Colleague, News, and Opinion Links for the Week of August 3, 2025
Newsletter #374 — August 8, 2025
by Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess
Highlighted Links
A few suggestions about links that we think are especially interesting.
- Violence
80 years since Hiroshima. How much longer can the world’s luck hold? — On the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, alarm about increasing prospects for nuclear war and a call to do something about it. - Developing a Unifying Vision
Revitalizing the American Commonwealth — Harry Boyte calls for reviving the “commonwealth” tradition—the idea that democracy relies on citizens stewarding and co-creating the public good. - Psychological Complexity
Why is Nobody Talking About This? — Bias does not just affect how something is covered, it determines what is and what is not covered. - US Politics
Today’s Non-Progressive Progressives — For progressives still trying to understand what went wrong, an argument that they too often abandoned progressive values. - Israel / Hamas War
Parts I-VIII: The Face Of The 'Suffocating Occupation,' — From the Mideast Media Research Institute, an eye-opening collection of videos portraying life in Gaza before the war and further illuminating the folly of October 7. - Developing a Unifying Vision
It's time for abundance Democrats to embrace cultural moderation — A proposed, friendly amendment to the abundance agenda that some Democrats are championing -- accompany it with greater tolerance for differing views on the culture war issues. Constructive Communication
The Mirror Test for a Divided America — For democracy to survive, we have to be willing to treat our fellow citizens as we would like to be treated. The mirror test is a strategy for figuring out whether or not we are doing this.
Reader Suggested Links
Highlighting links suggested by our readers. Please send us links to things that you find useful.
- Superpower Conflict
You Can’t Quit America — A thoughtful exploration of the many ways in which the United States is inseparably integrated into the the planet's political economy. - US Politics
The Trump Presidency Takes a Better Turn — From a Trump critic who also believes in honest reporting, a rare article describing some of the more positive steps that the Trump administration has recently taken. - Israel / Hamas War
Coleman Hughes: The Simple Truth About the War in Gaza — An undoubtedly controversial, but also clear and persuasive, explanation of why so many people are misinterpreting what's going on in Gaza. - Psychological Complexity
You Need Conservatives. Here’s How to Engage Them in Your Mission. — Practical advice for how those committed to politically inclusive projects might actually be able to persuade conservatives to participate. - Israel / Hamas War
What next for Gaza? — An especially thoughtful examination of the choices facing Israel as it is, once again, being forced to reconsider its Gaza strategy. - Israel / Hamas War
Is Gaza Starving? — An informative effort to unpack the complex causes of and solutions for Gaza's ongoing hunger crisis. - Israel / Hamas War
Michael Oren: The Wisdom of Yahya Sinwar — An explanation of the strategic brilliance (and the incredible human costs) of Sinwar's attack on Israel and the Jewish people.
Colleague Activities
Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.
- Social / Economic Complexity
Why movements need to learn to fly like bees and thread like spiders — John Paul Lederach suggests that we take inspiration from nature for insights into how to build a broad-based pro-democracy movement. - Constructive Communication
How to Have Constructive Political Discussions w/ Guy and Heidi Burgess — Guy and Heidi were recently on Paul Rader's "Politics with Paul" Podcast where we talked about what has made American politics and society so broken, and what we need to do to start to fix it. - Saving Democracy
V-Dem — Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) provides a multidimensional and disaggregated dataset that reflects the complexity of the concept of democracy, focusing on five dimensions: electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, and egalitarian. dimensions. - Saving Democracy
We the People — As we approach the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, We the People is calling on leaders to take up their power, exercise their values, and courageously build a future where all can thrive. - Theories of Change
Democracy Notes & Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement: Planting Seeds for Tomorrow’s Democracy — Across the nation, democracy advocates have long focused on urgent challenges, but there’s a growing recognition that protecting democracy also requires imagination and long-term vision. - Authoritarianism
The Anti-Autocracy Handbook — From The Commons: Social Change Library a Scholars' Guide to Navigating Democratic Backsliding. It is a call to action, resilience, and collective defense of democracy, truth, and academic freedom in the face of mounting authoritarianism. - Theories of Change
The Value Proposition of Incubators and Accelerators: Fueling Impactful Innovation — Incubators and accelerators provide more than just funding; they offer mentorship, networking opportunities, and strategic resources that significantly enhance a startup’s chances of success. - Saving Democracy
Open Government Partnership — Open Government Partnership is an organization of reformers inside and outside of government working to transform how government serves its citizens. - Violence
The Stakes: How Political Rhetoric Breeds Violence — From the Kettering Foundation, a video with Minnesota State Senator Zaynab Mohamed and UMass professor Alexander Theodoridis about the accelerating trend of politically motivated violence in America and its threat to US democracy. - Authoritarianism
Understanding Authoritarianism: Resources to Defend Democracy — This resource library is a curated collection of articles, essays, tools, and analyses designed to help you understand the roots, tactics, and impacts of authoritarian movements, and ways to challenge them. - Peacebuilding
Global Governance Innovation Report 2025 — The Stimson Center published a report that provides the first progress review on the Pact for the Future, offering pathways for implementing its 56 Actions, the Global Digital Compact, and the Declaration on Future Generations. - Peacebuilding
Peace & Conflict Statistics — A new service from the Alliance for Peacebulding, this is a "a go-to resource for peace and conflict-related statistics for use by the peacebuilding community." - Psychological Complexity
Fast Frames – Mindsets and Movements: Introduction — This video walks through four important features of cultural mindsets showing that the choices we make in how we say what we have to say shapes how we make sense of the world. - Saving Democracy
Global Democracy Coalition — A multi-stakeholder solidarity network, the Global Democracy Coalition explores and seizes opportunities for collective action and influence for the global democracy agenda. - Saving Democracy
FAQ: Deliberative Town Halls for Congress — More information from Civic Genius about their "deliberative town halls." What they are, how they work, and why they are a good idea. - Theories of Change
Guiding Narrative Change: Considerations for the Philanthropic Field — From Frameworks, a helpful resource to understand narrative programming. - Saving Democracy
Freedom in the World 2025: The Uphill Battle to Safeguard Rights — A report from Freedom House documenting the 19th year of declining freedom, arguing that "all those who understand the value of political rights and civil liberties must work together in the defense of democracy." - Developing a Unifying Vision
DEBUNKED: 10 Myths Keeping Us Divided — From Builders, 10 (very familiar) myths we hold that keep us apart, and what we should realize instead. - Saving Democracy
Reimagining Congressional Town Halls — Civic Genius announces a first-of-its-kind deliberative town hall designed to facilitate deep discussion with a cross-section of Washington’s 9th District residents - Media Reform
Straight Arrow News — A new news service that independent evaluators believe actually lives up to its promise of being a source for straight, unbiased news. - Social / Economic Complexity
The Big Picture — To block authoritarian consolidation and build a robust democracy, we need to understand why we are where we are politically -- and that is a systems failure moment, disguised as a political crisis.
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.)
- Social / Economic Complexity
The Crucial Issue of the 21st Century — An important and widely cited article from David Brooks that does much to help us understand just how radically things are changing and why we must prioritize the building of a new, much more widely supported social order. - Saving Democracy
The Politics America Needs Now — For a time when much of our effort focuses on the many things that are going wrong, a rare article describing how we can make things go right. - Theories of Change
The Decline and Fall of NGOs — Deeply disturbing news for those who either have (or planned) to make a career in one of nonprofit, nongovernmental organizations committed to making the world a better place (at least according to progressive standards). - Theories of Change
Gradual Change is F***ing Awesome—And Liberalism Knows It — For a time in which so many people are disillusioned with the current state of affairs and in favor of swift, radical change, a counter-argument for gradual evolutionary improvements. - US Politics
MAGA doesn't build anything — An argument that the MAGA movement will not succeed until it moves beyond undoing the existing order and starts focusing on how to build something better to replace it. - Developing a Unifying Vision
'Abundance’ Offers a Sounder Way Forward for the Left than Degrowth or Redistributive Progressivism — More on the big debate between those who focus on cultivating growth and, hopefully, abundance, and those who concentrate on the redistribution of the wealthy's riches. - Progressive Left
Stolen Land? It’s All Stolen Land — A critical, controversial, and thought-provoking essay that tries to help us come to terms with a human history dominated by intense competition and, sometimes, conquest. - Saving Democracy
Mapping How Mamdani’s Ranked-Choice Strategy Beat Cuomo — After years of hearing arguments that ranked-choice voting is the cure for democracy's ills, we now have a big election that was decided under ranked choice rules to contemplate. - Progressive Left
Why Is Democratic Favorability at a 35-Year Low? — One of the reasons why many believe that the political pendulum is unlikely to soon swing back in ways that quickly restore the many programs and policies that Trump is now dismantling. - Social / Economic Complexity
Trump, the Working Class and Social Order — Is politics is downstream of the economy or culture? This article does an excellent job dispelling such simplistic views in ways that illuminate the real-world complexity of politics. - Constructively Addressing Complex Issues
Doctors Have Lost Their Mount Olympus of Medicine — A story about the practical implications of living in a society in which there are no longer sources of reliable, objective information. - Theories of Change
The power of a single-issue group — For a time in which the political focus is on giant political coalitions, an argument for focusing, instead, on solving individual problems. - US Politics
In Fight for House, New York May Follow Texas in Redrawing Maps — An article on the ongoing battle to see which political party can do the best job of disenfranchising the other party's voters. - Climate / Environment / Health
A Red Team Climate Report — A description of one way in which we might be able to foster a genuinely productive debate on a wide range of climate change -related issues. - Social / Economic Complexity
The only thing worse than sweatshops is no sweatshops — An exploration of complex trade-offs and a thought-provoking defense of the giant factories (with their often brutal working conditions) that globalization has brought to the developing world. - Constructively Addressing Complex Issues
Scientific Journals Can’t Keep Up With Flood of Fake Papers — An eye-opening look at one of the factors behind the collapse in public support for scientific inquiry. - Artificial Intelligence
The Era of A.I. Propaganda Has Arrived, and America Must Act — Reflections on the terrifying potential of AI-driven political propaganda and proposed steps that we could take to defend ourselves. - Progressive Left
Liberalism Doomed the Liberal International Order — From Foreign Affairs, thoughts about the internal contradictions embedded within liberalism that are now leading to the collapse of the liberal international order. - US Politics
2025 Political Tribes — Based on last year's election, an update of the United States' eight major political groups -- groups that have polarized into the current two-party stand off. - Communication Complexity
Until the Democrats Adapt to New Media, They Will Never Win — The information space in which society-wide political conflict plays out is continually changing. This article explains how Republicans have been more successful than Democrats in adapting to this changing environment. - Israel / Hamas War
I tried to be pro-Palestinian, but they made it impossible. — From the perspective of an Israeli who has long tried to defend Palestinian interests, a heartbreaking story of the dehumanizing pressures that have surrounded the ongoing war.
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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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