Newsletter #260 — August 4, 2024
Reader Suggested Links
Highlighting links suggested by our readers. Please send us links to things that you find useful.
- Family / Gender / LBGTQ+
What Is America’s Gender War Actually About? — It is clear that gender has become a principal fault line in US politics. This insightful essay explores the nature of that fault line. - Intersectional Left
Progressives Need To Stop Lecturing White Voters About Their Privilege — An exploration of the political downsides of the progressive focus on "white privilege." - Violence
200 miles from where Trump was shot, ordinary citizens combat political violence — While Trump's attempted assassination grabbed the headlines, ordinary citizens have been taking concrete steps to reduce the level of political violence (and threats of violence) in their communities. - Israel / Hamas War
Ismail Haniyeh’s Assassination Sends a Message — Thoughts on the role of political assassination as a military strategy and its applicability to leaders who blithely sacrifice their own people. - Intersectional Left
Illiberal Liberalism — Progressives who advocate for illiberal policies aren't Marxists or postmodernists. They turn liberalism's tools against itself. - Israel / Hamas War
On the Brink of War, Hezbollah Is Emboldened in a Crippled Lebanon — As we stand on the brink of a war between Israel and Hezbollah (a war that will be fought in both Lebanon and Israel), an insightful primer on what we ought to know. - Israel / Hamas War
'We need to flip the equation: Land for peace? Yes, but they should pay us with land for the peace we grant them' — A thought-provoking (and doubtless controversial) interview with one of Israel's most prominent experts on Islam with thoughts about the current crisis which are worth considering.
Colleague Activities
Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.
- Effective Problem-Solving
Are You Really Thinking Critically? Let's Find Out! — Separating Critical Thought from Cynical Noise with David Beckenmeyer and science educator Melanie Trecek-King. - Effective Problem-Solving
The Thinking Citizen — Ashok Panikkar asks whether this is an oxymoron or an existential imperative. Given that successful democracies are dependent upon THE PEOPLE, he concludes that deep thought is essential for democracy. - Saving Democracy
Podcast: Leaning into Paradox: How We Can Block, Bridge & Build Our Democratic Future Together — An audio recording of Horizons’ Julia Roig and Jarvis Williams’ session at the recent Othering & Belonging Institute conference on the "block, bridge, and build" strategy. - Constructive Communication
A Free Education Resource that Helps Students Engage Across Differences in Better Ways — The guide includes best practices, resources, and recommendations for those working in middle school to college education to promote critical thinking, ideological diversity, empathy, respect, and tolerance of others. - Superpower Conflict
The Quad, Maritime Security, and Climate Change — The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue with Australia, Japan, India and the US, is now broadening its focus beyond simply countering China to combatting climate change and other security threats in the Indo-Pacific region. - Violence
"We should not allow violence to be our answer" — More in Common surveyed Americans after Trump was shot. They found Americans were concerned about future violence, yet fears may be based on skewed perceptions of their fellow Americans’ support for political violence. - Developing a Unifying Vision
Are Grievances Running Our Nation and Is Political Forgiveness Our Way Out? — The June issue of Political Forgiveness Monthly is a deep dive into how we as a country got to this high tide of grievance and how humility can pull us back to a place of listening and mutual trust. - Saving Democracy
Harnessing our Power to End Political Violence: 2024 Guide — A guide for communities across the United States to organize to counter political violence. The guide is about taking action "because individuals and communities must organize in order to bring about a better democracy and country." - Abortion
Should Abortion Laws Be the Same Everywhere? – BCB #112 — How each party is handling abortion underscores a perennial tension between two deeply American principles: universal rights and self-determination. - Developing a Unifying Vision
The Mediators' Foundation Newsletter — The Mediators' Foundation highlights useful articles by its members and colleagues that relate to helping us all build a better, more just and more peaceful world. - Psychological Complexity
The Brain on Authoritarianism — Better understanding the brain's response to fear, toxic othering, and threats to social identity will help pro-democracy organizers to confront the authoritarian playbook. - Theories of Change
The system within: Addressing the inner dimensions of sustainability and systems transformation — This paper highlights the overlooked inner dimension of system change, and offers systems thinkers the language to advocate for psychological, social and spiritual factors crucial to sustainable solutions. - Civic Education
America Must Face Its Civic Crisis — No matter who wins the U.S. election, the return of civic hope—and with it, the future of our democracy—depends on the return of the citizen: the conceptual and practical restoration of everyday Americans to the center of self-government. - Civic Education
Fostering Civic Renewal and Building Bridges with Braver Angels — NCDD has consolidated the insights, ideas, and meeting notes from various individuals and groups as they recapped the 2024 Braver Angels Convention
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.)
- De-Escalation Strategies
The Secret Power of Using ‘We’ During Difficult Conversations — This simple change in language and, more importantly, the way we think about conflict can have huge and quite beneficial implications. - Authoritarianism
America’s Political Chaos Is Enviable When You Live in an Autocracy — Before complaining too much about living in the land of political turmoil and omnipresent politics, consider living in country where that none of that is legal or possible. - Social Complexity
Learn This Term: ‘Whole of Society’ — The report on a new theory of change for political parties and social movements seeking to transform society (and a source of concern for those who oppose them). - Effective Problem-Solving
Inside the Secret Negotiations to Free Evan Gershkovich — The report on the complex negotiations surrounding the recent prisoner exchange (and disturbing news about how authoritarian regimes are profiting from a hostage-taking strategy). - Saving Democracy
How to harden our defenses against an authoritarian president — A call for taking the steps needed to close the legal loopholes that could allow an unscrupulous president to bypass our system of checks and balances. - Race / Anti-Racism
Who Can Achieve the American Dream? Race Matters Less Than It Used To. — The report on a new study that further illuminates the complex economic relationship between race and class. - Race / Anti-Racism
Merit, Excellence and Intelligence: An Anti-DEI Approach Catches On — The report on a new and doubtless controversial alternative to diversity equity and inclusion programs worth considering and debating. - Class Inequity
What Gives Poor Kids a Shot at Better Lives? Economists Find an Unexpected Answer — A summary of a new analysis of the factors that determine intergenerational social mobility (the ability of poor kids to move up the economic ladder). - Race / Anti-Racism
Poor Black Kids Are Doing Better. Poor White Kids Are Doing Worse. — A report on surprising racial disparities in our ability to alleviate intergenerational poverty. - Saving Democracy
In Praise of First-Past-the-Post — A compare and contrast article exploring the implications of the two principal ways in which democracies select members of legislative bodies. - Media Reform
Twitter, Elon and the Indigo Blob — From Nate Silver, reflections on the evolving media environment in which debates regarding the upcoming US election would be played out. - Israel / Hamas War
The Strange Resurrection of the Two-State Solution — From Foreign Affairs, updated reflections on the "two-state solution" and the reasons why it is the only path toward "resolving" the conflict. The question is, is "resolution" possible? - Left / Right Conflict
Can Blue States Build? — Reflections on the far-reaching implications of the startling fact -- it is Texas, not California, that is the national leader in clean-energy generation. - Saving Democracy
The Founders Saw This Insane Political Moment Coming 237 Years Ago — For those who might think that, among the radical changes associated with our high-tech world, there is nothing we can learn from history -- news that the "founding fathers" anticipated our current crisis. - US Election
My Fellow Republicans: Stop the Trash Talk — From a Republican perspective, a reminder that disrespectful, dehumanizing language is bad politics and bad for democracy -- a lesson that Democrats should learn as well. - US Election
Trump’s Most Radical Plan — Amid all of the uncertainty about what a second Trump presidency would mean for the United States, a report on what might be its most consequential change (the politicalization of the civil service). - Culture and Religion
Social Conservatism Is Alive and Well — An exploration of the surprising resurgence of more traditional and conservative family values and lifestyles. - Saving Democracy
How to fix presidential primaries — Thoughtful ideas for improving our politics by reforming the process through which the major parties select presidential candidates. - US Election
Who's "weird"? — As Democrats decide to brand their Republican opponents as "weird," a thoughtful, in-depth analysis of the complex issues that this raises. - Saving Democracy
A case study in why political parties matter — An explanation of the positive role that political parties can play in moderating the extremes of popular opinion. - US Election
The Harris Coalition Is *Not* the Second Coming of the Obama Coalition — Important reflections on how political demographics have changed since the Obama years.
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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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