Newsletter 128 — Wednesday June 28, 2023
Reader-Suggested Links
Highlighting links suggested by our readers. Please send us links to things that you find useful.
- Constructive Communication
3 tips on how to argue — and find common ground — from a debate champion. — Solid advice and how to transform either/or debates into a search for common ground. - Left / Right Conflict
Tim Urban: Why are we so divided? And what can we do about it? — An interesting TED talk exploring how we can move toward a world that is less angry and more filled with curiosity, cooperation, and respect. - Constructive Communication
The Abortion Talks: A Documentary — A documentary describing one of the conflict field's most successful efforts to build mutual understanding and respect across deep moral differences.
Colleague Activities
Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.
- Left / Right Conflict
Trust in SCOTUS in the wake of Roe v. Wade — 80% of Americans think the Supreme Court should be independent from politics. Before Dobbs, 39% thought it actually was; after Dobbs that number was down to 24%. - Efforts to Limit Concentrated Power
How Affective Polarization Undermines Support for Democratic Norms — When in power, political parties tend to oppose constitutional protections that they support when they are out of power -- a tendency that undermines efforts to cultivate broadly supported norms. - Constructive Communication
How The Current uses community listening and solutions journalism to make an impact in Louisiana. — A video showing how one community uses solutions journalism to hold local government accountable and to explore opportunities for mutually beneficial problem-solving. - Theories of Change
Moving From Ladders of Engagement to Self-Organizing As Decentralized Leadership — A description of a self organizing strategy for producing a decentralized, non-hierarchical type of engagement and leadership that is better suited to the demands of large and complex societies. - Constructive Communication
Empathy Circle Game — The Empathy Circle Game was created to enrich listening and communication skills through a series of engaging in-person group activities. - Constructive Communication
Conversatons That Matter — A free guide from the Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom to inspire conversations about values based on their "guidelines for life." - Hate Mongering
The Village Square--Chris Stirewalt: Broken News — A former Fox News political editor gives an inside view of the rage-driven political environment in which we find ourselves. - Developing a Unifying Vision
Fight the Return of the Old Normal: A Guidebook for Envisioning a Racially Just & Transformative Future — We can choose to live in the “old normal” of racial injustice and human exhaustion or we can imagine and design a "new normal" built around a vision for a better future.
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.
- Countering Misinformation
The American Left’s Fantastic Threats — A provocative and, if true, a game changing argument that the many of the things that the left most fears about the right are nowhere nearly as serious as is widely believed. - Class Inequity
The Real Cost of Cheap Labour — A thoughtful exploration of the origins of an economy that pays so many so little and an explanation of why it is in our best interest to change this. - Superpower Conflict
The Minimum Viable Navy — A look at the way in which the U.S. Navy is thinking about emerging security challenges and a look at the dangers associated with our slide into a new Cold War. - Improving Problem Assessment
The new academy: modern intellectuals are writing their best ideas on Substack — A look at the way in which Substack is emerging as an exciting new forum for exchanging thoughtful ideas on the complex problems facing humanity. -
Positive Perspectives
Models of antiquity — For those tempted to discount the lessons of the past, a story about how earlier radicals in the ""Age of Revolution"" saw the classical world as a common inheritance that could aid their fight for liberty. - Social Complexity
The Invention of Objectivity — For a world in which the search for objective truth is critically important and a focal point for conflict, thoughtful reflections on the origins of the concept. - Class Inequity
Class Dismissed -- How material abundance erodes class but intensifies social status. — Thoughtful insights into the meaning of class (which is not as simple as we tend to think) and the role that it plays in contemporary conflict. - Saving Democracy
Machiavelli Preferred Democracy to Tyranny — From one of history's great experts on tyranny (Machiavelli), strong support for democracy. - Race / Anti-Racism
The DEI Industry Needs to Check Its Privilege — All institutions in positions of power and authority ought to routinely ask themselves hard questions about whether they are living up to their responsibilities. The DEI "industry" is no exception. - Race / Anti-Racism
Race once governed U.S. voting patterns. That’s quickly changing. — A look at how the association between race and voting behavior is evolving (and undermining many common and simplistic assumptions). - Improving Problem Assessment
A.I. Poses ‘Risk of Extinction,’ Industry Leaders Warn — A story about how leaders of the tech industry are trying to persuade society to take the steps needed to protect itself from the downsides of AI. - Improving Problem Assessment
Statement on AI Risk — A link to the statement on AI risks that people are being asked to sign as part of an effort to draw attention to the issue. Could this strategy be used elsewhere? - Constructive Communication
Why it's so hard to fix the information ecosystem — A thoughtful inventory of the things that make it so hard to remedy today's destructive information flows – problems which we have to find a way to overcome. - Inflammatory Media
Stimulant Politics: Arousal, Agitation, Amphetamines, and the Froth of Politics — A look at what makes the "hyper" in hyper-polarization so "hyper." - Inflammatory Media
The Age of Spectacle Is Upon Us — An insightful essay explaining how so many social institutions are moving away from their core responsibilities and acting in ways that inflame tensions.
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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.
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