Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Links for the Week of December 8, 2024
Newsletter #304 - December 9, 2024
Reader Suggested Links
Highlighting links suggested by our readers. Please send us links to things that you find useful.
Social Complexity
The New Yorker’s Cavalcade of Ignorance — A critique of our widespread inability to think sensibly about complexities of the modern world (and our declining interest in even trying).Superpower Conflict
America’s Approach to Its Allies Is Backward — For a time of rapidly increasing geopolitical tensions, reflections on the value of alliances and the steps that must be taken to keep those alliances strong.Progressive Left
The Left-Flank Albatross — An especially perceptive look at the role that the progressive left's unpopular agenda played in Donald Trump's victory.US Election
The Democrats' Dirty Tricks Playbook? — A disturbing explanation of why No Labels was unable to offer voters a viable alternative to the Trump and Harris candidacies.Education
The Department of Education: The Un-American Institution Destroying Progress — In the spirit of listening to the other side, this article tries to explain why so many of those on the political right are so opposed to the actions of the US Department of Education.Class Inequity
The election, the elite, and the roots of our dysfunction — The review and brief summary of two new books that explore the ways in which the cultural traits of the highly educated are diverging from the traits of the larger population.Progressive Left
Throw the Groups Under the Bus! — For Democrats (and anyone opposed to Trump's brand of politics), a statistical analysis of the ways in which Democrats have lost the support of working-class voters (and what to do about it).
Colleague Activities
Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.
Runaway Escalation
What Lies Beneath: Understanding the Roots of Division — An essay that outlines the "four truths of conflict" and then applies those truths to the contemporary political moment.We Rate Thanksgiving Advice — Written for Thanksgiving get togethers, the advice offered here also applies to Christmas and other December/January holiday festivities.
Constructive Communication
Millions of Conversations' Pledge to Listen — To help break down the misunderstandings that keep driving us apart, Millions of Conversations is asking us all to take a "Pledge to Listen." And, to make this easier, they also offer a listening guidebook.US Election
The Priority Gap — Following the 2024 election, More in Common surveyed 5,005 Americans to explore what shaped their voting decisions, how they perceive polarization and division, and – most importantly – how they understand one another.Artificial Intelligence
AI and the Future of Civics (with Adam Hinds, Michael Champigny, and Will Foster-Nolan) — What can experiential learning reveal about students’ capacity to engage with complex policy issues? This article explores that and more.Civil Society
Prioritizing Service Years to Strengthen Our Civic Bonds — The Service Year Alliance's policy agenda uses service years (such as AmeriCorps service) to as part of the program to help strengthen civic bonds.Constructive Advocacy
Right-Wing Populism – A Constructive Conflict Approach — Longtime colleague Lou Kriesberg made this presentation to PARCC at Syracuse University. Watch the video here with the passcode =yd4?*&ZConstructive Communication
The Civic Information Index — The Civic Information Index uses data to map drivers of engaged, informed, equitable, and healthy communities nationwide.Constructive Communication
Think Fast, Talk Smart: Communication Techniques — In October of 2014, Matt Abrahams, a lecturer of strategic communication at Stanford Graduate School of Business, gave a lecture at Alumni Weekend that went viral. This video touches on many of those same topics.Constructive Communication
6 Reasons Why Understanding Each Other Is More Important Than Ever — Though neither side is likely to be interested in understanding "the other" after the U.S. election, Starts with Us argues that when we fail to understand each other, we push each other away and amplify our divides.Networking
Panel discussion on generating the connective tissue of American civil society — A panel with authors, scholars, and practitioners at the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, shares stories about where and how U.S. civic life is actually thriving.Peacebuilding
Understanding Peace Agreements: A Journey Through Words and Impact — Conflict Transformation, Peacebuilding and Security explores the layers of peace agreements, exploring their language, intent, and the challenges of implementation.Developing a Unifying Vision
It’s Time for Institutional Insurgency — Playing defense on behalf of a broken status quo isn't an effective strategy. Democrats need to be bold, grounding its democracy rhetoric in reforms the public will strongly support.Developing a Unifying Vision
A Call to Hearten: Let Tender Tenacity Walk with Fierce Patience — John Paul Lederach offers a poetic reflection on resilience and compassion following the U.S. November, 2024 election.Runaway Escalation
How does our anger at "them" create the things we're angry about? — An insightful essay on positive feedback systems (in which "positive" does not mean good, but rather ever-escalating) and what we call "the backlash effect" which creates a self-fulfilling destructive prophecy.Bridge Building
Hands Across the Hills Tells Its Story — The story of a six-year bridging project between a progressive and a conservative community, with their voices, training resources & links to media coverage. Available for free as a pdf.Networking
Power of Networks: Interconnectedness Drives Change — Our world is beset by societal challenges that are large, complex, dynamic and highly contextual. Networks can play a transformative role in resolving these challenges by sparking an interconnected web of actors and actions.US Election
Making Sense of the 2024 Elections as a 21st Century Paradigm Shift — Seth David Radwell argues that the U.S. political Left-Right paradigm has shifted to focus on where the authority to govern lies.Artificial Intelligence
Technology is Part of the Problem, but also Part of the Solution — Researchers are exploring how technology could improve dialogue—and democracy. For instance, could AI help humans find common ground, make hard online conversations easier, and expand the tools available to peacebuilders? Yes!Networking
Check Out the New Functionality and 15 Additional States in the Healthy Democracy Ecosystem Map! — The National Civic League has added data and new functions to its Health Democracy Ecosystem Map.
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.)
Developing a Unifying Vision
The Centre Must Rise — Another call for a badly needed political movement that charts a middle ground between the extremes of the left and the right.Authoritarianism
The Syrian Regime Collapsed Gradually—And Then Suddenly — A must-read article that places Syria's collapse in the context of the larger struggle against the kind of brutal authoritarianism that characterized the Assad regime.De-Escalation Strategies
The real antidote to political bitterness — An article describing the importance of "civic friendship" with detailed ideas about how best to cultivate it.Political Moderates
A Guide for the Politically Homeless — For those who feel alienated from contemporary Republican and Democratic politics, a call to become engaged in a new and more positive political movement.US Election
The Moral Challenge of Trumpism — From David Brooks, an effort to understand the moral basis of Trump's support and how those beliefs differ from the political morality that has traditionally dominated democratic societies.US Election
H.R. McMaster: My Travels with Trump — A rare article about Donald Trump that honestly tries to assess his strengths and weaknesses (and an article written by somebody who actually worked closely with the incoming President.)Disinformation
Constant Demand For Censorship By Elites Shows Their Rule Depends Upon Disinformation — A sobering analysis of the ongoing global campaign against misinformation -- a campaign that this author believes is a cover for political censorship.Superpower Conflict
As Russia and China Rewrite Rules of War, NATO Adapts Its Game Plan — While we are preoccupied with the minutia (and often silliness) of contemporary politics, we are failing to address rapid changes that are dramatically increasing the risk of large-scale war.Progressive Left
Democrats need to loudly reject progressive extremism — An argument that the key to rolling back the extremes of right-wing populism is for Democrats to disassociate themselves from the extremes of left-wing progressivism.Social Complexity
Healthcare Is Broken. Fixing It Is Virtually Impossible. — In the context of the healthcare industry, a look at how the industry's complexities have made its problems virtually insoluble.Saving Democracy
The Nearly $100 Million Election-Reform Flop — A postmortem on the once promising efforts to strengthen democracy through open primaries and ranked choice voting.Climate / Environment
Climate Activists Need to Radically Change Their Approach Under Trump — Thoughts about steps the climate change movement can take to escape the ups and downs of partisan politics and build a strong bipartisan foundation for its efforts.Communication Complexity
The ‘Mainstream Media’ Has Already Lost — An examination of the many ways in which the influence of mainstream media has sharply declined as other media sources have risen to take their place.Class Inequity
The Re-Skilling of America — Hard questions about whether higher education is giving students real value for their money and whether programs that cultivate blue-collar skills might be more valuable.Social Complexity
The Disappearance of Literary Men Should Worry Everyone — Jaw-dropping statistics about how quickly men are disappearing from the ranks of those who write and read books.Saving Democracy
To save liberal democracy, save its institutions — A persuasive argument that well-functioning institutions (not individuals) are the key to successful democratic societies (because they allow us to effectively pool our collective expertise).Rule of Law
What Biden’s Lawfare Has Wrought — A look at the ways in which the use of lawfare strategies by Democrats has transformed our politics.Political Moderates
Britain’s Starmer Is Trying to Fight Populism From the Lonely Center — A profile of the one major country in which centrists are actually in power and offering voters an governing alternative between the populism of the left and the right.Superpower Conflict
The Warning — An ominous story about why experts believe that Russia is the developing the ability to successfully attack the vast array of satellites upon which modern society depends.Education
Politicization of the American University — An excellent series of articles that try to help us understand how higher education has changed in recent years, why it's public support has collapsed, and what might be done to fix things.Interstate War
What Can Stop the Cycle of Escalation in Ukraine? — As the war in Ukraine slowly escalates, thoughts about what might be done to reverse this dangerous trend.Class Inequity
America doesn't really have a working class — A thought-provoking exploration of the nature of class in contemporary society and an argument that what we traditionally thought of as the working class may no longer exist.Psychological Complexity
Unreasonable Rationality — An intriguing essay asking us to explore the important but seldom recognized distinction between reasonableness and rationality.Effective Problem-Solving Efforts
We Don’t Need This Much Permitting — As the controversy surrounding the Department of Government Efficiency heats up, an argument that we really are an overregulated society.Israel / Hamas War
The International Criminal Court’s Folly — A carefully reasoned article that argues that the International Criminal Court's recent indictment of Israeli leaders was unfair and unjustified.Political Moderates
The Democrats Are in Trouble. This Man Can Save Them — As Democrats (and even Republicans) try to build a solid base of political support, an argument that the philosophy of John Rawls offers a more broadly attractive basis for building a fair society.Rule of Law
Liberals Bet They Could Beat Trump With the Law. They Lost — An explanation of why the Democratic effort to defeat Trump through criminal prosecutions failed and why political movements must be defeated politically .US Election
Key to Trump’s Win: Heavy Losses for Harris Across the Map — An impressive collection of maps with county-level statistics revealing how voter preferences changed between 2020 and 2024.Progressive Left
Don’t Expect Democrats to Give Up on Wokeness Anytime Soon — Description of the dynamics that have deeply embedded woke ideology in Democratic political thought (despite its electoral liabilities).Progressive Left
Is Wokeness on Big Power Grab? — Reflections on the degree to which the progressive left is motivated by a self-serving quest for political power (and not social justice in the abstract, universal sense of the term).Saving Democracy
Making Government Efficient Again — An example of the kind of constructive reform proposals needed to correct institutional shortcomings while, at the same time, preserving the benefits of those same institutions.Education
America’s new caste system: The education gap has dented democracy — An argument that the most important political divide is not race or class -- it is education.
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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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