Newsletter #125 — June 18, 2023
By Guy Burgess
Colleague Activities
Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.
- Psychological Complexity
The Science of What Makes People Care — Five principles based in social science that will help organizations connect their work to what people care most about. - Constructive Communication
Digital Community Stewards Training — This free online training curriculum aims to help digital community stewards who host online groups prevent harm and build social cohesion through those online interactions. - Developing a Unifying Vision
The Eight Pillars of Positive Peace — Based on almost 25,000 indices and survey variables, the Institute for Economics and Peace identified 8 factors that are particularly important for peaceful societies. - Crime / Policing / Guns
The Culture of Punishment: A Critical Approach — May 2023 Issue of Peace in Progress, the magazine of the International Catalan Institute for Peace with ten articles about the downsides of punishment and constructive, restorative alternatives. - Constructive Communication
The Art of Collaborative Facilitation — The crux of good facilitation is to remove the obstacles to connection and collaboration -- obstacles like disconnection, debilitating conflict, and other forms of “stuckness." - Race / Anti-Racism
A Practical Guide to Planning Collaborative Initiatives to Advance Racial Equity — Ideas and illustrations on ways to help people understand the history of current racial harms, advancing racial equity, and starting healing based on actual programs at the local and state levels. - Social Complexity
Watch accomplished experts offer hope on the path to reconciliation — These speakers address what reconciliation means to them. By considering their perspectives, we can begin to understand the complexity of reconciliation. These videos are an excellent reminder to resist easy answers. - Constructive Communication
Youth Talk: Youth Voices for Change — This initiative of Search for Common Ground empowered a group of more than 100 young radio journalists to report on local conflicts and create radio programs to help people find common ground.
Beyond Intractability in Context
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.
- Social Complexity
Manufacturing Dissent — A look at the very long shadow cast by Noam Chomsky and the many others who have taught so many on the left and the right to look at the dark side of almost everything. - Psychological Complexity
Beyond the ‘Matrix’ Theory of the Mind — The thought-provoking exploration of the intersection between information technologies (past and future) and the human mind. - Psychological Complexity
The psychological dangers of being in a silo — A look at the downsides of living inside a homogeneous information bubble. - Saving Democracy
Why is empathy central to democracy? — From George Lakeoff, an insightful look into the relationship between empathy and democracy. - Runaway Escalation
Anti-Fascist. Armed to the Teeth — Disturbing news that the escalation spiral is starting to produce significant, armed militias on the left as well as the right. - Social Complexity
What Happens When a Cascade of Crises Collide? — A quick summary of the ideas behind an important new word – "the polycrisis." - Superpower Conflict
Unanswered Questions About Trump and Russia — From the Wall Street Journal, an attempt to look beyond the left's political rhetoric and disinformation and focus on the true, unanswered questions about President Trump's relationship with the Russians. - Crime / Policing / Guns
A Firearm-Owning Republican’s Solutions for Gun Violence — A look at what the Zone of Possible Agreement looks like with respect to gun control in the US. - Developing a Unifying Vision
Tucker Carlson and the new standard we need — Reflections on the "cancellation" of Tucker Carlson and the need for a set of moral standards that are applied equally to all. - Superpower Conflict
U.S.’s political madness takes place against a backdrop of astonishing strength — Amid today's dominant focus on the many things that are going wrong, a call for also paying attention to the things that are going right. - Conflict Advice
How to Succeed in the Foreign-Policy Blob — Wise and practical advice for those seeking a career in international relations, peacebuilding, or any other conflict -related field. - Overcoming Hate-Mongering Efforts
Colombia’s Peace-Whisperer Makes Plenty of Enemies — A profile of what it takes to fill one of society's most difficult and dangerous roles – that of a peacemaker. - Countering Misinformation
"Misinformation" isn't just on the right — A timely reminder that the complex dynamics that lead to a misinformed citizenry afflict those on the left and the center as well as the right. - Effective Problem-Solving
The World Needs Neutrals — For those too frequent times when war breaks out, a reminder of the critical role played by neutral humanitarian organizations like the Red Cross. - Psychological Complexity
Politics is Designed to Alienate Most Americans — An important call for building a political system that better represents the 50+% percent of the electorate that rejects the hard partisanship of the left and the right.
Please Contribute Your Ideas To This Discussion!
In order to prevent bots, spammers, and other malicious content, we are asking contributors to send their contributions to us directly. If your idea is short, with simple formatting, you can put it directly in the contact box. However, the contact form does not allow attachments. So if you are contributing a longer article, with formatting beyond simple paragraphs, just send us a note using the contact box, and we'll respond via an email to which you can reply with your attachment. This is a bit of a hassle, we know, but it has kept our site (and our inbox) clean. And if you are wondering, we do publish essays that disagree with or are critical of us. We want a robust exchange of views.
About the MBI Newsletters
Once a week or so, we, the BI Directors, share some thoughts, along with new posts from the Hyper-polarization Blog and and useful links from other sources. We used to put this all together in one newsletter which went out once or twice a week. We are now experimenting with breaking the Newsletter up into several shorter newsletters. Each Newsletter will be 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.
NOTE! If you signed up for this Newsletter and don't see it in your inbox, it might be going to one of your other emails folder (such as promotions, social, or spam). Check there or search for beyondintractability@substack.com and if you still can't find it, first go to our Substack help page, and if that doesn't help, please contact us.
If you like what you read here, please ....
