Frontiers Seminar Blog
Constructive Confrontation Initiative Spring 2018 Posts to Date
See Syllabus for additional background posts and planned, future posts (many of which are now accessible).
Other Blogs: MOOS Fundamentals | BI in Context | Colleague Activities
Posts ordered from most recent to earliest.
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We need to better understand how to see and avoid the many traps (and sinister cons) that are dragging us into ever more destructive conflict.
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Like the vulnerable US football players, we need better ways to protect ourselves from destructive efforts to undermine our ability to work together.
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Like the vulnerable US football players, we need better ways to protect ourselves from destructive efforts to undermine our ability to work together.
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A big part of why democracy is in so much trouble is that "bad faith" actors are actively working to subvert it. We need to understand and learn how to stop them.
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A "conflict mirror" can help us see ourselves as others see us in ways that often reveal the things we unconsciously do that unnecessarily intensify the conflicts we face.
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Repairing democracy will require both sides to replace today's winner-takes-all / loser-loses-all approach to politics with coexistence, tolerance, and mutual respect.
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An argument that the key to saving democracy is assuring political adversaries that, even in defeat, their interests will be protected.
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Parties, issues, dynamics, power, and relationships are among the conflict elements one must clearly understand.
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Conflict escalation, Guy Burgess asserts, is "the most dangerous force on the planet." How to avoid its damage.
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We need to think about social problems as complex adaptive systems requiring massively parallel problem-solving.
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An overview of common mistakes that people make when trying to deal with uncertain situations like COVID-19 (and strategies for avoiding them).
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MPP offers a strategy for combining our collective knowledge and skills into a large-scale effort to promote more constructive approaches to conflict.
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What is power? The ability to get things done? The ability to push other people around? Which is right? (Actually, they both are.)
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The Backlash Coefficient – measuring the degree to which the quest for victory intensifies rather than subdues the opposition.
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Are efforts to solve problems collaboratively now losing to naked contests of Machiavellian power?
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We need to resist "divide and conqueror's" efforts to control society by exacerbating left/right tensions.
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Though risky, escalation is riskier! Conciliatory gestures can turn escalation around.
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Responding to hate with hate is like pouring gasoline on a fire...you are likely to get burned!
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Hate, no matter how "justified" hurts us more than it helps us. Don't do it!
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If you collaborate with "your enemy" against escalation and "divide & conquerors"--you both can win!
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Social media is driving our conflicts--real HUMAN relationships can change that.
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More ideas for spanning the left/right divide: the win-win pursuit of social equity, multi-multi-culturalism, and more.
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How might the super-rich be persuaded to do the right thing? How might the cosmopolitan elite better earn the public's support and trust?
