Newsletter #73 — January 22, 2023

With our shift to the new newsletter format, we will, for the first time, be devoting entire newsletter issues to the Colleague Activities and Beyond Intractability in Context sections of Beyond Intractability. 

In the Colleague Activities section, we will continue to highlight some of the many things that those in the conflict and peacebuilding fields are doing to apply and extend our collective insights. These links also provide a window into things that people are doing that give us confidence that, at a societal level, a massively parallel approach to intractable conflict can really work.  Feel free to send us suggestions about organizations and projects that we should include.

The Beyond Intractability in Context section links to fascinating stories that have helped us better understand the extraordinary complexity of today's big intractable conflicts and the many contributions that those outside of our field are making to more constructively address those conflicts.  In order to be effective, it is imperative that those in conflict fields understand this broader context and learn from and incorporate these insights into our work. Again, we would appreciate hearing about links that you find valuable and should be included.

Colleague Activities

Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.

• Effective Communication Strategies
  Establishing Conversation Norms and Defusing Conflict — The key to any productive public, civil conversation is ensuring all participants follow a set of expectations and norms. Here's a suggested list of norms to follow.
• Effective Communication Strategies
  Braver Angels Media — Braver Angels' work is about building civic trust in the USA, healing the wounds between left and right.  This video series highlights the stories of the people doing this work.
• Effective Communication Strategies
  Livingroom Conversations Resources — We've highlighted LRC before, but haven't focused on their excellent resources for the times we get together with family and friends.
• Effective Communication Strategies
  Designing Tech for Social Cohesion — A Search For Common Ground conference, exploring how tech design and algorithms can promote pro-social content, instead of divisive content. Feb 23-25 in San Francisco and online.
• Big Picture Thinking Projects
  Crossing the Divide — A set of videos highlighting "incredible individuals" who are pioneering new ways to connect with those on opposing sides in the world's "most intense religious, political, and societal conflicts."
• Big Picture Thinking Projects
  National Conference on Citizenship's Civic Health Index — NCoC has created an index of civic health, while simultaneously working with local partners to strengthen the health of communities nationwide to better define and address local problems.
• Big Picture Thinking Projects
  National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers (NANR) — An association dedicated to structural election reforms that advance the public's interest in robust political competition and a level playing field.
• Power-Sharing Strategies
  Citizens' Assemblies: Democracy that Works — A description of a new form of democracy in which a randomly selected group of citizens does an in-depth analysis of an issue, evaluates possible solutions, and then makes an informed decision.
• Escalation Limiting Projects
  Rise of American Radicalism: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly — A Renew America Foundation study of extremist candidates running for public office in 2022.
• Saving Democracy
  Rebound in Confidence: American Democracy and the 2022 Midterm Elections — A report from Bright Line Watch that found that public confidence in the American election processes improved after the November 2022 midterm elections.

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.

• Positive Perspectives
  America Is on the Right Track — One of the most encouraging and uplifting essays I've read in a long time. It asks us to put aside our worst-case cognitive biases and look at the bigger picture -- one that is far more positive.
• Psychological Complexity
  Mixed Feelings Can Be Worse Than Bad Ones — More insight into the incredible complexities of human psychology. This one looks at the nature of our internal conflicts and what happens when we can't decide what to believe and what to do.
• Psychological Complexity
  What the Longest Study on Human Happiness Found Is the Key to a Good Life — An update on a major effort to understand the factors that contribute to our most complex, important, and elusive social objective -- human happiness.
• Making Collaborative Democracy Work
  The Uncomfortable Truths That Could Yet Defeat Fascism — An essay from the author of "The Persuaders: At the Front Lines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy" that explores ways of reaching those who are turning away from democracy.
• Class Inequity
  How ChatGPT Will Destabilize White-Collar Work — Reflections on what could easily become a highly disruptive new technology. We need to figure out how to use AI to help us solve problems while also preserving rewarding employment opportunities.
• Race / Anti-Racism
  Martin Luther King Would Choose Reflection Over ‘Intersectionality’ — For those trying to understand what Martin Luther King would have to say about our troubled times, an essay emphasizing his beliefs about the importance of personal reflection.
• Improving Problem Assessment
  A Report From the Stanford Academic Freedom Conference — A welcome report about a conference focused on helping universities refocus on their core mission – the promotion of the "critical inquiry and scholarly debate that produces true knowledge."
• Improving Problem Assessment
  The Consolidation-Disruption Index Is Alarming — A critical look at the world of academic publishing that tries to understand why it is generating so few of the bright ideas that we need to meet today's big challenges.
• The Scale and Complexity Problem
  From Spontaneous Order to Ordered Spontaneity — From Jonathan Rauch, thought-provoking reflections on how his view of the complex system that is modern democracy has evolved.
• Social Complexity
  There Is No Right Side of History — A welcome critique of the overused claim that "history is on our side." History is not inevitable, it's what we make of it and, besides, there is no absolutely and universally right set of beliefs.
• Improving Problem Assessment
  Critical Thinking, Reverential Thinking, and Lashing Out — A critical look at critical thinking programs along with ideas about what critical thinking should be and how we can really cultivate it.
• Obstacles to a Unifying Vision
  Activism and Apathy Are Poisoning American Politics — A look at the dangers of a political system that focuses so much of its attention on its angriest citizens -- those that are convinced that the other side's views are wholly illegitimate..
• Gender / LBGTQ+
  Rebalancing the Gender Narrative — A review of Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It by Richard V. Reeve
• Race / Anti-Racism
  The U.S. Government’s Woke Training — Amid all the heated rhetoric about the virtues and vices of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, a rare chance (thanks to a FOIA request) to actually see the materials being used in these programs.
• Class Inequity
  Upward Mobility Is Alive and Well in America — Encouraging news that, despite our many problems and worries, we are continuing to fulfill the American dream of intergenerational upward mobility.

About the MBI Newsletters

Once or twice a week, we will compile BI news, along with new posts from our Hyper-polarization Blog and elsewhere on BI into a Newsletter that will be posted here and sent out by email through Substack to subscribers. You can sign up to receive your copy on our Newsletter Sign Up Page and find the latest newsletter here on our Newsletter page. Past newsletters can be found in the Newsletter Archive. 

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