Recent BI and Substack Posts

We have more people willing to help than we have had in years, but fewer able to make a long-term, standing commitment to fill the civic spaces that need them. What is scarce is not the impulse to help. It is the ability to keep showing up.

Again catching up with a lot of links from the last two weeks. Some good news, some much more worrisome.

The Burgesses and Harry Boyte, Co-Chair of the Braver Angels Civic Scholars Council (CSC) announce a partnership to publish the CSC papers on BI and Harry gives the background about how these papers came to be.

Curiosity is transformative -- it allows us to see the world as it really is, not as we pretend it or wish it to be. And that transformation makes solutions possible that weren’t possible before.

Two very different approaches to improving democracy, but both are innovative examples of courageous citizenship -- one in practice, the other in theory, aspiring to become the practice of all of us.

It is harder and harder to find good news these days--but we try, while still giving you the important news we must know.

Part Two of Harry Boyte's description of how public work and civic organizing differ from advocacy, and why it is much more effective and powerful. Here he explains how it is better than "technocracy"-- rule by experts.

Public work is an approach to democracy and civic engagement that is fundamentally different from advocacy, and is a much more powerful way, not only, to get things done, but to improve oneself and one's community in the process.

Catching up on the recent readings of note.

Both hyper-polarization and institutional failure a can reflect the same deeper problem: people losing the capacity to work through conflict, exercise agency, and shape public life together.

Another set of readings worth your time.

Anne Leslie reflects on our tendency to describe everything in binary, either-or terms, which almost always leads us astray.

David Eisner suggests we navigate his faultlines by making two mind shifts: receiving those who oppose our approach as "the loyal opposition," and saving our fire for the fight that warrants it. And we know how to do this.

Part Two of David' Eisners essay on Citizenship Under Friendly Fire, this time looking at who gets included, who gets kept out; whose knowledge counts, whose doesn’t and how these decisions can undermine the work we all are trying to do.

Many different types of people and organizations are working on civic renewal and democratic renewal. They all share the same goals, but very different notions of how to get there. And those differences cause collisions, hard feelings, and impeded progress.

Projects pulling us together, others tearing us apart. This week's news and colleague stories include both.

Despite all its flaws and failings, democracy still offers better life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness than any other governance system. We explain why we think that--and why it matters.

Thoughts on history, the United States' 250th 4th of July, and democracy ("the worst form of government, except all those other forms that have been tried"). Rather than killing it off, we should try to rejuvenate it.

Interesting and important readings for the week.

Guy Burgess tells a personal story about a multi-year process to use democracy to save access to open space in Boulder, Colorado. This is one example of how courageous citizenship works.

Debilyn Molineaux talks about how bridging is insufficient to counter authoritariansim. We need to develop a positive vision of where we, personally, want to be in 2, 5, 10, or 20 years, and then figure out what kind of a community we need around us to make that happen.

Important, if sometimes depressing, reading this week. But there are some good news stories here!

Liberal democracies need engaged, courageous citizens to function properly. Teaching children how to do that is an important job for parents, as schools and institutions are no longer teaching such attitudes and skills.

Daniel Yudkin, Founding Director of the Beacon Project explains its origins in More in Common's Hidden Tribes report, explaining how the notion of potentialism might just be the "secret sauce" that gives people a sense of civic agency and hope, instead of the now so prevalent feelings of hopelessness and loneliness.

Another set of readings suggested by Guy, Heidi, and our readers.