the extremes of the left are a major factor in the rise of the extreme right. - Saving Democracy
What’s Wrong With Congress (And How to Fix It) — An example of the kind of constructive problem-solving that can, over time, help restore the public's trust in its government. - Social Complexity
The U.S. Economy Reaches Superstar Status — Surprising news about how spectacularly well the US economy is doing despite its destructive politics and widespread sense of pessimism. The invisible hand actually works! - Israel / Hamas War
America Is Losing the Arab World — A look at how the war in Israel is undermining US relations with the Muslim world and the geopolitical implications of that shift — a big part of the reason US policy often seems inconsistent. - Constructive Advocacy
Something Is Wrong — A perceptive exploration of the tension between ideological and people-centered politics. - Israel / Hamas War
Gen Z Palestinians See Door Slamming Shut on Coexistence With Israel — An article describing what it's like to be a young Palestinian adult witnessing the collapse of prospects for a peaceful future. - Authoritarianism
Trump’s Plan to Expand Executive Power — In the wake of President Biden's many efforts to claim an expansive view of presidential power, a look at Republican plans to do something similar, should they win the next election. - US Election
Trump Would Be Long Gone if Only We Could … — A summary, with lots of links, into the efforts of political scientists to understand President Trump's remarkable political resilience. - Civil Society
Electing prosecutors is a terrible idea. Trump’s conviction shows why. — A pretty convincing argument against electing prosecutors and especially prosecutors who promise to pursue specific political figures. - Social Complexity
What Will Become of American Civilization? — An in-depth look at the complex societal trends swirling around Phoenix and what they have to tell us about the future of the United States. - Media Reform
Journalism Needs Cultural Adjacency — A perceptive analysis of how reporting suffers when there are deep cultural differences between journalists and the people that they are writing about. - Communication Complexity
My First Job, at the Stanford Internet Observatory — A first person account of the rise and fall of the Stanford Internet Observatory -- an effort to control online disinformation that has been accused of promoting its own brand of disinformation. - Psychological Complexity
The Photo-Negative Ideology — A perceptive analysis of the complex psychological process through which we shape the storylines that enable us to make sense of the world in which we live. - Climate / Environment
Recycling Plastic Is a Dangerous Waste of Time — A report on an alarming study that suggests that factories that grind up plastics to recycle them are actually the biggest source of micro-plastic pollution. Proof that good intentions are not enough. - Theories of Change
Why Activists Keep Failing the Causes That Fire Them Up — A timely analysis of the factors that determine whether the efforts of activists will ultimately produce the desired results. - Theories of Change
No, I Don’t Want to Protest — A personal essay that explains why the author doesn't believe that public protests are a very effective way of bringing about desired changes. - Family / Gender / LBGTQ+
What to Do About the Gender Divide — A Gen Z essay exploring the many ways in which the deepening gender divide is likely to adversely affect their future and thoughts about what to do about it. - Ethics
What Exactly Did Justice Alito Say That Was Wrong? — Amid all of the turmoil over Justice Alito's surreptitiously recorded comments -- a look at the ethical questions involved,
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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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