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Constructive Conflict Guide >
Intractable Conflict Threat and Opportunity >
Runaway Escalation and Hyper-Polarization
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BI Article
The Threat of Political Violence in the United States
The number of people supporting political violence is not nearly the 30% that has been often reported, but it is still much higher than it should be. We all need to try to calm down our rhetoric so things don't get out of hand.
BI Article
Mark Gerzon and Mesa Sebree -- Towards a Polycrisis Consciousness - Part 1
Gerzon and Sebree explain what the "polycrisis" is, and ten of the individual crises that interact to create it. In part 2, they will explain what can be done to constructively address this unprecedented challenge to human well being, even survival.
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Organizational, Community and Societal Dysfunction
Hyper-polarized intractable conflict can undermine trust and promote intragroup hostility to the point where organizations lose their ability to work for the common good -- a process that further erodes trust.
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Group Oppression of Other Groups
All-out, us-vs-them, hyper-polarized intractable conflict demonizes and dehumanizes adversaries to the point where previously unacceptable acts of oppression or violence become acceptable.
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Enabling Authoritarian Strongmen
When societies become dysfunctional from conflict (or other reasons), this opens the door to authoritarians who may even be appealing to some people because they promise to "save" the downtrodden, and are able to "get things done," while democratic politicians are locked in stalemates.
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Corruption
Hyper-polarized intractable conflict erodes our sense of social responsibility to the point where our collective defense against corruption collapses in ways that further undermine the social fabric.
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Destroys Trust in and the Legitimacy of institutions
As hyper-polarization builds, parties lose trust in the societal institutions upon which they used to depend. This devolves down to the interpersonal level, as people lose trust in families, friends, and local organizations that hold differing values.
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Runaway Conflict, Civil Strife, and Large-Scale Violence
Escalation processes can amplify intractable conflicts to the point where taboos against hate crimes, civil strife, large-scale violence, and war erode and may collapse.
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Divide and Conquer Aggression
Internally divided societies are also vulnerable to outside aggressors who use clandestine measures to amplify divisions and undermine a society's ability to defend itself against aggression.