Beyond Intractability
Hyper-Polarization Blog
Includes BI/CRQ Discussion
Selected Recent Posts
You can subscribe to Selected Posts on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Or, if you prefer, you can subscribe to the more extensive series of All Posts, also on
Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
In addition, lists of recent posts are available separately for each BI Section:
Things You Can Do To Help | Conflict Frontiers | Conflict Fundamentals
Beyond Intractability in Context | Colleague Activities
- Lou Kriesberg's "For All the People" and Related Thoughts About Paths Forward for the U.S. -- Lou Kriesberg, the Burgesses, and a variety of commentators agree. America needs to be governed by and for all the people, not just by and for a few rich folk. Pushback is starting to work toward that goal.
- Colleague, News, and Opinion Links for the Week of February 23, 2025 -- Our weekly roundup of interesting reading and viewings, along with one event announcement.
- The Engineering and Medical Approaches to Fixing Broken Systems -- Complex adaptive systems cannot be fixed using typical engineering problem solving. Rather they need to be approached using a "medical model," which is designed to deal with systems we don't entirely understand.
- Rosa Zubizarreta-Ada: Transformative Power and Empathic Connection: Changing Contexts, Generating Inclusive Mindsets -- Rosa Zubizarreta-Ada explores solutions to the "Achilles Heel of democracy," in which free speech allows illiberal speech, which then threatens the very democracy that allows it.
- Heidi and Guy Burgess Talk with Tom Klaus and Lamar Roth in their "Third Space" -- Tom Klaus and Lamar Roth talked with Guy and Heidi Burgess about Beyond Intractability, hyper-polarization, constructive conflict, and ways we are going to get out of the "mess" we are in.
- Colleague, News, and Opinion Links for the Week of February 9, 2025 -- More important readings from our colleagues and journalists of note.
- Daniel Stid -- PS: Three Further Reflections on "Pluralism in the Trump Era" -- Daniel Stid's three key "take-aways" from a conference on Pluralism in Action: we have a choice between pluralism and war; political resistance and civic renewal are different tasks, and pluralism is not a field. See why!
- Reprise: Sharp vs. Fuzzy Feedback — The Distinction That Explains Why Society Can Be Both Astonishingly Smart and Incredibly Stupid -- We are good at understanding and responding to sharp feedback, but not nearly as good seeing and responding to fuzzy feedback, which is the source of many serious mistakes. With current hyper-polarization, will any feedback be heeded?
- Colleague, News, and Opinion Links for the Week of February 2, 2025 -- Our weekly set of readings renamed to clarify the contents, trying to help our readers understand the challenges we face.
- Reprise: The Google Maps and Adopt-a-Highway Approach to Systems -- A repeat of a two-year old post, explaining "thinking and acting systemically" by using the metaphor of Google Maps and "Adopt a Highway" programs -- both systemic ways of managing vast amounts of traffic on the U.S. highway system.
- Daniel Stid: Top Down Democratic Decline vs. Bottom Up Civic Renewal: 8 Working Hypotheses -- The civic renewal we need is not primarily political or governmental, but rather, cultural. While Federal governance is still in a shambles, cultural change at the local and state levels promises a healthier democracy.
- Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Links for the Week of January 26, 2025 -- Two weeks' worth of readings from colleagues and journalists about hyper-polarization, intractable conflict and more.
- Potpourri Newsletter #2 -- Comments on our U.S. democracy post, Ashok Panikkar's question about contemporary education, and uplifting essay from Anne Leslie, and a new case study on Burundi from Emmy Irobi.
- Harry Boyte Talks with Heidi Burgess about the U.S. Civil Rights Movement and the Lessons it Can Teach Us -- Harry Boyte explained how the ideas of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s and 1960s can be adapted by anyone wanting to make fundamental change in their communities and their societies.
- Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Links for the Week of January 12, 2025 - Part 2. -- This is the second of a two compilations of links collected over the holiday break.
- Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Links for the Week of January 12, 2025 -- The first of two sets of readings collected over the holiday break.
- Representative Derek Kilmer on the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress and De-polarization -- Guy and Heidi Burgess talked with Rep. Derek Kilmer on how to break down polarization in Congress and in society in order to actually solve problems collaboratively. There is much to learn and utilize here!
- A Reasonable Peace: Can Critical Thinking Save the Field of Peacebuilding? -- Ashok Panikkar, Heidi and Guy Burgess (with facilitation from Merrick Hoben) talked about why peacebuilding is failing in much of the world, and how the use of critical thinking explains why and what might be done to be more successful.
- Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Links for the Week of December 21, 2024 -- A last set of readings for 2024.
- Lou Kriesberg: Applying the Constructive Conflict approach to the American Right-Wing Populism Phenomenon -- Lou Kriesberg explores "what next" for progressives in the United States following Trump's election, arguing that two responses are necessary: resistance, and strengthening democracy.
- The US in 2024: An Election That Worked and a Democracy That Doesn't -- U.S. polarization and political dysfunction is only going to worsen until the two parties realize that the problem isn't "the other," but rather the way we (don't) tolerate, compromise and or work collaboratively with with "the other."
- The US in 2024: An Election That Worked and a Democracy That Doesn't -- U.S. polarization and political dysfunction is only going to worsen until the two parties realize that the problem isn't "the other," but rather the way we refuse to tolerate, compromise and/or work collaboratively with with "the other."
- Marc Wong on How We Can Bring Out the Best in Others -- and Ourselves -- Road rage is much like ideological rage. We don't accept the former; why do we accept the latter?
- Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Links for the Week of December 8, 2024 -- Reading and videos from colleagues and journalists on peace, conflict, and governance.
- Ariel Markose, the Chief Strategy Officer of Amal-Tikva, Talks About How To Do Peacebuilding in Wartime -- Peacebuilding looks different in the context of war, but it can (and must) be done, explains Ariel Markose, CEO of a leading Israeli-Palestinian NGO. And, she explains, it IS being done, despite tremendous obstacles.
