Newsletter #502 — November 2, 2026

by Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess

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Highlighted Links

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

• Superpower Conflict
  The Old World Order Is Over. This Is What Could Come Next. — More food for thought as we struggle to understand, and find a way to navigate, our turbulent and increasingly disordered world order.
• Israel, Hamas, Iran, and Related Wars
  Why is there an occupation? (Part 2) — From an Israeli who desperately wants to end the occupation of the West Bank, an agonizing (3 min) must-listen explanation of why that goal is so far out of reach.
• Artificial Intelligence
  The internet breaks — A lengthy, very well documented, and, unfortunately, persuasive examination of the precarious nature of the Internet -- a communication system is vital to our very survival.
• Israel, Hamas, Iran, and Related Wars
  There Is No Limit to What the Houthis Will Do — For those who might think that Islamic terror is only something that Israelis and Jews need to worry about, a story about how Saudi Arabia seized the Houthi threat.
• Interstate War
  This peninsula is an economic powder keg. A blast could cost trillions. — An article that calls our attention to yet another simmering and extraordinarily dangerous conflict -- this one that could quickly erupt on the Korean Peninsula.
• Violence
  Douglas Murray: France Stares Down the Abyss of History — Even great things come to an end. There’s no guarantee that French culture and traditions will survive ceaseless attacks from discontents inside the country.
• Interstate War
  What four years of ceaseless war looks like to Ukrainian civilians | Aeon Videos — A reminder of what war looks like and why making and keeping the peace should be our top priority -- four years of war through the eyes of Ukrainian civilians.
• Israel, Hamas, Iran, and Related Wars
  This Is the Kill Zone — Another terrifying look at what life is like along today's drone dominated battle lines and another reason why we can't give up on finding a way to bring peace to our increasingly troubled world.
• US Politics
  Democrats, beware the fool’s gold of midterms success — From Ruy Teixeira, an argument that Democrats should not interpret a big win next week as evidence that the public disapproval for their party has disappeared.
• US Politics
  The Midterms Look Dark for Republicans. Their Future Looks Brighter. — A hopeful story about opportunities for Republicans and for the country as a whole that might open up in the post Trump era.
• Saving Democracy
  The Spirit of Democracy Remains Strong — Recent encouraging news about democratic resilience from Brazil, Serbia, and Venezuela should be celebrated. Unfortunately, it’s too soon to say whether these victories are going to be sustainable.
• Freedom of Speech 
  Speechless: An Exclusive Look at Democracy Today — A review and summary of an important new film, Speechless -- a provocative documentary that asks what the campus battle over free speech means for the future of democracy.
• Artificial Intelligence
  We Need To Rewild The Internet | NOEMA — The Internet has become an extractive and fragile monoculture -- a proposal for revitalizing it based on lessons learned by ecologists.
• US Politics
  Even a Blue Wave Can’t Stop Trump — A timely reminder of the powers that President Trump will still possess even after the expected big democratic victories on election day.

Colleague Activities

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

• Media Reform
  Interactive Media Bias Chart — Latest version of Ad Fontes' effort to use a rigorous methodology to chart media bias. This version has many new features including the ability to search by location, ownership, or topic.
• Theories of Change
  Cyber Doomerism and the Abdication of Agency — An argument that the threats that most fascinate us are not the ones that we're willing to tackle.
• Media Reform
  MySky is an Open Reference Implementation for Good Social Media Algorithms — For those sick of the divisive algorithms that dominate our news feeds, an open social media algorithm, designed to provide a more constructive alternative -- one that advances both the individual and the public good.
• Violence
  The Surprising Ways to Stop Political Violence Before It Starts — Good news! A new, high-quality study finds that fewer people are endorsing violence for political ends.
• Progressive Left / Socialism
  Resisting Cancel Culture — Reasoned and wide-ranging debate has all but vanished from the American college campus. A new essay on promoting dialogue, debate, and free speech in the college classroom.
• Developing a Unifying Vision
  Division isn't the danger. Here's the fix. | Yuval Levin — What do we owe each other when we can’t stand each other? A conversation between Monica Guzman and Yuval Levin recorded live at the Braver Angels Convention 2026 — in front of 1,000 people split evenly between red and blue.
• Class Inequity
  Disconnected: The Growing Class Divide in American Civic Life — This report aims to build on previous social capital research by documenting the racial and class divisions in social capital creation, including in civic opportunity, participation, membership, friendship, and social support.
• Developing a Unifying Vision
  A Table Talk on what it means to be a political moderate — Centrist? Middle of the road? Independent? Indecisive? Disloyal? “Wishy Washy?” Political moderates have been called all these things...and worse. It takes more to be a moderate than meets the eye.
• Media Reform
  Less Complaining, More Doing — An essay that encourages people to ask three questions: How often is a horrible thing happening? How is the horribleness changing over time? What can be done to reduce the horror in the future?
• Trust / Trust Earning
  Are Pluralists Trustworthy? — There's a difference between expecting trust and being trustworthy. It is our responsibility to be trustworthy, not for people to simply trust us.
• Developing a Unifying Vision
  This Is What Makes America Great — Is America still great? An immigrant entrepreneur argues that free speech, opportunity, and the rule of law, not military or economic power, are the real test.
• Developing a Unifying Vision
  Americans Say the People Can Lead Congress to Common Ground; It Appears They Are Right — Congress does what the majority wants less that half the time. But majorities agree that if Congress were to be more influenced by the people, it would be more likely to find common ground.
• Developing a Unifying Vision
  Power and Consent — If we accept "power over" in our clubs, our workplaces, and our congregations, we stop noticing when it shows up in our government. If we practice "power with" in the small places, we recognize at once when consent is being taken rather than given.
• Saving Democracy
  Why the Independent Fulcrum Caucus (IFC) Is an Idea Whose Time Has Come — In a closely divided Congress, independents can wield considerable power. If they caucus with other independents, not with the main parties, they can beome "the fulcrum." Nobody can pass anything without them.

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.)

• US Politics
  Democrats, beware the fool’s gold of midterms success — From Ruy Teixeira, an argument that Democrats should not interpret a big win next week as evidence that their public disapproval for their party has disappeared.
• The Hyper-Polarization Threat
  ‘Polarization Is the Price U.S. Society Has Had to Pay for Real Progress’ — A Thomas Edsall report on what political scientists think about the relationship between social progress and the polarization of our politics.
• Israel, Hamas, Iran, and Related Wars
  Nothing Except The Holocaust Is the Holocaust — As we continue to diminish (and sometimes try to erase) the Holocaust from the historical record, an important argument for remembering the extraordinary evil behind an increasingly misunderstood word.
• Artificial Intelligence
  The more we rely on tech, the more we deskill our bodies — We are, moment by moment, doing less sensing, navigating, remembering, walking, choosing, and attending
• Family / Gender / LBGTQ+
  Why So Many Men Aren’t Working — As we struggle to figure out how to meet the needs of those who have been left behind by our economy and our society, an article that tries to help us understand what's happening and what might be done about it.
• Social / Economic Complexity
  Six-Chart Sunday – Mind These Gaps — Six more charts that highlight important facts that often call our images and stereotypes into question.
• Saving Democracy
  When a Right Has No Remedy: From Marbury to DEI — Statutory rights mean almost nothing unless they are accompanied by some remedy that is available when violations occur.
• Israel, Hamas, Iran, and Related Wars
  ‘Globalize the intifada’ arrives on Europe’s doorstep. — A controversial argument that the "Globalize the Intifada" movement is about much more than Gaza, the West Bank occupation, and the effort to end Israel's so-called "colonial presence" in the Middle East.
• Israel, Hamas, Iran, and Related Wars
  The U.S. military needs to reorganize. — A call for a major effort on the part of the U.S. military to learn the far reaching lessons of the ongoing war with Iran.
• Education
  A Truth-and-Reconciliation Process for Academia? — An interesting proposal for repairing the deep divisions that have arisen in academia (and across the larger society) over the excesses of what Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calls "Woke 1.0."
• Israel, Hamas, Iran, and Related Wars
  The canary in the coal mine has gone silent — For a time when we are so focused on putting hate and racism behind us, disturbing news from Britain about how Jewish children suffer racist abuse while supposed anti-racists sneer at the evidence.
• Authoritarianism
  What Communism Does to Kindness — An essay exploring the ways in which human nature, psychology, social class, and luxury beliefs manifest themselves in a communist society
• Israel, Hamas, Iran, and Related Wars
  The Most Disastrous Day in Palestinian History — Three years after October 7, Gaza lies devastated, Israeli attitudes have hardened, and the movement claiming to champion Palestinians still refuses to reckon with Hamas’s role in the catastrophe.
• Violence
  Back to School With High-Speed Attack Drones — For those worried about being victimized by some sort of mass casualty attack, promising (but also disconcerting) news about the ways in which drones might be able to help protect us.

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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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