ChatGPT and Claude Prompts

Generic Prompt Section 

(This is used for all our prompts, although it has been developing over time.  So some of the early essays didn't have all of these instructions.)

I am continuing on with the introductory essay project. These essays go at the beginning of the pages that make up Beyond Intractability's Constructive Conflict Guide. Each essay should be between 3-5 paragraphs long, and include the key ideas on the topic I ask for, and anything else that seems important. Please show all your sources as inline links in the text.

Please write this article in a plain vanilla .html format suitable for pasting into Drupal and integrate references as links within the text.

Try to avoid long lists of elements, separated by commas, for example: 

"When power is concentrated in the hands of one leader, party, faction, military, or ruling family, the public loses many of the peaceful tools it needs to resolve conflicts and correct mistakes. Independent courts, opposition parties, watchdog journalists, civil society groups, professional experts, legislatures, and elections all serve as warning systems. They expose corruption, policy failure, abuse, incompetence, and cruelty. Authoritarian systems weaken or silence these warning systems because they limit the ruler’s freedom of action."

The ideas here are fine, but these long lists aren't something a good author would use, at least not nearly as often as you tend to.

Also, put in this introductory line before what you write:

<p class="text-align-center"> This introductory article was written by ChatGPT at the direction of Heidi Burgess, who reviewed, edited, and approved the final content.&nbsp;<br> <a href="#chad" target="_blank">For more information</a> </p> 

Then, in a new line, centered, insert today's date in the format Month ##, Year

Then, at the end,  after your writing,  put this: <p> ————————— </p> <p> <em><a id="chad"></a><strong>This page was created by ChatGPT</strong> in response to </em><a href="/AI-prompts#xxx" target="_blank"><em>this prompt</em></a><em>. It was then reviewed, edited, supplemented and approved by Heidi Burgess. More information about how and why we are using AI in this way, and about the growing number of ways in which Beyond Intractability is using ChatGPT, Claude and other AI systems to generate content and build out the BI system, is available on our </em><a href="/BI-use-of-AI"><em>BI/AI Overview Page</em></a><em>.&nbsp;</em> </p> 

Also, I noticed in the last essay you wrote that it seemed like you were having trouble coming up with 5 paragraphs and seemed to pad it a bit. If there isn't 5 paragraphs of material, stopping at 3 or 4 is fine. Don't pad your answers to fit my criteria. Say what needs to be said.

Also, one more instruction that applies to all these essays. If you are quoting something on https://www.beyondintractability.org, please don't include that in the link; just put in the relative link as these are going on the beyondintractability.org website, so we only need relative, not absolute links for those uses.

Prompts for Specific Essays, in Alphabestical Order

Accurately Communicating Factual Information That People Can Use

The next essay is "Accurately Communicating Factual Information That People Can Use." Given the amount of disinformation floating around, people tend to distrust "facts," unless they reinforce what they already know, or at least come from a trusted source. This section discusses about how to be such a source and how to communicate facts in ways people will understand and believe.

Administrative Processes

I now need a similar essay on administrative processes. What is the executive branch supposed to do, and how does it relate to (1) the other two branches of government, and the various administrative agencies.  Administrative processes are very controversial when the U.S. President issues executive orders that seem to overstep his bounds, or his administration does things that seem to violate either the Constitution or laws passed by Congress and signed by an earlier administration (hence, having the force of law). They are also controversial when people with no background are put into leadership positions for political reasons -- for instance RFK being put as the head of Health and Human Services. 

Please write this article in a plain vanilla .html format suitable for pasting into Drupal and integrate references as links within the text.

Alienated Nihilists

The next essay is on "Alienated Nihilists" -- another type of bad-faith actor. Nihilists are people who are so alienated from and hostile toward the larger society that they have given up hope of finding a desirable place for themselves. Some adopt the goal of simply destroying whatever they can.

Amplifying and Speeding the Natural Conflict Learning Process

Now I need an essay on "Amplifying and Speeding the Natural Conflict Learning Process." Guy often points out that "conflict is the engine of social learning."  When there is no conflict, people assume everything is okay, there is no need to change, even if some people are being treated very unfairly or are suffering immensely.  If they just lie low and "take it," assuming it is "their place," nothing will change. So conflict must be engaged to help people learn better ways of doing things.  But in order for the learning to result in a better society (or community or organization or family), the conflict must be engaged in constructively. MPP is designed to help speed up the natrual conflict learning process. It helps people understand that there are many different roles that need to be played in complex intractable conflicts, and MPP is a way of looking at everything that needs to be done as a cohesive whole. MPP is not a new idea; rather it is a new term to describe a process that has long been happening. But it can be sped up by getting people to understand how it works, and facilitating more awareness of what others are doing and coordinating or collaborating where it makes sense.

Assuring Fair and Effective Administrative Processes

Now we need a parallel essay on Assuring Fair and Effective Administrative Processes. At the federal state and local level, executive branches of government are responsible for faithfully executing the laws and assuring the effective day-to-day functioning of government. To function successfully, this requires input from and oversight by citizens, interest groups, a free press, as well as independent judicial oversight. And leaders: mayors, governors, Presidents, and agency directors all should take the rule of law and limits on their powers seriously and not try to overstep their authority.

Assuring Fair and Effective Law Enforcement

In the same series, I now need an essay on Assuring Fair and Effective Law Enforcement. Efforts to assure that law enforcement officers faithfully protect and serve the citizenry require a complex array of programs designed to provide effective oversight while also building positive police/community relationships. Charges of racial profiling, excessive use of force, and inadequate police presence in high-crime areas are all issues that create distrust, which then, ironically, can make it harder for police to do a good job, and sometimes reduces the incentive for them to do so (when, for instance, citizens are calling to "defund the police."

Assuring Legitimate Judicial Processes

And another in this series is "Assuring Legitimate Judicial Processes " For the judiciary to fulfill its responsibilities in the democratic system of checks and balances, the public needs to understand the judiciary's role -- ensuring the integrity of the laws (but not making law) --and the justices need to follow that dictum as well. They may not like how a law is written, or even some aspect of the Consitution, but it is not their job to change those laws. They can only make sure the laws that exist are properly followed.

Assuring The Military's Apolitical Focus on National Defense

The last essay in this series is on Assuring The Military's Apolitical Focus on National Defense. It is imperative that the military maintains its professional focus on national defense and does not become involved in or a party to domestic political disputes.This becomes tricky when one political party accusses the other of using the military illegitimately, or engaging in illegal military activity.

Authoritarian Threats to Be Overcome

The next essay I need is one on authoritarian threats to be overcome. Focus, particularly on the United States and the authoritarian threats that are currently being perceived by the left (on account of actions of Pres. Trump and the Republicans more broadly, and also threats seen on the right, based on actions of the Pres. Biden and others on the left.

Build and Repair Relationships

Now I need an essay on building and repairing relationships. Society, as well as smaller assemblies of people, are built on relationships. When relationships are loving, respectful, friendly, and trusting, conflicts can usually be resolved without great difficulty. When relationships break down, or never existed, conflict resolution and problem solving becomes much more difficult. So an early step in dealing effectively with intractable conflicts is strengthening the relationship between the disputants--increasing their understanding of each other, their empathy with each other, and their trust of each other (among other factors).

Challenging Domestic Authoritarian Tendencies

Please do the same for Challenging Domestic Authoritarian Tendencies. Here I would like you to build on your essay on "Authoritarian Threats to be Overcome" by showing how those wanting to block those threats can do so without simply making partisan arguments and increasing polarization.

Challenging External Authoritarian Threats

Now do the same thing for the topic "Challenging External Authoritarian Threats" such as threats of other countries meddling in our elections, information flows, and other hybrid and kinetic warfare threats against liberal democracies worldwide.

Climate and Environmental Issues:

Now I need a similar overview essay on climate and other environmental issues.

Collaboration Problems

The first essay I want you to work on is Collaboration Problems. I already wrote a short intro to this one, but I think you can flesh it out a little bit and do better. My short intro was: "The most common overlay problem preventing successful collaboration is one we have talked about already: zero-sum or win-lose framing. Disputants often believe that they cannot get what they want, unless the take it from “the enemy.” They assume that any “win” on their side is necessarily a “loss” to the other side, and vice versa: the wins and the losses always add up to zero, hence the name “zero-sum” framing. In many cases, this means that they don’t even try collaboration, because they don’t want to take the risk they might have to give up something. Alternatively, they may try collaboration, but then work in any of a number of nefarious ways to undermine the process, such that they either “win big,” or the processes fails entirely. Another common problem is that people assume that they cannot collaborate with “the enemy,” because they will be perceived by their own side as being weak, or being a “traitor.” Is there anything else I should have said? It seems you could go one step further, explaining the impact of missed collaborative opportunities on the health of democracy and our societal inability to solve pressing problems.

Communication Complexity:

People act on the basis of what they have learned about the actions of others through society's complex array of communication mechanisms including both face-to-face interactions and many types of print and electronic media. Can you give me and intro essay that talks about this in simple html that can be copied into Drupal, with my standard paragraphs about how you and I collaborated in this effort at both the top and the bottom.

Communication Technology Problems 

The Constructive Conflict Guide  is intended as a comprehensive resource to help people understand the causes and consequences of intractable conflicts and the ways in which we can all help handle these conflicts more constructively — from the interpersonal to the societal level. It consists of a collection of more than 5,000 internal BI and external web pages, organized around over 300 topics. We are asking you to help us write four to five paragraph introductory essays for many of these topics.

Now we would like you to create an introduction to the section that is currently called "High-Tech Communication Media Problems," but I am proposing we rename it "Communication Technology Problems." That title isn't great either--if you could suggest a better title, we'd be open to it.  The description we have for this topic is "Social media, the Internet, and cable TV has made it trivially easy to reach millions of people with destructive and deceptive information instantaneously and almost for free.  And the technology has advanced far more quickly than the social knowledge about how to control it, or control the damage it is doing to our individual and social well-being. This topic is in the Guide section "communication failures," which is one of our "conflict overlay problems."

Please flesh out the core problems these technologies are creating with sources and examples. And again,  write this article in a plain vanilla .html format suitable for pasting into Drupal and integrate references as links within the text.

Complexify Worldview

The next essay I need is on "Complexify Worldview." Many of us assume that most of our socioeconomic and political problems are caused by the other side, if not one particular person on the other side. While some people with a lot of power can, indeed, be very problematic, the system is always much more complex than one "bad guy." We need to develop a much more complex and nuanced sense of the conflict system we are in, recognizing that there are multiple causes (often including "us") that are contributing to any particular problem.

Conflict Profiteers

Now we need an intro essay on what we call "conflict profiteers" and others call "conflict entrepreneurs" -- people who stand to profit from continued conflict, so they not only try to block conflict resolution or peace agreements, but they actively work to stoke conflict by making people hate each other, and be more afraid of each other than they might otherwise be. Again, use examples, write in plain html with the same header and footer.

Confidence Building

The next essay ( and the last in the section on overcoming escalation and hyper polarization is on "conflidence building." Distrust is a common problem in intractable conflicts. Confidence building measures are ways to help parties rebuild trust to the point that the might be able to successfully negotiate an agreement and/or work together to solve a joint problem.

Constructive Social Media and Mass Communication

The next esssay is Constructive Social Media and Mass Communication. Both traditional mass media and social media has been highlighted as a driver of misinformation, anger, fear, and hate. But some efforts are being made to utilize both traditional media and social media in pro-social, conflict reducing ways. This section looks both at what is being done, and what more could be done to make media a problem solver more than a problem creator.

Cooling Off and Anger Management

The next essay is on "Cooling Off and Anger Management." This section looks at a variety of strategies that can be used by disputants and/or third parties to cool down heated situations and calm anger. Cooling off periods (as frequently used by labor managment mediators) and "going to the balcony," as William Ury suggests in Getting Past No are two examples. Pyschologists have many more tricks, probably, though I'm not expert here--deep breathing is likely one example. Please add more.

Correcting Misunderstandings

Now we are in the section on limiting communication problems. The first essay I need is entitled "Correcting Misunderstandings." This is important because in intractable conflicts, people tend to assume the worst in their opponents, and interpret anything they say in negative ways. They also have very negative stereotypes about the other, believing that they are much more extreme or "off the wall" than is usually recognized. More in Common's research on The Perception Gap illustrates clearly that there is often there is much more agreement than is recognized. They did research on the red-blue divide, but this is usually true in other divisions as well.

Countering Targetcast Deception

The next essay is on countering targetcast deception. Targetcasting is a new kind of advanced, high-tech propaganda. It uses the detailed individual profiles now commercially available to craft individualized messages tailored to each voters preconceptions and prejudices. How do you fight this?

Crisis-Related Time and Information Pressures

The next page I need is an intro essay for is entitled "Crisis-Related Time and Information Pressures." The idea here is that in a crisis, there is no time to collect all the information and analyze the situation as well as one might wish. And in complex systems, it is never possible to completely understand the nature of a problem, and what needs to be done to fix it. So one has to guess, based on the information one has. The more pressed for time decision makers are, and the more biased/siloed their information is, the more difficult it is to make good decisions. Can you find anyone else (credible source) who has written about this, particularly with examples of when things have gone wrong, or at least not as well as hoped, because of time pressures preventing good decision making?"

ChatGPT's original examples were not conflict related (except for 9-11), so we asked it to find more conflict related examples. We then asked it to clarify several things about those examples, after which Heidi used a combination of her and its language to flesh out this entry. 

Cultivating Compromise

The article this time is "Cultivating Compromise and it is in the section on Massively Parallel Goals. So it links too, certainly, the ideas you wrote before about how people don't like to or are afraid of compromise (or they punish leaders who compromise) because they think it is giving in. But this presents it as a goal of MPP. If we are to create a power-with, rather than a power-over democracy, compromise is very necessary for coming up with decisions that work for the large majority of the population. Within almost all conflicts there are mutually beneficial ways of resolving at least some of the issues (at least as compared to alternatives) . The key is learning how to identify and take advantage of this "zone of possible agreement."

Cultivating Respect for Identity Groups

Societies tend to be divided into competing identity groups with differing circumstances, values, histories, and priorities.  Massively parallel problem-solving requires respectful coexistence, if possible, and constructive (as opposed to destructive) confrontation, if not. That means both leaders and grassroots citizens need to steer away from us-versus-them, good-side versus bad-side framing. Instead, it is important treat people on the other side who believe and seek very different things with respect, assuming (at first, at least) that they have legitimate reasons for believing and doing as they do. If you later find out that their reasons for acting are nefarious, then you can make it clear that you oppose such actions.  But one's initial stance should be respect, not suspicion.

De-Escalation

Next, I need an essay on de-escalation. De-escalation can take place through de-escalatory language (such as I messages and active listening) and de-escalatory behaviors such as conciliatory gestures, gradual reduction in tension (GRIT) and other measures designed to break negative stereotypes and build confidence between groups. We have written a lot on de-escalation: https://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/limiting_escalation, https://www.beyondintractability.org/cci-mbi-cv19-blog/burgess-de-escalate-pt1, https://www.beyondintractability.org/cci-mbi-cv19-blog/burgess-de-escalate-pt2, among other things. You can use these resources and any others that seem relevant for this essay.

Defending Objectivity and Conducting Trustworthy and Trusted Analyses.

\Now we are into a new section: Resolving Fact-Based Sources of Conflict. I already wrote the intro essay for that folder, but need the first sub-topic: "Defending Objectivity and Conducting Trustworthy and Trusted Analyses." Social issues are usually so complicated that we need to depend on experts to explain the "science" or the "facts" behind the issue. Experts must not only use good scientific methods to conduct their research; they must also be able to explain their findings to the public in understandable and trustworthy ways. Unfortunately enough scientists have altered techniques and/or results to support a particular political position, that they have tarnished the credibility of "science" and "expertise" overall. The result is that many people, including some politicians o not trust any scientist or expert, thinking their own observations are "more accurate." That is seldom the case, and it makes solving highly technical, complex problems essentially impossible.

Deliberation

The next essay is on Deliberation. According to the Center for Public Deliberation, "Deliberation is an approach to politics in which citizens, not just experts or politicians, are deeply involved in community problem solving and public decision making. Working with trained facilitators who utilize a variety of deliberative techniques, citizens come together to: Learn about the issue, Talk with, not past, each other, Consider diverse points of view, Discover key tensions and values, Spark new ideas, Make decisions.

The National Center for Dialogue and Deliberation defines it this way: Deliberation is the kind of reasoning and talking we do when a difficult decision has to be made, a great deal is at stake, and there are competing options or approaches we might take. At the heart of deliberation is weighing possible actions and decisions carefully, by examining their costs and consequences in light of what is most valuable to us. Deliberation can take place in any kind of conversation–including dialogue, debate and discussion. Tom Atlee’s definition of deliberation is “thorough, thoughtful consideration of how to best address an issue or situation, covering a wide range of information, perspectives and potential consequences of diverse approaches.” please write an essay that explains what deliberation is and why it is useful using these sources as well as others.

Democratic and Authoritarian Strategies for Handling Complexity

The next essay I need is entitled " Democratic and Authoritarian Strategies for Handling Complexity" In democracies, societal complexities are handled through division of labor-based, distributed decision-making in which different agencies with subject-matter experts create rules and regulations to implement laws passed by Congress.  This tends to result in better decisions than  the authoritarian approach in which the leader tries to dictate everything. On the other hand, democratic decision making can be much slower, causing some people to yearn for a dictator who would decide things as they want much more quickly, by fiat.  The problem with such an approach, of course, is that such one-sided solutions often (perhaps most often) do not work, either because they are opposed by a significant part of the population, which will work to block them, and/or they are based on an inaccurate understanding of the problem in the first place. Again, give examples, and put in the "standard boiler plate."

Develop Constructive Uses of Information Technology

The next essay is "Develop Constructive Uses of Information Technology." Much attention is being paid to the conflict-exacerbating uses of IT, but it can (and is) also being used to bridge divides, increase intergroup understanding, and help build peace. Please write an essay giving examples of ways IT has been used to build peace or de-escalate conflicts rather than the opposite.

Dialogue

The first topic for today is dialogue--used in the conflict resolution sense of the word, not the literary sense of the word. So a highly structured conversation with a facilitator, on a particular usually contentious topic, not focused on resolving the conflict, but rather, coming to understand why the other side thinks what they do, and hopefully improving one's relationship with people on the other side. Explain in your intro essay what the purpose of dialogues are in intractable conflicts, and how they are conducted.

Disadvantages of Authoritarian Systems

And now, please write a 4-5 paragraph essay, based on Beyond Intractability and other credible sources on the disadvantages of authoritarianism. Focus, particularly on the things that lead citizens of western societies to long for, or vote for, candidates with authoritarian tendencies, as they are tired of the stalemate and penduluming politics that liberal democracies often produce.

Discussion and Persuasion:

Our next topic is "Discussion and Persuasion." Rather than forcing people to go along with what you want, it is usually more effective to engage in a respectful analysis of the problem with them, and gently try to explain why you think your views make sense, while honestly trying to figure out why they believe what they do. Such respectful discussions often reveal more common ground than people think they have, and may result in paths forward that work for everyone. A lot of research has been done on how to be persuasive. Many people think phrases like "trust the science" helps. But it doesn't when people don't trust science or scientists. Our sources of information are so siloed today that one person's "fact" is completely opposite another person's "fact." So arguing on the basis of "facts" often isn't helpful. Personal stories, however, can be quite persuasive. If people understand why you see things the way you do, where your opinions and "facts" are coming from, then your ability to persuade them that what you are saying makes sense--at least for you--and maybe for them too, is greater. Please look for other research about how persuasion in conflict can be most effective.

Distinguish Factual vs Value Differences

The next essay is "Distinguish Factual vs Value Differences. " Empirical facts about "what is" are very different from moral or value distinctions about what "should be." Science can determine "what is" at least within uncertainly limits. But it cannot determine what should be. Clearly distinguishing between those two is essential for good decision making.

Economic complexity: 

Capitalist economic markets constitute a complex system driven by Adam Smith's "invisible hand" --- a system that is subject to a wide range of constructive and destructive dynamics. Can you give me and intro essay that talks about this in simple html that can be copied into Drupal, with my standard paragraphs about how you and I collaborated in this effort at both the top and the bottom.

Electoral Processes

The next introductory essay we need is on Electoral Processes. Electoral processes have been widely challenged in the U.S. and elsewhere. In the U.S., the concerns are gerrymandering, voter suppression, illegitimate voters, erroneous counting, and seemingly unfair (though legal) procedures (such as the U.S. electoral college which sometimes allows a candidate who lost the popular vote to still win the presidential election)." Please write an essay that talks about concerns about electoral legitimacy, both the charges that are sound, and ones that are commonly stated but are largely unfounded (such as fraudulent voters, which actually happens very seldom. Also explain the results of skepticism about elections--how it undermines democracy overall, and people begin to advocate and do even more questionable things because all that matters is "winning," not protecting the process or the democratic system.

Please write this article in a plain vanilla .html format suitable for pasting into Drupal and integrate references as links within the text.

Entrenched Escalation

Now can you write an essay about "entrenched escalation" and how it becomes hard to back down or back away for fear of appearing weak and being criticized by one's own side, and potentially attacked or taken advantage of by the other.

Environmental/Physical complexity 

Human society exists within the context of a larger physical and biological environment over which we have little control. It is imperative that we understand the limits that this environment places on what we can and cannot do. Can you give me and intro essay that talks about this in simple html that can be copied into Drupal, with my standard paragraphs about how you and I collaborated in this effort at both the top and the bottom.

Establishing Electoral Integrity

Our next topic is Establish Electoral Integrity. I know we already asked for an essay on Preserve Electoral Integrity and Continuity in the goal section, but now we are in the process section where were are talking abou ways to constructively resolve disputes that cannot be resoved with win-win bargaining. Elections are one way to do this. Trusted elections are key to stable democracies. programs are needed to help assure that all eligible voters are allowed to vote and that their votes will be accurately counted. This requires, for example, trustworthy mechanisms for preventing election fraud and transparent policies, so that elections are both trustworthy, and, indeed, trusted.

 Establishing Fair and Effective Legislative Processes

The next essay is on Establishing Fair and Effective Legislative Processes. Programs are needed to assure that legislatures are able to function wisely and effectively without being coopted by the executive branch, bought out by special interests, or becoming so stalemated that they can't perform their required functions. Other problems are that elections have become so competitive that some legislators, particularly at the national level, are forced to spend a majority of their time fundraising and politicking, rather than legislating. There are likely other factors that are preventing Congress from working effectively -- if I'm missing some things, please add them.

Ethical Advocacy

Now we are into the civic skills section, and the constructive confrontation subsection. The first intro essay we need is on ethical advocacy. The first part of constructive confrontation is ethics. If you take a power-over, winner-take-all approach to advocacy, that is not what we would call "constructive." Even if it does get you what you want over the short term, it is likely to generate backlash and make your victory short lived. Better to take a collaborative approach to advocacy so that you work for your goals in a way that respects other sides' legitimate goals as well.

Expand Networks

Our next essay is on Expanding Networks. In complex conflicts, there are usually many people, interests, issues, and organizations involved. The more you can reach out to, learn about, and potentially work with others, the more likely you will be able to achieve some, if not all, of your goals.
 

Expert Trust and Trustworthiness: The Gap between Experts and the Public

The Constructive Conflict Guide  is intended as a comprehensive resource to help people understand the causes and consequences of intractable conflicts and the ways in which we can all help handle these conflicts more constructively — from the interpersonal to the societal level. It consists of a collection of more than 5,000 internal BI and external web pages, organized around over 300 topics. We are asking you to help us write four to five paragraph introductory essays for many of these topics.

We have another query that relates to the last two I have given you.  We'd like you to write another introductory essay on Expert Trust and Trustworthiness: The Gap between Experts and the Public. This, too, is in the section "Factual Disputes" under the overarching section "Conflict Overlay Factors." 

Here, please talk in more detail about the things that cause the public to distrust experts, with examples, and also talk briefly about what things experts can do to be more trusted (although we will deal with that more later in the solutions section of the guide.

As always,write this article in a plain vanilla .html format suitable for pasting into Drupal and integrate references as links within the text. And post the result directly in the response window, not as a downloadable file.

Expose and Delegitimize Bad-Faith Actors

The next article I need you to write is Expose and Delegitimize Bad-Faith Actors. Selfishly motivated bad-faith actors have developed a wide range of deceptive and sophisticated strategies for inflaming conflict and then profiting from the resulting conflagration. They can be weakened, however, by exposure and delegitimization.

Facilitation

The next essay is on Facilitation. Facilitation is a process in which a person helps a group communicate and work together more effectively. Good facilitators can create agendas, run meetings, set ground rules and make sure they are followed, make sure everyone gets a chance to speak, and is understood, reviews progress, interim and final agreements, areas of disagreement, data needed, etc. They help the parties better understand each other and the issues, stay on task and be more creative, efficient, and productive.

Fact-Finding Amid Irreducible Uncertainties

The Constructive Conflict Guide (https://www.beyondintractability.org/bi24/guide) is intended as a comprehensive resource to help people understand the causes and consequences of intractable conflicts and the ways in which we can all help handle these conflicts more constructively — from the interpersonal to the societal level. It consists of a collection of more than 5,000 internal BI and external web pages, organized around over 300 topics (https://www.beyondintractability.org/bi24/guide-map-descriptions.) We are asking you to help us write four to five paragraph introductory essays for many of these topics. 

Now we would like you to create an introduction to the section entitled "Fact-Finding Amid Irreducible Uncertainties." Societies and their natural environments are complex adaptive systems, so it is impossible to determine for sure answers to many questions that influence public policy choices. Non-scientists often have difficulty with such uncertainty: they want "THE answer." (Senator Muskie was said to have asked for "a one-armed scientist--one who wouldn't always say 'on the other hand.') How do scientists deal with this uncertainty and how do they then communicate their findings to policy makers and the public in credible and useful ways? This topic is in the Guide section "Factual Disputes," which is one of our "conflict overlay problems."

Please write this article in a plain vanilla .html format suitable for pasting into Drupal and integrate references as links within the text.

Failure to Search for and Recognize Potential Compromises

So today I am working on writing introductory essays for the Beyond Intractability Constructive Conflict Guide. As you may know, The Constructive Conflict Guide (https://www.beyondintractability.org/bi24/guide) is intended as a comprehensive resource to help people understand the causes and consequences of intractable conflicts and the ways in which we can all help handle these conflicts more constructively — from the interpersonal to the societal level. It consists of a collection of more than 5,000 internal BI and external web pages, organized around over 300 topics. We are asking you to help us write four to five paragraph introductory essays for many of these topics. My first topic today is " Failure to Search for and Recognize Potential Compromises". This is in the collaboration problems section which is in the conflict overlay section outlining things that make conflict resolution more difficult.

Following on the last essay you wrote about lack of support for compromise-based solutions, even when parties do sit down together, they often assume that they are in a win-lose situation, and work to win the most they possibly can, instead of trying to either collaborate to "enlarge the pie," or at least look for legitimate compromises that would share whatever is being negotiated fairly. To put it in the conflict styles sense, they go into competing mode, rather than either compromise mode, or better yet, collaboration mode. Please give examples in which this was done in a high-profile way, and look at the potential better solutions that were lost as a result. 

As always, write this article in a plain vanilla .html format suitable for pasting into Drupal and integrate references as links within the text and put my standard introductory line above what you write, and the standard paragraph about our joint writing process below what you write.

Fair Processes for Making Win-Lose Decisions

The next essay is on Fair Processes for Making Win-Lose Decisions. When win-lose choices are unavoidable, they can still be acceptable (and accepted) by the losers, if the losers believe that the process used to make the decision was fair. That means that it protects the losers rights, follows generally accepted procedures, allows all voices to be considered, and is consistent with the rule-of-law.

Find Opportunities to Get Involved

Now I need a few essays on civic engagement. The first is on Find Opportunities to Get Involved. Democracy is not a spectator sport. It requires many of its citizens to get involved in myriad ways from PTAs and local advisory boards, city council meetings, political dialogues and deliberations, and many other ways. This section explains how to identify opportunities.

Free Speech Limits

Now we would like you to create an introduction to the section entitled "Free Speech Limits."

The Constructive Conflict Guide  is intended as a comprehensive resource to help people understand the causes and consequences of intractable conflicts and the ways in which we can all help handle these conflicts more constructively — from the interpersonal to the societal level. It consists of a collection of more than 5,000 internal BI and external web pages, organized around over 300 topics. We are asking you to help us write four to five paragraph introductory essays for many of these topics.

Now we would like you to create an introduction to the section entitled "Free Speech Limits." The description we have for this topic is "In the United States, both the Democrats and the Republicans are trying to limit the speech of the other. And Europe is even worse. There you can be arrested for things you post on the Internet that are critical of local authorities." 

This topic is in the Guide section "communication failures," which is one of our "conflict overlay problems."

Please flesh out the core problem with examples, consider the difference in outcomes in the United States, which has a First Amendment supposedly protecting free speech (although it hasn't done much to stop the widespread use of what is called "cancel culture" on the left and similar limitations of speech and literature on the right) and Europe which does not have such explicit free speech protections.

Gender/ Family Relationships

The next article is on gender and family relationships looking at such issues as LGBTQ+, marriage, gender roles, and abortion. Again, an overview please.

Geopolitical Rivals

The next essay is on Geopolitical Rivals. In a world of increasingly intense competition between nation states (including especially major and middle powers) vast bureaucracies have been created to weaken rivals (often by inflaming internal tensions). In addition to threats of real kinetic war which is escalating rapidly in several parts of the world, there is the threat of hybrid warfare, which is already underway as Russia, Iran, North Korea and others engage in all sorts of cyber attacks on the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere.

Guns, Policing, Crime and Drugs

Now I need a similar overview essay on Guns, Policing, Crime and Drugs.

Homogeneous Self-serving Information Bubbles

The Constructive Conflict Guide  is intended as a comprehensive resource to help people understand the causes and consequences of intractable conflicts and the ways in which we can all help handle these conflicts more constructively — from the interpersonal to the societal level. It consists of a collection of more than 5,000 internal BI and external web pages, organized around over 300 topics. We are asking you to help us write four to five paragraph introductory essays for many of these topics.

Now we would like you to create an introduction to the section on: "Homogeneous Self-serving Information Bubbles," which is in the section "communication failures," which is one of our "conflict overlay problems."

Here we are talking about the tendency for people to exist in what are commonly called "bubbles" or "silos." They live with and around, work with and around, and socialize and talk to people who are very similar to themselves, with the same personal circumstances, interests, values, points of view, information sources, etc. Progressives hang out with progressives, conservatives hang out with conservatives, etc. So we get reinforced in everything we believe, whether it is true or not, and we disbelieve or think ill of people in other bubbles because we know nothing about them or why they think so differently from the way we do.  Please explain this tendency with some citations, and then explain the damage it is doing in terms of driving polarization, fear, hatred, and making us completely unable to work together to solve problems. Again, with citations. 

Please write this article in a plain vanilla .html format suitable for pasting into Drupal and integrate references as links within the text.

Hostile, Inflammatory Language and Behavior

Now please write an introductory essay on hostile, inflammatory language and behavior, explaining what it is, and what problems it causes--with real world examples. (Hillary Clinton's "deplorables" comment is one example, but it is old now--can you come up with some newer examples--from both sides?

Identifying Leverage Points and Opportunities

Now I need an essay entitled "Identifying Leverage Points and Opportunities." We recommend this be done through conflict mapping. Conflict maps can help identify what aspects of a conflict system might be changeable, and which not. Then one can figure out what the leverage points for change are likely to be, and identify ways in which those leverage points could be accessed and affected.

Illiberal Authoritarian Systems

Now can you do the same for the Guide page on Illiberal Authoritarian Systems? What are they and how are they different from liberal democracies? 3-5 paragraphs, show sources.

Immigration and Cultural and Economic Assimilation

Now I need a similar overview essay on Immigration and Cultural and Economic Assimilation--the core issues and how they can best be addressed.

Implementation, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Adjustment

Now I need an intro essay on Implementation, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Adjustment. After any theory of change is implemented, it is important to monitor and evaluate the results, since complex systems often do not respond in the way we expect. If things are not working, we have to be ready to change course and do something different, not just push harder on a failed approach (as is sometimes done). However, many practitioners are reluctant to do thorough evaluations because they are afraid that they won't get any more funding if their planned process didn't work.  It is also often very hard to prove one way or another whether a particular intervention worked or not and why. Since societal-level intractable conflicts are complex adaptive system, many different things are probably influencing the outcome of any action.  A practitioner may do everything exactly right, and the practice should have worked -- but it didn't because of external factors that were both unexpected and out of the practitioner's control.  Another problem with evaluation, is that evaluators often count the things that are easy to count (such as numbers of clients served, number of dialogues held, number of vaccinations given).  But often the saying "things that are easy to count don't count, and things that count, can't be counted" is true.  Nevertheless, attention should be paid to monitoring and evaluation; the best practices should be used, and practitioners and funders should be willing to change course when it becomes apparent that initial plans are not yielding the results that were wanted.

Improve Cross-cultural and Cross-Party Understanding

Now I need an essay on Improving Cross-cultural and Cross-Party Understanding. We have been writing about cross-cultural misunderstanding -- and remedies thereof--for a long time. Now cross-party understanding is also an important issue. The left and the right in the United States have grown so far apart, and consume such different information, that they really are different cultures--with all the cross-cultural misunderstandings that occurs with traditional cultural differences. This essay should briefly explain the problem and then share research and practice on how cross-cultural communication can best promote cross-cultural understanding.

Individual Rights and Due Process

Now, the next essay is on Individual Rights and Due Process. In liberal democracies, individual rights must be protected and due process followed in any attempt to make political decisions. Please explain what this means, how it works, how due proess is sometimes skipped and what the implications are for such attempts to evade democratic procedures.

Inequality, Class Tensions, and Economic Weakness

The next essay is on Inequality, Class Tensions, and Economic Weakness. Again, I just need an overview essay of the main issues and how they are being addressed.

Inflammatory media

The next essay is on inflammatory media. This is the traditional and social media outlets that try to inflame conflict to get more viewers/readers/listeners, and hence more money.

Judicial Processes

And now I need an introductory essay on judicial processes. Please explain the role of the courts in terms of the three branches of government, and what makes court action seen either as legitimate or illegitimate.  For example, though it is considered in U.S. law to be the "last resort," judges can and sometimes do overstep their authority to enforce the law, and do so in a way that causes observers to claim they are making their own laws, based on their own preferences, rather than the Constitution or legal precedent.  This is called judicial activism and is usually very controversial. Also talk about how justices come to be chosen and the legitimacy of that processes -- one way or the other. And finally talk about proposals to change the US supreme court and pros and cons of those ideas.

Please write this article in a plain vanilla .html format suitable for pasting into Drupal and integrate references as links within the text.

Lack of Access to Reliable Objective Information

Beyond Intractability's Constructive Conflict Guide (https://www.beyondintractability.org/bi24/guide) is intended as a comprehensive resource to help people understand the causes and consequences of intractable conflicts and the ways in which we can all help handle these conflicts more constructively — from the interpersonal to the societal level. It consists of a collection of more than 5,000 internal BI and external web pages, organized around over 300 topics (https://www.beyondintractability.org/bi24/guide-map-descriptions.) 

We are asking you to help us write four to five paragraph introductory essays for many of these topics. For this particular prompt we would like you to create an introduction to the section on: "Lack of Access to Reliable Objective Information," which is in the section "factual disputes," which is one of our "conflict overlay problems." Things we would like you to consider in this essay include the prevalent distrust of the media overall, and of experts and science in general. Then there is also the problem of sciences and "facts" being politicized -- the left believes one set of facts and sources, and the right believes and entirely different set of information sources. It is often said that the left and right are essentially living in different information worlds. So even if actual reliable information exists, one side or the other (or both) won't believe it is such. 

Please write this article in a plain vanilla .html format suitable for pasting into Drupal and integrate references as links within the text.

Lack of Forums for Negotiation or No Acceptable 3rd Party

Now I need an essay on two other reasons negotiations fail to happen: Lack of Forums for Negotiation or No Acceptable 3rd Party. Sometimes there isn't a neutral forum where parties can meet to negotiate, and they aren't willing to meet on the turf of one side or the other, for fear the forum itself will bias the proceedings. Similarly, if they can't agree on a mediator or arbitrator who they both think is fair, they may not be willing to even try to negotiate a solution to their conflict. I have been having trouble finding examples of these problems, though I know both happen. Can you find examples, and write an introductory essay about them? Also please list some extra examples that you do not put in the essay that I can use to supplement our list of additional resources in this section.

Lack of Support for Compromise-based Solutions

Beyond Intractability's Constructive Conflict Guide (https://www.beyondintractability.org/bi24/guide) is intended as a comprehensive resource to help people understand the causes and consequences of intractable conflicts and the ways in which we can all help handle these conflicts more constructively — from the interpersonal to the societal level. It consists of a collection of more than 5,000 internal BI and external web pages, organized around over 300 topics (https://www.beyondintractability.org/bi24/guide-map-descriptions.

We are asking you to help us write four to five paragraph introductory essays for many of these topics. For this particular prompt we would like you to create an introduction to the section on: "Lack of Support for Compromise-based Solutions" which is in the section "collaboration problems," which is one of our "conflict overlay problems." In our hyper-polarized political environment, compromise is often seen as "selling out" ones' own side. So it is seldom even considered as a plausible approach to problem solving, and people who do it are chastised, not rewarded.  At the same time, I remember reading that citizens still say that they want their representatives to compromise, but then they tend to vote against those that do. (Please check me on that assertion).  However, given that compromise is an essential element of legitimate and effective democratic decision making, any aversion to compromise is a significant problem.

Law Enforcement Processes

The next essay I need is on law enforcement processes. Law enforcement has often been accused of procedural problems, ranging from over policing and "racial profiling" to inadequately policing certain neighborhoods or certain crimes. On the other hand, the "defund the police" movement was highly damaging -- it lost a lot of democratic votes and led in many instances to poor or no policing and rising crime as a result. Please talk about the ideal role of the police, what are considered "best practices" when it comes to maintaining legitimacy and good relations with the citizens they are policing, and why law enforcement is necessary in a democracy.

 

Left-leaning Polarizing Behavior

We would like you to write two essays, ‘left-leaning polarizing behavior’ and ‘right-leaning polarizing behavior.’ In the first, please give examples of things that the left in the United States has done to polarize our society more, even when they say they are ‘working to defend democracy.’ In other words, give examples of over-prioritizing partisan behavior to the detriment of democracy and U.S. society as a whole. And then write a second 4–5 paragraph essay about the things the right has done to polarize our society more, even in the name of ‘strengthening democracy’ or ‘making America great again,’ when actually it is making us worse off.” Please show your sources as in-text links." [This is the left-leaning essay.  The companion right-leaning essay is here.] 

Left-Right Identity Conflict:

Our last section in the guide is about today's big conflicts and possible solutions. I need introductory essays that talk about the key issues on each of these conflicts (very briefly) and the primary way in which these issues are being addressed. These are all big issues, so you can't go into detail. Just give a very succinct overview of the key points. The first one is Left/Right Identity Conflict.

Legal complexity: 

The ability of democracies to  effectively eliminate violence as a dispute resolution strategy is largely based on the willingness of people to resolve disputes through a complex, rule of law-based process.Can you give me and intro essay that talks about this in simple html that can be copied into Drupal, with my standard paragraphs about how you and I collaborated in this effort at both the top and the bottom.

Legislative Processes

Now I need an introductory essay on legislative processes.  Legislative processes are problematic when they use procedures which may be technically legal, but "smell bad" -- such as the provision that allows just one senator to block a bill from passage, or the party in power not allowing the minority party to have any say in what bills come to the floor and which dont,  or the filibuster (although there is a good reason for that rule). Also take a look at how productive or not Congress has been.  Although they apparently have done better than is perceived, they certainly haven't passed many bills in the last several terms  and they have been unable to deal successfully with many of our pressing problems: immigration, for example, the budget and deficits, health care,  the economy/affordability crisis, climate, you name it. And just as you did for the electoral processes essay, talk about legitimate concerns and well as illegitimate concerns that still detract from the credibility of legislative processes.  Also talk about the extremely low public support congress gets, and compare that to the better public support that is felt at the state and local levels.  

And again, Please write this article in a plain vanilla .html format suitable for pasting into Drupal and integrate references as links within the text.

Limit Massively Parallel Partisanship

Now, please write an essay on the Burgess's term: massively parallel partisanship. (The title of the essay is "Limit  Massively Parallel Partisanship.) By that, we mean that massively parallel efforts (which we are advocating) can also be used to advance the interests of one side against the other -- hence "partisanship" If hyper-polarization is to be diminished, and for power-with democracy to work, such massively parallel partisanship must be severely limited. The success of massively parallel efforts to reverse hyper-polarization depends upon a "great reframing." Instead of uniting behind the common goal of defeating the other side, people need to unite in fighting a shared enemy, bad-faith actors and destructive conflict processes.

 Limiting the Influence of "Fake Facts."

Next I need an essay on Limiting the Influence of "fake facts." "Disinformation" or "fake facts" are everywhere. They are so ubiquitous, that it is almost impossible to figure out what is true, and what is not. But truth matters. Facts will come back to bite us if we get it wrong. So making the effort to sort through fake from real facts is essential to good decision making. Talk about why this matters, and briefly, in an overview way, how to do it.

Majority Rule, Minority Rights, and Preventing the Tyranny of the Majority

Now I have a related topic: Majority Rule, Minority Rights, and Preventing the Tyranny of the Majority. This is another fundamental concept of liberal democracies. While the majority does have the power to make decisions by majority vote, they still have to abide by certain rules (those named in the Constitution in the U.S., for example) to protect the rights of the minority. What does this mean, specifically? Why does it matter?

Manipulated Facts and Politicalization of Fact-Finding

The Constructive Conflict Guide  is intended as a comprehensive resource to help people understand the causes and consequences of intractable conflicts and the ways in which we can all help handle these conflicts more constructively — from the interpersonal to the societal level. It consists of a collection of more than 5,000 internal BI and external web pages, organized around over 300 topics. We are asking you to help us write four to five paragraph introductory essays for many of these topics.

Now we would like you to create an introduction to the section on: "Manipulated Facts and Politicalization of Fact-Finding," which is in the section "factual disputes," which is one of our "conflict overlay problems." This will overlap, to some extent, with what you wrote before, but here I'd like you to find examples of cases in which facts were manipulated and fact-finding was politicized. 

Please write this article in a plain vanilla .html format suitable for pasting into Drupal and integrate references as links within the text and display your result directly in the result window, not as a downloadable file.

Mediation, Conciliation, and Related Processes

The next essay is on Mediation, Conciliation, and Related Processes. Mediation (sometimes called "conciliation") is a conflict resolution process in which a third party assists the disputants to communicate better, analyze their conflicts and their options and to ideally, to develop a mutually satisfactory solution. It is similar to facilitation, but the goal is usually to come up with a mutually-acceptable agreement. Unlike arbitration, however, the parties make the agreement themselves, and decide whether or not to approve it. The mediator is just in charge of process (although sometimes they suggest ideas that might form the basis of an agreement.) The reason I say "usually" come to an agreement though is that transformative mediators focus on transforming the way people see themselves, the other, and how they behave, more than on whether or not they come to an agreement. They focus on the parties' empowerment and recognition more than problem-solving mediators do, to which they are often compared. A third kind of mediation is evaluative mediation in which the mediator helps the parties assess the legal and practical strengths and weaknesses of their cases. They often point out what a judge or jury might decide, and on the basis of that, help the parties decide on settlement option.

Military Responses:

Now I need a parallel essay on military responses. That is a HUGE subject, of course, and it is mostly not the focus on this guide. So this needs to be a pretty high-level overview, not getting down into the nitty gritty debates. But what we are looking for is an essay that talks about how military procedural problems can stem from bad planning or practice among servicemen and women or officers, or bad orders coming from the Commander in Chief such as what happened during the U.S. pullout from Afghanistan in 2020. There is also a question of legitimacy of military action and is the military being deployed in appropriate ways. For instance, can the president just send in the military without the consent of Congress? Can he send the military into United States to enforce his policy preferences? What does the peace community generally think of the military and why? Do they work together? How? (Again, broad statements, not tons of detail.) But still give links to more readings for people who want more.

Misinformation and Disinformation

The Constructive Conflict Guide  is intended as a comprehensive resource to help people understand the causes and consequences of intractable conflicts and the ways in which we can all help handle these conflicts more constructively — from the interpersonal to the societal level. It consists of a collection of more than 5,000 internal BI and external web pages, organized around over 300 topics. We are asking you to help us write four to five paragraph introductory essays for many of these topics.

Now we would like you to create an introduction to the section on: "Misinformation and Disinformation," which is in the section "communication failures," which is one of our "conflict overlay problems."

Please explain what the difference is in these two terms, how they are being used and for what reason, by whom, and what the results are--and its effects on democracy and society overall.

Please write this article in a plain vanilla .html format suitable for pasting into Drupal and integrate references as links within the text.

Navigating the Power Contest Hierarchy

The next one is on "Navigating the Power Contest Hierarchy."This article explains how the various dispute resolution arenas (e,g, administrative appeals, legislative action, electoral politics, public opinion, judicial review, policing, and military action) relate to one another in a rough hierarchy. When a citizen or group of citizens is unhappy about something that is going on, they can first appeal to legislative authorities to fix it, if that doesn't work they can try to turn to legislative action and/or elections to try to throw out people who aren't governing as you think they should. You can try to press for change by mobilizin public opinion, you can sue and get judicial review; of someone is breaking the law, you can call the police. We just issued a newsletter that shows one example of how this all goes together: https://beyondintractability.substack.com/p/newsletter-466.

Neutrality and Impartiality

The next essay is on neutrality and impartiality. These are closely aligned concepts, but they are not the same. Neutrality means not taking a side in a conflict, while impartiality is about treating all parties fairly. Some mediators argue that neutrality is impossible, as we all have a side on most issues, but they can still act with impartiality--treating all parties fairly. Please explain the difference, why it matters, and how third parties can bolster their credibility with respect to these two ideas. Also mention Martin Carcasson's notion of "Principled Impartiality" (https://www.nationalcivicleague.org/ncr-article/the-case-for-principled-impartiality-in-a-hyper-partisan-world/) and John Paul Lederach's notion of "insider partial mediation" (https://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/insider-partial)

Non-inflammatory Communication

The next article is on non-inflammatory communication. People in conflict often say very inflammatory things that make the conflict worse. But there are ways to explain your core concerns in ways that are respectful and non-accusatory. This helps the other side hear what you are trying to say, and makes it more likely they will respond positively to it. I-messages are one example; talking in terms of contribution instead of blame is another. Another example is focusing on interests instead of positions, and taking care not to frame everything as a non-negotiable value or right when they actually aren't entirely non-negotiable. Similarly, it is important to say what one really believes or wants. The demand to "Defund the Police," for instance caused unnecessary pushback because most advocates admitted that they didn't really want to defund the police; they just wanted to narrow the scope of problems that they responded to. But overstating their demands made them run into much more opposition than they might have, had they not overstated their case.

Opposing Economic Exploitation and Corruption

The first essay I need today is Opposing Economic Exploitation and Corruption. This section examines ways of assuring that democrcy's leaders act in ways that pursue the common good (and not the advancement of their narrow selfish interests).

Opposing Efforts to Disenfranchise Those Who Favor Moderate, Compromise-Oriented Governance

The next essay topic is "Opposing Efforts to Disenfranchise Those Who Favor Moderate, Compromise-Oriented Governance."This section focuses on the many ways in which democracies tend to disenfranchise those with centrist political beliefs and shares strategies for overcoming this problem. Examples of such disenfranshiement include partisan primaries which prevent independents from voting and select for more extreme candidates, parties efforts to stop third parties from running (as both the Rs and the Ds did to the Forward Party in the 2024 election, and threats to "primary" any office holder who takes a centrist stance or works with the other side.

 Opposing Fear and Hatemongering

Now write an essay on Opposing Fear and Hatemongering. This section focuses on strategies for resisting efforts to inflame tensions and persuade people that the concerns of the other side are illegitimate and not worthy of consideration, and further they are people to fear because they intend to do you harm.

Opposing Information Warfare

The next essay is on Opposing Information Warfare. Successful democracies must be able to protect themselves from unscrupulous information warfare tactics that use high-tech propaganda techniques to attack enemies, inflame tensions, and undermine the social cohesion that democratic societies depend upon. This is an introduction to a whole section which also includes essays on narrower topics: resisting propaganda, firehose of falsehood, target cast deception, disinformation and unspinning deceptive spin. So just make this a quick overview, and then I'll ask you to cover those topics in more detail in the essays coming up.

Overview of Third Party Approaches:

Next is "Overview of Third Party Approaches." "Thid party" approaches, such as facilitation, mediation, and arbitration and even adjudication, use an outside "third" party to come in to help disputants (the first and second parties) process their conflict more constructively and, ideally, come up with a decision on how to resolve it. Here just explain what "third party" means and give examples of different kinds of third parties. We will be expanding on many of these third parties in the "roles section" of the guide.

Political complexity: 

Rule of law-based dispute resolution processes require a political process for both making and revising laws and directing joint collective action. " Can you give me and intro essay that talks about this in simple html that can be copied into Drupal, with my standard paragraphs about how you and I collaborated in this effort at both the top and the bottom.

Power Grabbers

Another kind of bad faith actor is one we call "power grabbers." These are people whose principal goal in life is to seek power -- power that enables them to exploit and dictate the beliefs and behaviors of others. Can you write an introductory essay for a section that focuses on them and the problems they cause--again with examples. And again in plain html with same headers and footers.

Preserve Electoral Integrity and Continuity

The next topic is Preserve Electoral Integrity and Continuity, in the Massively Parallel Goals section. Free and fair elections are at the core of all democratic systems, so that's why we have that as one o four MPP goals. Voters in successful democracies need confidence that they can always replace unpopular leaders. This requires a wide range of efforts to preserve electoral integrity and the rule of law. Procedures must be fair and transparent. Unfortunately, gerrymandering in the United States is a good example of unfair procedures that both major parties are doing extensively. But to the extent that other election procedures are fair, it can help mute the effects of gerrymandering.

Preventing and Defending Against Large-Scale Violence

Now I need an essay about Preventing and Defending Against Large-Scale Violence. Here we are talking about political violence, riots, mass shootings, and, indeed war. In extreme cases, political tensions can escalate to the point where you have large-scale violence (such as the troubles in Northern Ireland or the United States in the 1960s. Still worse is violence that escalates into civil war or opens the door to international war, as an international opponent may see internal divisions as leaving their opponents weak. Although war is a topic that we dealt with a lot in the early years of Beyond Intractability, we are less focused on it now. Rather, we are more focused on threats to democracy and responses to them. So this is a general, overview essay on a topic we won't be delving into nearly as much as we will most of the others.

Preventing Small-Scale Violence

Our next essay is on Preventing Small-Scale Violence. (Here we are distinguishing between small-scale volence and large-scale violence. Small-scale violence is one person harming another or at most a few others in an isolated incident. Large scale violence is large riots, military actions, large-scale violent police actions, mass shootings, and political violence that may only attack one person, but has widespread impact because of the political nature of the attack. One job of government is to assure the sense of security among its citizens. That means the government needs to do as much as it can to prevent violence that undermines its citizens' sense of security. But it must do so fairly and according to law -- it cannot do so in a heavy-handed way that violates other people's rights.

Preventing Threats and Intimidation

Next I need an essay on Preventing Threats and Intimidation. Democracy cannot succeed if citizens and leaders do not feel free to express their views (and advocate for policies based on those views) because of intimidation and threats of violence. Explain why this is true, and what can be done to limit such threats and intimidation.

Promote and Seek Out Balanced News Coverage

The next essay is entitled "Promote and Seek Out Balanced News Coverage." We get almost all our information about what is happening in the world from the news media. So when the media feeds us false information, we are unable to make good decisions. Balanced news coverage can help us understand all sides of controversial stories, so we can make decisions that are better informed. While one approach to this problems is reading both right- and left-leaning sources, another approach is to read the journalists who sort through this for you. Allsides. com and Tangle (readtangle.com) take different approaches, but both are excellent sources of balanced information that shares the views of all sides.

Promote Civility

Next essay is on promoting civility. Civility is something of a hot-button word, some people asserting it means keeping angry people quiet, or forcing some cultures to behave counter to their normal way of interacting (such as not interrupting each other). It doesn't mean that, but it does suggest that people should express their anger (and other thoughts) in ways that it might be heard and understood. Please use our essay on civility (https://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/civility) and others' to discuss what civility is, and why it is helpful in intractable conflict.

Promote Collaborative Problem Solving

Now we need an intro essay for "Promote Collaborative Problem Solving." Much of the success of democratic systems stems from their ability to identify shared problems, assess the strengths and weaknesses of possible solutions, work through differing opinions and priorities, and reach workable compromises. Unlike authoritarian systems in which problems are solved by the direction of the leader without consideration of what others' think, in well-functioning democracies, problems must be solved collaboratively, or at least through compromise. But collaboration is better than compromise, because in compromise, you generally end up splitting the difference and only getting half of what you want. With collaboration, you work to find mutually-beneficial solutions so you can get more or even all of what you want, while the other side(s) do too.

 

Promote Effective Communication

Now I need an essay on Promote Effective Communication, another MPP goal. Communication is one of the first casualties of conflict. But there are many ways to improve it which are discussed in this section. Good listening is always a valuable first step, as is non-escalatory language. "Thick communication" is often better than "thin communication," so whenever possible, people should be talked with face-to-face, rather than relying on texts or social media exchanges to understand the other side or to make amends.

Promote Reconciliation

My next essay is entitled Promote Reconciliation, still in the Massively Parallel Goals section of the Guide. Many societies have terrible histories of past wrongs that, because they involved killing, and often happened long ago, are effectively "unrightable." The ability to build a mutually attractive future requires effective strategies for reconciling these societies, despite such historical wrongs. People must be able to apologize, forgive, and move forward together. So both retrospective reconciliation and prospective reconciliation are necessary. Retrospective reconciliation looks backwards and how amends can be made for past wrongs, even if lives cannot be restored. (Reparations are one approach, as is a obviously heartfelt apology.) Prospective reconciliation looks forward at how the formerly opposing sides can go forward living together in peace.

Protect Freedom of Speech While Opposing Deceptive Propaganda and Censorship

The next essay I need is "Protect Freedom of Speech While Opposing Deceptive Propaganda and Censorship" There is a fine line between freedom of speech, censorship, and control of disinformation and propaganda. In this essay, please talk about how one draws that line effectively, and how disinformation and propaganda can be controlled without censoring legitimate speech.

Psychological Complexity

Now I need a set of seven articles, fleshing out each kind of complexity more: psychological complexity, communication complexity; sociological complexity, legal complexity, political complexity, environmental and physical complexity (I have those last two combined). The prompts I have in my spreadsheet for psychological complexity is: "Understanding the motivations that lead people to act in particular ways requires an understanding of the basics of neuropsychology, the complexities of cognitive biases, and the mechanics of small group interactions." Can you give me an intro essay that talks about this in simple html that can be copied into Drupal, with my standard paragraphs about how you and I collaborated in this effort at both the top and the bottom.

Pursue a Complexity-Oriented Approach

I am now moving into the section of the Guide on what we call "Massively Parallel Strategy" in which massive numbers of people and organizations all work on their own "piece" of the peacebuilding puzzle, and everything together contributes to the peacebuilding or civic renewal or democracy strengthening effort, much like different parts of a complex economy work together as described by Adam Smith's notion of "the invisible hand." The first essay under this category is " Pursue a Complexity-Oriented Approach" If peacebuilding, civic renewal or democracy strengthening is going to succeed, it is not enough to abandon simplistic, us-vs-them thinking. We need to develop and embrace realistic strategies for working at the daunting scale and complexity of modern society.

Please write an intro essay explaining why efforts to influence complex systems must themselves be complex, which is what the massively parallel approach is. Again, write in plain html, and use the same header and footer.

Pursue the Opportunities Created by All Conflict Problems

The next essay I need is one entitled "Pursue the Opportunities Created by All Conflict Problems." All problems create opportunities for the people who can solve them. So instead of seeing problems as insoluble, if we try to figure out how to solve them, even if we fail, we are likely to make things somewhat better. This is part of the idea behind massively parallel action. Just as the "invisible hand" works in economic systems, spurring people or businesses to provide goods and services that there is a need for, and balancing the supply with the demand, the same process can happen with massively parallel action. If there is a need for someone to develop a solution to, for instance, distrust leading to increased polarization, organizations can work to find a solution to that problem and then try to get their approach adoped. I'm sure you can come up with other, possibly better, examples too.

Race, Racism, and Structural Violence

The next topic is race, racism, and structural violence. Please write a similar overview essay of the core issues and key responses.

Reconciliation

The next essay is on reconciliation. Reconciliation involves constructively looking at the often unrightable wrongs of the past (and the present) and then imagining and building a more desirable future that addresses those wrongs and avoids repeating them. The Burgesses make a distinction between retrospective reconcilation which focuses on past wrongs and ways of repairing them (apology, forgiveness, reparations) and prospective reconcilation, which looks at ways the parties can move forward into the future, living together in peace. (See https://www.beyondintractability.org/cci-mbi-cv19-blog/hburgess-types-reconciliation.) Also see how Heidi Burgess points out that reconciliation is both a noun and a verb (a process and a desired outcome. (/moos/fundamentals/reconciliation-process-outcome) and look at Chip Hauss's two articles on reconciliation: https://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/reconciliation and https://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/reconciliation-part2

Rediscovering the Golden Rule 

The next essay is entitled "Rediscovering the Golden Rule. "  "The Golden Rule" -- "Do Unto Others as You Would Have Others Do Unto You" is a fundamental tenent of all the World's main religions. Laren Armstrong pointed that out and made it the centerpiece of her "Charter for Compassion." We should keep that in mind when we engage in conflict--not doing things to others that we wouldn't want done to ourselves, and not expecting things of others that we wouldn't want to give ourselves. 

Resisting Deceptive Propaganda

The next essay is on Resisting Deceptive Propaganda. Democratic citizens need to dramatically improve their ability to detect and resist the highly sophisticated propaganda that now pervades our high-tech information systems and tries to persuade us to do things that are contrary to our interests.

Resisting Disinformation

Next is an essay on Resisting Disinformation. This section focuses on strategies for countering deliberate efforts to get large segments of the public to believe things that are objectively untrue (usually as part of a broader effort to get people to do things that undermine, rather than advance, their interests).

Resisting Firehose of Falsehood Attacks

You have already talked about this twice, but this essay is on Resisting Firehose of Falsehood Attacks. How can people and organizations do that?

Respect

The second article is on respect. Respect is the recognition and regard for the inherent worth, rights, feelings, and perspectives of others. It involves treating people with dignity, courtesy, and fairness, acknowledging their autonomy and value, even when there are differences of opinion, status, or background. It is, perhaps, the strongest conflict resolution tool there is. Respect costs little to give, and often generates large rewards.

Right-leaning Polarizing Behavior

We would like you to write two essays, ‘left-leaning polarizing behavior’ and ‘right-leaning polarizing behavior.’ In the first, please give examples of things that the left in the United States has done to polarize our society more, even when they say they are ‘working to defend democracy.’ In other words, give examples of over-prioritizing partisan behavior to the detriment of democracy and U.S. society as a whole. And then write a second 4–5 paragraph essay about the things the right has done to polarize our society more, even in the name of ‘strengthening democracy’ or ‘making America great again,’ when actually it is making us worse off.” Please show your sources as in-text links." [This is the right-leaning essay.  The companion left-leaning essay is here.] 

Rumor Control and Crisis Response

The first essay I want you to work on is Rumor Control and Crisis Response. Rumors fly quickly during crises and responders need to be able to sort out what is true, what not, and what is most needed immediately, both to control the situation and prevent further harm. A lot needs to happen quickly and carefully, so as to not make the situation worse. Please write an essay about why rumor control is so important in crises, and then how it is done. We learned about this when we did extensive interviews with Community Relations Service mediators and we wrote up what we learned in the essay: https://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/rumor-control -- you can pull ideas from that and from other credible sources.

Sensibly Deal with Uncertainty and Risk

The next topic is "Sensibly Deal with Uncertainty and Risk". One of the oft-misunderstood things about science is that it seldom can make pronouncements with complete certainty. Scientific findings almost always involve some degree of uncertainty, and a level of risk in decision making is unavoidable. So learning how to manage risk and uncertainty is important. In this essay explain the difference between risk and uncertainty, and in a very broad brush kind of way, explain how each is best dealt with.

Seriously Consider Alternative Views

The next essay is "Seriously Consider Alternative Views" We have a habit of believing things that reinforce our existing beliefs, and ignore, dismiss, or even ridicule ideas that are different from, or challenge those beliefs. However, seriously considering alternative views is essential for effective decision making and conflict resolution. When I say "seriously consider," that doesn't mean think about their weaknesses and how you can beat them. Rather, it means consider the strength and validity of alternative views and consider if you should revise your own view to account for the legitimacy of the views of others.

Simple Misunderstandings 

The Constructive Conflict Guide  is intended as a comprehensive resource to help people understand the causes and consequences of intractable conflicts and the ways in which we can all help handle these conflicts more constructively — from the interpersonal to the societal level. It consists of a collection of more than 5,000 internal BI and external web pages, organized around over 300 topics. We are asking you to help us write four to five paragraph introductory essays for many of these topics.

For this particular prompt we would like you to create an introduction to the section on: "simple misunderstandings," which is in the section "communication failures," which is one of our "conflict overlay problems."

Here we are looking for situations when people use words differently, so when one person says something, the other hears something else, or people are working from different assumptions so they think someone is being hostile or accusatory when they or not. The basic idea is that there aren't really fundamental differences of interests, values, or needs, but people think there are because they don't understand each other. In terms of language, please stick with Beyond Intractability's practice of writing in a relatively simple jargon-free style that is easily accessible to most anyone interested in political issues. In terms of sources, feel free to draw on the links listed in the Guide plus any additional sources that you might be aware of that reinforce the key themes of this Guide section. We're interested in materials that take a overall look at the many ways in which the actions of the left are helping to drive the hyperpolarization spiral. We're also interested in clear and convincing examples of specific things that the left has done that illustrate the problem.

Please write this article in a plain vanilla .html format suitable for pasting into Drupal and integrate references as links within the text.

Sociological complexity: 

People do not live their lives in isolation. Rather, they live in a complex and overlapping array of groups, each with their own behavioral expectations and constructive and destructive interaction dynamics.Can you give me and intro essay that talks about this in simple html that can be copied into Drupal, with my standard paragraphs about how you and I collaborated in this effort at both the top and the bottom.

Spoilers

Another kind of bad faith actor are "spoilers," a term generally used in the context of international peacemaking and peacebuilding, but it can also be applied at lower levels. Spoilers are those who are resist or try to undermine peacebuilding efforts out of the fear that they will be double-crossed or the belief that the compromises being asked for are unacceptable. They may also be "conflict profiteers" who stand to profit more from war than they would from peace. Please write an introductory essay on the spoiler problem, again with examples, in plain html with the same header and footer.

Strengthen Local News

Now I need an essay on strengthening local news. Good local news is essential if people are going to become actively engaged in the civic affairs of their communities. But the business model of local news has become much more problematic with the ubiquity of the Internet, which not only provides most people's news, but took away the profit from ads that print media used to provide. And now many local news providers (tv, radio, and newspapers) are owned by big, national conglomerates. They all tell the same (often biased) strories focused on mational issues. It is very hard to get good local news about local issues and events. This is a huge loss for democracy.

Strengthening the Relationship between Theory and Action

My first topic is  Strengthening the Relationship between Theory and Action. One problem in the conflict and peace fields is that there is not a strong connection between theory and practice.  Most scholarship is done at universities; most practice is done private practitioners, NGOs and government actors. None talk to each other or learn from each other as much as they could or should. That's why we suggest that this relationship be strengthened. Scholars should study what practitioners do, evaluate what they do to find out what works and what doesn't, and be open to investigating topics that practitioners are interested in learning answers about.  Similarly, practitioners should pay attention to scholarship that relates to what they are doing.  To the extent that that scholarship can be presented in language practitioners can understand, this becomes easier.

Supporting Tolerance and Co-existence with People Who Hold Different Values

Next we need an essay on Supporting Tolerance and Co-existence with People Who Hold Different Values. Democracy is not a system for determining which groups get to impose their views on others. It is a system that allows people with different views to coexist in a spirit of mutual respect and tolerance.

Taking Advantage of Citizen Participation Opportunities

Now I need an essay on Taking Advantage of Citizen Participation Opportunities. I realize this overlaps considerably with the earlier two essays, and we may, indeed, combine them going forward. But for the moment, write another essay using this prompt: All political entities from school boards, planning boards, city councils, county, state, and federal agencies have means for public participation. If they are involved in issues you care about, learn what those citizen participation opportunities are, and use them to make your interests and concerns heard. You do not need to fill up 5 full paragraphs here. But make it clear there are ways to get involved that are reasonably quick (going to a meeting, perhaps speaking at a public hearing, to longer and more involved such as volunteering to be on an advisory board, running for citiy council, etc.

The Collective Defense Imperative – the Only Way to Defend Ourselves against Bad Faith Actors

Now we are into the defense against bad faith actor section. The first essay is The Collective Defense Imperative – the Only Way to Defend Ourselves against Bad Faith Actors. For democracy to survive its citizens must be willing to work together to collectively defend it from all internal and external threats. This means resisting the temptation to use anti-democratic strategies to advance one's partisan objectives and to work together to prevent the use of anti-democratic strategies by bad-faith actors who seek to undermine democracy for their own personal or partisan ends.

The Continuum between Legitimate and Illegitimate Types of Power

Now I need an essay on The Continuum between Legitimate and Illegitimate Types of Power. Politics means jockeying for and utilizing power to make decisions. But power can be obtained and used legitimately -- through free and fair elections, and by following the rule of law, or it can be obtained and used illegitimately. The former usually leads to better decisions and more stable democracies. The later leads to the opposite.

Tolerance

The first essay I want you to work on is on tolerance, which is in the section on reconciliation. Tolerance is the appreciation of diversity and the ability to live and let others live the way they want to. It is the ability to exercise a fair and objective attitude towards those whose opinions, practices, religion, nationality, etc. differ from one's own. It involves showing respect for the essential humanity in every person.

Transparency, Freedom of the Press, and Public Oversight

The first essay I want today is on "Transparency, Freedom of the Press, and Public Oversight" We, as citizens, should insist on governmental transparency, and press freedom, so we know what is happening in our name and we can take steps to oppose (and hopefully get changed) efforts that we don't like. The press must be able to get the information it needs about government actions, and be free to publish it without threat of reprisal so the public knows what is going on.

Trauma Healing

The next essay I need is on Trauma Healing. Intractable conflicts often result in deep trauma, which must be healed if the conflict is to be resolved. There are many techniques that are used: relational and community-based approaches such as group therapy, restorative justice or truth-telling processes, cultural healing practices; expressive and creative techniques such as art, music, or drama therapy, writing or journaling; among other psychological and therapeutic techniques.

True Believers

Now, we are off on a different direction--we are into what we call the "bad faith actor" section. First, we need an intro essay on people we call "true believers" -people who are so convinced that their moral framework and way of living constitutes the "one true path" and that everyone else must be persuaded or forced to follow that path. They won't listen to other views, won't consider compromise. Its their way or else! Explain how these kinds of people make conflict more difficult to resolve, ideally with examples. And again, plain html, and same boilerplate at the top and bottom.

Trust Earning / Guarantees

The next essay is on Trust Earning / Guarantees. Our trust in another individual is grounded in our evaluation of his/her ability, integrity, and benevolence. That's what we need to demonstrate to earn another's trust, and trust is very important if one is going to be willing to work with others to come to agreements. But it should be noted, trust isn't essential. Agreements can be reached with low levels of trust if self-enforcing performance guarantees are included in the agreement. Also note, trust can be built relatively quickly and easily when one is starting "from scratch," but once trust is broken, it is much more difficult to regain it. You also might want to include Roy Lewicki's distinction between calculus based trust and identification-based trust: https://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/trust-building

Types of Complexity

Now I need an essay on types of complexity. This is an introduction to our section that has separate essays on social, psychological, legal, political, economic, communication, environmental and physical complexity. So just explain briefly what is so complex about each of these academic and practical areas of work/study.

Unspinning Deceptive Spin

The next article is on "unspinning deceptive spin." Here we focus on countering the "spin doctors" who focus on deceptively convincing people that damaging facts really aren't so damaging after all (and should, instead, be interpreted as good news).

Unwillingness to Balance Partisan and Societal Interests

The next intro essay I need is for a section entitled "Unwillingness to Balance Partisan and Societal Interests. The idea here is that many people prioritize partisan interests, over general societal well being, even if pursuing those interests is to the detriment of society overall, for instance, by diminishing trust in institutions, increasing polarization, spreading misinformation, increasing fear, and all the negative things you have mentioned in earlier essays in this series. Please write this article in a plain vanilla .html format suitable for pasting into Drupal and integrate references as links within the text.

U.S. Electoral Politics

A closely related essay is on U.S. electoral politics. What are the big issues? How are they being addressed?