Constructive Conflict Massive Open Online Seminar (MOOS)
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The MOOS is an online exploration of the tough challenges raised by the
Constructive Conflict Initiative
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Additional Posts
Lists of these recent posts plus additional posts are available separately for each BI Section:
Things You Can Do To Help | Conflict Frontiers | Conflict Fundamentals
Beyond Intractability in Context | Colleague Activities
- Americans Are Self-Censoring at Record Rates -- Peacebuilders have long recognized the critical importance of mutual understanding. For this, we need safe spaces for honest conversations. #mbi_context -- Sep 21
- Limiting Escalation/De-escalation -- Escalation often happens very quickly and easily, while de-escalation is typically very slow and difficult. But it is essential, and possible. #mbi_fundamentals -- Sep 21
- Overcoming Oppression: Awakening the Sense of Injustice -- Many have recently awakened to U.S. injustice--but will this awakening last? #mbi_fundamentals -- Sep 21
- Peace Direct -- Working with local communities to stop violence and build sustainable peace. #mbi_colleague -- Sep 21
- How to Identify Flawed Research Before It Becomes Dangerous -- One key to being able to effectively use society's expertise is being able to distinguish reliable from unreliable sources of information. -- Sep 21
- In the Future, Propaganda Will Be Computer-Generated -- Even more reason to find a truly effective way to shut down many new technologies that make it so easy for the powerful to manipulate public opinion. -- Sep 21
- We Are All Algorithms Now -- An exceptionally good explanation of how social networking systems are dominating and warping our view of the world and driving us even further apart. -- Sep 20
- Polarization -- Polarization is insidious and dangerous. Steps should be taken to avoid it when possible, and reverse it when it has already developed. -- Sep 20
- The Future of Civil Society Organisations -- From The International Civil Society Centre, an important report on the future of CSOs during and after the pandemic. #mbi_colleague -- Sep 20
- Maintaining Oppression -- Oppression is maintained through superior power, control of meaning, self-fulfilling prophecies, and distorted relationships. -- Sep 20
- Three-quarters of Americans know only a few people who support the candidate they themselves oppose -- More data on just how politically segregated we have become. Increasingly, all we know about the other side is filtered through inflammatory media. -- Sep 20
- Mapping Responses to Social Media Threats -- Lisa Schirch -- A discussion of social media threats to social cohesion, human rights, and democracy, plus creative options for addressing those threats. -- Sep 20
- Extreme heat is here, and it’s deadly -- An in-depth look at the way in which climate change is impacting the Western US. We have to fix our politics so we can deal with problems like this. #mbi_context -- Sep 17
- See the Complexity It's not Just "Us versus Them" -- Parties, issues, dynamics, power, and relationships are among the conflict elements one must clearly understand. -- Sep 17
- Power, Rights, and Interests -- Interest-based decision making enables democracy to work to the benefit of all. Power-and rights-based approaches work only for a few—if any. -- Sep 17
- Forms of Oppression -- In addition to distributive, procedural, and retributive injustice, moral exclusion and cultural imperialism are also oppression. -- Sep 17
- How Russia Updated Its Disinformation Playbook for 2020 -- A detailed and authoritative look at the disinformation campaigns that are amplifying our many differences to potentially catastrophic levels. -- Sep 17
- International Idea: Supporting Democracy Worldwide -- IDEA, the Institute for Democracy and Election Assistance supports efforts to make democracy work worldwide. -- Sep 17
- Voters’ Attitudes About Race and Gender Are Even More Divided Than in 2016 -- A reminder that we are a long way from a national consensus on issues of race and gender. We need more constructive ways of addressing our differences. -- Sep 17
- Why Are We in the West So Weird? A Theory -- A great article for helping us think seriously about what's good and bad about Western civilization and its culture. -- Sep 16
- Meditative, Interest-Based Approaches to Political Conflicts -- Our willingness to achieve results at the expense of fairness and interpersonal trust fuels most of our political conflicts and makes them intractable. -- Sep 16
- The Nature and Origins of Oppression -- Hunter/gatherer societies were relatively egalitarian, but agriculture enabled and encouraged the formation of a social hierarchy. #mbi_fundamentals -- Sep 16
- Operation Infektion: A three-part video series on Russian disinformation -- A great video explaining the relationship between the "Active Measures" that Russia uses to destabilize adversaries and the Trump administration. #mbi_context -- Sep 16
- Police Face Backlash Over Virus Rules. Enter ‘Violence Interrupters.’ -- Amid police/community tensions, an example of how we might promote compliance with stronger measures to control the resurgent COVID threat. -- Sep 16
- 10 Ways Trump Is Becoming a Dictator, Election Edition -- A pre-election update of a long-running assessment of the degree to which Trump actually threatens the US with authoritarian rule. #mbi_challenge -- Sep 16
