Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Links for the Week of December 21, 2024

Newsletter #308 - December 21, 2024

This is our last newsletter before Christmas. We will be taking Christmas week off (as will most of our readers, we imagine). We will return shortly after the New Year. We wish all our readers a happy and safe holiday season.

Reader Suggested Links

Highlighting links suggested by our readers. Please send us links to things that you find useful.

• Israel / Hamas War
  How Israel Turned the Mideast Around — Reflections on 15 months of war in the Middle East and the complex an unpredictable chain of events unleashed by the October 7 attack.

• Constructively Addressing Complex Issues
  To Assess or to Advocate? — An illuminating exploration of what happens to public trust when scientific objectivity is subordinated to political advocacy.

• Israel / Hamas War
  Bin Laden’s Catastrophic Success — A look at the long shadow cast by the September 11 attack and another reminder of the complex and unpredictable consequences of wars and the actions that provoke them.

• Progressive Left
  Why sociologist Musa al-Gharbi says social justice elites value performance over progress. — An interview with Musa al-Gharbi, author of ""We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite" and a look at the difference between rhetoric and actual problem-solving.

• Israel / Hamas War
  Al-Assad’s Fall Has Changed the Future of the Middle East — From the United States Institute of Peace, thoughts about the far-reaching ramifications of the collapse of Syria's Assad regime.

• Israel / Hamas War
  Syrian mass grave is largest uncovered since Stalin era as 100,000 bodies were discarded outside Damascus: advocacy group — A sobering reminder of the unfathomable barbarity that was at the core of Assad's rule of Syria.

• Effective Problem-Solving
  Americans' Rage at Health Insurance Companies Is an Opportunity — An example of the benefits of looking at problems and crises as opportunities to actually make things better.

Colleague Activities

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

• US Election
  Builders vs. Dividers: Who Fared Better in Elections? — From Starts with US: Among House representatives up for reelection, 82% of Builders reclaimed their seats versus 100% of Dividers. What does that mean?

• Left / Right Conflict
  Our favorite findings from 2024 — At More in Common, we aim to provide Americans with new ways of thinking about our politics. Here are some of MiC's favorite findings from the past year.

• Saving Democracy
  The Future of our Fromer Democracy — Northern Ireland’s history and politics offer a blueprint for how the US can implement a better electoral system, especially in the wake of rising polarization and political violence.

• Developing a Unifying Vision
  Solidarity is Hard — A webinar discussing the evolution and power of local action in the South and in Los Angeles, showing how each community’s unique path fuels a shared fight for justice, resilience, and real change.

• Non-Violence
  Violent Conflict is Destructive. Nonviolent Conflict is Essential — The entire field of nonviolent conflict exists to help people make their point without firing a gun.

• Psychological Complexity
  Stop and think: An undervalued approach in a world that short-circuits thoughtful political judgment — Thought and reflection take time. Our current modes of politics allow for neither. And we are worse off because of that.

• Authoritarianism
  Fear, Grievance, and the Other — How Authoritarian Populist Politics Thrive in Contemporary Democracies — Key concepts to understand politics beyond the left-right paradigm.

• Bridge Building
  Supporting Society’s Bridge Builders — In a world of increasing complexity and polarization, system orchestrators drive collective action to achieve outsized impact.

• Non-Violence
  A Winning Strategy: Defending Democracy with Civil Resistance, with Maria Stephan — Maria Stephan discusses the historic success of protest and non-violent civil disobedience in protecting democracy and describes how it might be used now to combat authoritarianism and political violence.

• Developing a Unifying Vision
  Cultivating Solidarity and Hope in a Fractured World — Eric K. Ward and Deepa Iyer offer thoughtful reflections on the recent US elections, discussing strategies to confront authoritarianism, strengthen transnational solidarity, and build long-term infrastructure for social justice.

• Constructive Communication
  A simple Recipe for Complex Community Change: Make Stone Soup — Even when trust is low and resources seem scarce, communities possess capacity for successful collaboration that, when properly activated, produces remarkable results.

• Saving Democracy
  Facing Uncertainty Together: How Philanthropy Can Stand for Democracy in Challenging Times — A look at how the philanthropic sector views democracy's ongoing crisis and their role in helping to address that crisis.

• Psychological Complexity
  How Shame Contributed To The Rise Of The Right — Arlie Rothschild investigated reasons voters chose Trump in a poor Kentucky county. it’s not just about the economy, trans rights, or climate change, but about loss, shame, and ultimately pride.

• Authoritarianism
  Authoritarianism, explained — Drawing from experts on authoritarianism and case studies of democratic backsliding around the world, The Authoritarian Playbook defines seven tactics that tend to differentiate would-be authoritarian leaders from the regular jockeying of democratic politics.

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.)

• Authoritarianism
  Tyranny Is Not What It Used to Be — A report on Anne Applebaum's new book, "Autocracy, Inc." -- an examination of the crucial differences between 21st-century autocracies and those that plagued the 20th century.

• Superpower Conflict
  Has World War III Already Begun? — For those who are not yet taking the danger of the 3rd World War seriously, a reminder that World War II started with a series of lower level skirmishes that are eerily similar to contemporary events.

• US Election
  Done With Never Trump — From a conservative "Never-Trumper," thoughtful reflections about the things that his movement got right and got wrong plus thoughts about how to be most constructive during the coming Trump administration.

• Family / Gender / LBGTQ+
  If Men Are in Trouble, What Is the Cause? — A review, with lots of links, to the latest social science thinking about the many challenges facing men and boys.

• Peacebuilding
  Diplomacy of Peace at Any Price — A provocative and doubtless controversial essay asking hard questions about situations in which the desire to bring about the quickest possible end to hostilities conflicts with the desire to overthrow murderous authoritarian regimes.

• Progressive Left
  Totems and Taboos — A summary and review of an important new book, "Taboo: How Making Race Sacred Produced a Cultural Revolution" examining the epicenter of our political divide.

• Progressive Left
  How Liberal America Came to Its Senses — An account of the rise and, according to this author, the fall of so-called "woke" ideology.

• Left / Right Conflict
  Beyond Red and Blue — A hopeful story about those who have been able to craft political campaigns that span the red-blue divide.

• Suppressing Opponents
  Debanking and the Return of Operation Choke Point — Yet another example of the ways in which the rule of law is being circumvented in ways that can, despite well-meaning intentions, be circumvented by bad-faith actors.

• Authoritarianism
  'The fall of any dictator reflects badly on all autocracies' — Journalist and author Anne Applebaum joins Trevor Phillips to discuss the network of authoritarian states and the challenges they pose for the West.

• Media Reform
  The Economics of Media Bias — From the Wall Street Journal, an explanation of the financial incentives that make mainstream media biased and make it hard for unbiased media to be commercially viable.

• Constructively Addressing Complex Issues
  Six-Chart Sunday (#47) – OK, DOGE’R — A compilation of statistics that help us understand the key facts behind the upcoming campaign to promote government efficiency.

• Violence
  Political Violence Happens Because We Let It — An argument the political violence doesn't just happen -- it happens because we fail to nurture the norms and institutions which prevent it.

• Constructive Communication
  To Dial Down Campus Tensions, Colleges Teach the Art of Conversation — A much smarter approach to campus controversies (and controversies in the larger society).

• Authoritarianism
  Tracking Putin’s Most Feared Secret Agency—From Inside a Russian Prison and Beyond — For those who might think that there's no real difference between the power elites who rule Western democracies and those that rule autocracies, an inside look at the way Russia keeps its people in line.

• Artificial Intelligence
  To Whom Does the World Belong? — An exploration of an interesting moral and legal question related to AI -- If it is based upon our collective knowledge (as gleaned from the Internet) who owns the product it produces?

• Superpower Conflict
  The Crumbling Foundation of America’s Military — Thoughts about the critically important relationship between the United States' atrophying military-industrial complex, deterrence, and the risk of war.

• Psychological Complexity
  It’s Going to Be Normal to Have Extreme Beliefs — Thought-provoking speculation about the ways in which ongoing changes in media and politics will be reflected in the things that people believe.

• US Election
  Maybe Democrats Didn’t Do So Badly After All — For Democrats, a not so dismal look at election results and a reminder that, despite Trump's big victory, we remain a deeply and evenly divided nation.

• Media Reform
  Smash The Technopoly! — An interesting exploration of the longer-term relationship between technology and society with lots of references to the people who have done much to help us understand this crucial topic.

• Artificial Intelligence
  How Does A.I. Think? Here’s One Theory. — Insightful reflections on the way in which AI technologies actually think -- something that, surprisingly, its designers don't really understand.

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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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