Newsletter 139 — July 23, 2023
Colleague Activities
Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.
- Constructive Communication
Straight Arrow News Achieves AllSides Balance Certification — Straight Arrow News is on a mission to set a new standard for quality journalism in a time of media bias and mistrust. Allsides just awareded them a coveted "balanced" certification. - Authoritarianism
Kristina Becvar's Bridge Alliance Weekly Update from July 17 — Kristina's reflection on the relationship between calls for "civility" and standing up against authoritarianism. How do these two mesh? - Saving Democracy
Healthy Democracy — HD works to elevate everyday people in public decision making. They use democratic lotteries to empower new voices and design deliberative processes that prove that collaborative politics is possible. - Saving Democracy
Veterans for Political Innovation — An organization of U.S. vets working to mobilize a community of military veterans to advocate for election innovations that unlock competition, make our politics less toxic and our government more effective. - Authoritarianism
Fighting back against authoritarianism — Bridging organizations that bring together people with conflicting opinions should also partner with civic organizations in their area to forge stronger relationships between groups. - Freedom of Speech
Heterodox Academy wants to ‘lovingly’ push viewpoint diversity at colleges — A description of Heterodox Academy's new Campus Community Network, starting at 23 colleges where its members will host events aimed at remolding “campus culture and institutional practices.” - Constructive Communication
Academic Success Tip: Guide Students in Constructive Dialogue — A University of Delaware professor shares why and how she makes dialogue about difficult-to-discuss issues a foundational skill in her classroom.
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
What Was the Fact? — An examination of the role that "facts" have played in the evolution of society and thoughts about the implications of their recent demise. - The Hyper-Polarization Threat
‘Gut-level Hatred’ Is Consuming Our Political Life — A review, with lots of links, of what the latest political science research is telling us about the nature and depth of our hyper-polarized politics. - Positive Perspectives
We Will Never Run Out of Resources — A reassuring update on Julian Simon's classic observation that human ingenuity is the "ultimate resource" – a "resource capable of overcoming all material shortages." - Developing a Unifying Vision
The Left’s Social Contract Is Broken. Here’s How to Fix It — A look back at the left's many successes over the last 75 years, an argument that today's progressive advocacy is undermining that progress, and suggestions about how to fix things. - Effective Problem Assessment
What the IPCC Actually Says About Extreme Weather — For those who want to trust the science (not political rhetoric), a review of what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says about the relationship between weather disasters and climate change. - Social Complexity
Talkin’ ’Bout Our Generations: How They Shape Our Style, Our Vacations and Why We’re Us — A great deal of conflict traces to the fact that different generations have dramatically different life experiences – experiences that shape their beliefs and behaviors. - Developing a Unifying Vision
The Promise of Individualism — Provocative thoughts about the advantages of our individualistic culture and a caution about abandoning it too easily. - Effective Problem-Solving
We fixed I-95 in 12 days. Here are our lessons for U.S. infrastructure. — A story (with lots of practical implications) of how, when we really want to, we can resolve disputes and make decisions quickly in ways that actually get things done. - Class Inequity
The Tale of Rising Inequality Turned Out to Be Wrong — A hopeful argument that, while we were all worrying about how increasing inequality was tearing society apart, inequality started decreasing! - Saving Democracy
We’re Entering a New Era of Shady Campaign Finance — An instructive example of why political reforms have to be carefully monitored -- unscrupulous actors will find loopholes that need to be plugged. - Race / Anti-Racism
The Pseudoscience of Critical Race Theory — Amid all of the uncertainty about what "critical race theory" is and isn't, a detailed look and critical assessment of its core assertions (with lots of links). - Interstate War
Should Ukraine Negotiate With Russia? — In the context of the war in Ukraine, an examination of the tough choices that would-be peacemakers have to make. - Developing a Unifying Vision
Why I Developed Ethical Individualism Theory — Food for thought for those trying to understand what, in our individualistic culture, they owe the larger society. - Effective Problem Assessment
The Problem with Lived Experience — Listening to people with experience actually struggling through today's big problems can provide important insights. Excessive focus on these "lived experiences," however, can also get us into trouble.
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