Newsletter #380 — September 2, 2025
 

by Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess

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Highlighted Links

A few suggestions about links that we think are especially interesting.

• Class Inequity
  A Blue-Collar View of Psychology’s Woke Drift — A rare, first-person account of what it's like to simultaneously live in the blue-collar world of the construction trades and the white-collar world of academia.
• Social / Economic Complexity
  Book Review: "Breakneck" — A major review and summary of the new book, Breakneck, that argues that the biggest difference between China and the US is that China is run by engineers and the US by lawyers.
• Saving Democracy
  Introducing the Democracy Atlas — The introduction to a major project exploring what the world's struggling democracies can learn from one another.
• US Politics
  The Democratic Party Faces a Voter Registration Crisis — Stark statistics about the nationwide decline in the number of voters affiliated with the Democratic Party -- statistics that suggest that a dramatic rethinking of the party's philosophy is long overdue.
• Psychological Complexity
  Jonathan Haidt on Why We Always Think We’re Right — A psychological perspective on one of the most important contributors to intractable conflict.
• Nihilists
  The Americans Who Need Chaos — Amid a disturbing number of instances of nihilistic violence, an essay that explores the allure of this kind of thinking.
• Communication Complexity
  Was It Something I Said? — As those on the left grapple with the intensity of public opposition to so many of their policies, an essay exploring the role played by the often alienating language used to articulate progressive policies.

Reader Suggested Links

Highlighting links suggested by our readers. Please send us links to things that you find useful.

• US Politics
  Trump’s Half-Baked Approach to Negotiation — An attempt to understand (and provide an informed critique) of President Trump's approach to international negotiation.
• Saving Democracy
  Designing a Bigger “We”: Civic Studies & Civic Innovation Huddle (Aug 18, 2025) — Thriving Together US is designing a bigger “We.” This Huddle shows how: start with belonging, give people simple ways to join, and tie dialogue to real work that changes local conditions or innovates new civic life.
• Saving Democracy
  Understanding Democratic Erosion — An interactive conflict map illustrating the reinforcing feedback loops that drive the system of democratic erosion.
• Left / Right Conflict
  Small Bookstores and the Future of Liberalism — Report on an informal, anecdotal, but extremely perceptive analysis of what Democrats are actually thinking about in the wake of President Trump's victory.
• Israel / Hamas War
  "Is the War Against Hamas Winnable?" with Haviv Rettig Gur — For those ready to discard simplistic and unrealistic images about the nature of the war between Hamas and Israel, an illuminating conversation about the heart-wrenching decisions that Israelis are facing.
• US Politics
  The Insidious Creep of Trump’s Speaking Style — A critical attempt to understand the nuances of President Trump's speaking style and why so many find it attractive.
• Israel / Hamas War
  The global counter-intifada — One of the downsides of the "globalize the intifada" movement is that it globalizes the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in ways that may bring its horrors to a place near you.

Colleague Activities

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

• Media Reform
  The Next Phase of Democracy Tech — Kristin Hansen of the Civic Health Project explains how we can promote more constructive uses of information technology by moving beyond content moderation and toward more proactive civic technologies.
• Theories of Change
  Repolarize to Depolarize — What if progress in US politics won’t come from reducing polarization, but from polarizing differently? Jonathan Stray talks with Jennifer McCoy about the dynamics of toxic polarization and ways forward.
• Trust / Trust Earning
  5 Reasons Americans Lost Trust in Each Other—and How We Build it Back — The Builders shares "what is feeding the mistrust machine and how we shut it down."
• Civil Society
  Why protecting democracy means protecting nonprofits — Threats to civil society are a threat to us all.
• Artificial Intelligence
  This game-changing AI tool helps students learn constructive disagreement. — Amid all of the AI-related doom and gloom, a positive story about the way in which the technology might actually be able to help us deal with conflict more constructively. .
• Peacebuilding
  The Priest and the Guerrilla Fighter — Eileen Borris talks with Fr. Leonel Narvaez who helped people in Colombia heal from the long-lasting violence. He shows how "peace doesn't begin with politics. It begins in the heart."
• Psychological Complexity
  Minds and Movements: A Brain Science Guide to Social Messaging — A report from Beyond Conflict and Humanity United merges neuroscience, social psychology and movement strategy to help change makers craft more effective, human-centered, and context-driven responses.
• The Hyper-Polarization Threat
  Polarisation: The ‘Hyper-Problem’ Transitional Justice Can No Longer Ignore — As a ‘hyper-problem’ that makes political and social challenges harder to resolve, polari­sation is both a barrier to addressing a violent past and a leading indicator of future risks of conflict and violence.
• Theories of Change
  Winning Coalitions Have the Right Kinds of Differences — More insight into the one of the biggest areas in which collaboration and consensus building skills are widely applied -- coalition building.
• Corruption
  Kleptocracy Tracker Timeline — A public log of political decisions that benefit private interests. Developed by journalists and SNF Agora Senior Fellow Anne Applebaum, the project builds on her reporting in The Atlantic to document a shift in American governance.
• Constructively Addressing Complex Issues
  Strategic Planning in 2025: Five Ways to Navigate Chaos with Clarity — Conventional strategic planning often assumes a stable environment. In today's chaos, we need strategic direction instead.
• Psychological Complexity
  Can the People Themselves Still Amend the Constitution? — The American Promise coalition is determined to find out and, in the process, rein in the big money playing havoc with our politics.
• Communication Complexity
  Silence Isn’t Neutral — It Shapes Our Politics — The American founders believed that an educated and engaged public was essential for democracy's survival. Widespread avoidance of political issues would open the door to manipulation, extremism, and authoritarianism.
• Theories of Change
  Why Systems Change Stories Are Hard to Tell and What We Can Do About It  — One of the paradoxes of systems change is that the deeper the impact, the harder it is to tell a clear and compelling story about it. Unlike traditional projects, systemic change doesn’t fit neatly into metrics or dashboards.
• Peacebuilding
  Measuring Our Impact — Search for Common Ground's Peace Impact Framework for understanding the impact of peacebuilding work and how to improve its effectiveness.
• Saving Democracy
  Reluctant Truth-Tellers and Institutional Fragility — In democracies under strain, the most important truths often arrive too late, uttered hesitantly by those who should have spoken earlier.
• Theories of Change
  Why America Isn't Ready for a General Strike — There is a lot romanticized talk in liberal circles about the idea of nationwide general strikes in the U.S. in response to perceived grievances. David Beckemeyer doesn't think it can work in the U.S. as it has in other countries.
• Crime / Policing / Guns
  Crime in DC is a Problem, or Maybe It Isn't — We are measuring different things and talking past each other
• Saving Democracy
  Wisconsin Business Leaders Ensure Fair Elections — An article from the Horizons Project explaining how civic pressure, pledges, and letters helped preserve electoral trust in Wisconsin.

News and Opinion

From around the web, more insight into the nature of our conflict problems, limits of business-as-usual thinking, and things people are doing to try to make things better. (Formerly, Beyond Intractability in Context.)

• Theories of Change
  President melds a fractious coalition: The six factions of Trumpworld — An analysis of one of the most important elements of President Trump's power and success -- his ability to resolve conflicts that might split his coalition.
• Family / Gender / LBGTQ+
  The Wrong Definition of Love — From David Brooks, an argument that a big factor behind our unraveling social fabric is our failure to understand the most fundamental of human emotions -- love.
• Saving Democracy
  One Sentence in the Constitution Is Causing America Huge Problems — For rule of law-based systems of government to work, the laws have to be very clear about what is and what is not permissible -- otherwise, loophole-seeking, bad actors will find ways to subvert these systems.
• Artificial Intelligence
  The AI Doomers Are Getting Doomier — More insights into the potential downsides of AI -- downsides that we need to find effective ways of limiting.
• US Politics
  Trump’s Half-Baked Approach to Negotiation — An attempt to understand (and provide an informed critique) of President Trump's approach to international negotiation.
• Media Reform
  We Are Rushing Into the Same Mistakes We Made With Social Media — An insightful comparison of the mistakes made during the early stages of social media revolution and similar mistakes that we are now making with respect to AI.
• Education
  The Higher Ed Death Spiral — An unusually comprehensive summary of the vast array of problems now plaguing higher education.
• Education
  The Perverse Consequences of the Easy A — An analysis of the surprising downsides associated with grade inflation (and university efforts to keep their primary customers happy).
• Psychological Complexity
  Podcast #300: The Modular Mind — An interview with the author of new book on the complex psychology of human conflict, "Why Everyone (Else) Is a Hypocrite: Evolution and the Modular Mind."
• Authoritarianism
  Skewing the Overton Window — An insightful essay on the ways in which the Overton Window of realistic possibilities is being expanding in ways that may make communist movements politically viable.
• Race / Anti-Racism
  How To Fix DEI — An example of a constructive response to criticism and the loss of public trust -- figure out how to do better.
• US Politics
  The Real Threat to Democrats Isn’t Redistricting — Amid the ongoing flurry over Texas' redistricting (and California's response), a reminder that the left's problems go much deeper than that.
• Communication Complexity
  Amy Klobuchar: What I Didn’t Say About Sydney Sweeney — A story about one instance in which the brave new world of super realistic, AI-generated videos is ushering in a whole new age of political propaganda.
• Social / Economic Complexity
  Why American Society Is Incredibly Stable - Part 1 — The first of a series of essays exploring why the United States has historically done so well (despite widespread perceptions of imminent catastrophe).
• Left / Right Conflict
  Populist Right-Wing Parties Lead Polls in Europe’s Biggest Economies — For those who thought that the right-leaning populist revolt that brought President Trump to power was unique to the United States -- news that similar movements are gaining strength in Europe.
• Social / Economic Complexity
  The Tale of the Rent-Seeking Saw — The invisible hand adds value to the economy while the invisible fist of "rent seeking" attempts to claim value produced by others -- an example of what this looks like in practice.
• Artificial Intelligence
  A Better Way to Think About AI — A reminder of the principle that "all good things tend to be intertwined with bad things." This essay applies this principle to efforts to promote more beneficial uses of AI.
• Authoritarianism
  Domination and Reputation Management — An exploration of the complex, but critically important, process through which successful liberation and social justice movements are transformed into oppressive regimes.
• Developing a Unifying Vision
  The Great Bipartisan Abdication — A look at the complex chain of events that led both Democrats and Republicans to lose their public-spirited vision (and ability to reconcile competing interests).
• Terror
  My Summer with Jihadis — An example of a genuinely positive bit of journalism -- writing that actually lets us spend some time inside a community that we have little contact with or understanding of.
• Authoritarianism
  Trump Triples Down on Lawfare — A comparison of the lawfare campaigns Democrats used against President Trump and the vastly more ruthless and successful campaigns that President Trump is using against Democrats.

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About the MBI Newsletters

Two or three times a week, Guy and Heidi Burgess, the BI Directors, share some of our thoughts on political hyper-polarization and related topics. We also share essays from our colleagues and other contributors, and every week or so, we devote one newsletter to annotated links to outside readings that we found particularly useful relating to U.S. hyper-polarization, threats to peace (and actual violence) in other countries, and related topics of interest. Each Newsletter is posted on BI, and sent out by email through Substack to subscribers. You can sign up to receive your copy here and find the latest newsletter here or on our BI Newsletter page, which also provides access to all the past newsletters, going back to 2017.

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