Colleague, News, and Opinion Links for the Week of July 13, 2025
Newsletter #368 - July 14, 2025
Highlighted Links
A few suggestions about links that we think are especially interesting.
Saving Democracy
Feeling cautiously optimistic about American democracy — Hopeful reflections on the "No Kings" protests and what it says about the United States underlying political culture.De-Escalation Strategies
The Strength You Gain by Not Taking Offense — For a world in which people are quick to find reasons to be offended and reasons to claim victimhood, thoughts about the advantages of not doing those things.Civil Society
How Everyday Americans Can Help Create a Healthier Politics — From the always insightful "Liberal Patriot," an especially good list of things we can all do to limit destructive hyper-polarization.Leadership
What true political leadership looks like — For those looking for political leaders in whom we can place our trust, a proposed job description.US Politics
Is There an Opening for a Third Party — Amid widespread popular frustration with both the Democratic and Republican parties, an update on prospects for a less hyper-polarized third-party.Peacebuilding
I Worked at U.S.A.I.D. for Over 8 Years. This Is Our Biggest Failure. — From a former USAID official, thoughts about what the agency could have done to better protect itself and its mission.US Politics
The One Question Trump Always Wants the Answer To — An interesting hypothesis regarding the way in which President Trump looks at political issues, its relationship with policy analysis, and the reason why it's so successful.
Reader Suggested Links
Highlighting links suggested by our readers. Please send us links to things that you find useful.
Non-Violence
This Is What Makes Protests Successful — A helpful review of the historical lessons learned from a comparison of successful and unsuccessful protest movements.Artificial Intelligence
How AI Can Support Democracy Movements — If we have to live with the many ways in which AI is threatening peace and democracy, we might as well start learning how to take advantage of the technology.Reliable Problem Assessments
Whose Experts? — A detailed and well-documented look at radical changes now undergoing the way in which FDA "experts" evaluate and approve vaccines.Theories of Change
We Need a Much Bigger Tent — On coalitions, discomfort, and the defense of democracy by L.A. Kauffman. In this he explains how everyday people can take effective action to promote freedom, dignity, and democracy amid rising authoritarianism.Israel / Hamas War
The Boulder Suspect Video Exposes a Hamas-Aligned Network Promoting Lone-Wolf Attacks — In the context of the recent fire-bombing assault on members of Boulder's Jewish community, a look at the complex online network that encourages and supports such "lone wolf" attacks.Non-Violence
Trump's Manufactured Crisis and the Urgency of Strategic Nonviolence — An exploration of strategic and tactical questions that arise in conflicts between nonviolent protesters and provocateurs who try to amplify crises in order to justify repressive responses.Violence
Tyler Cowen: Which Countries Won’t Exist in the 22nd Century? — A terrifying look at the number of places which are no longer subject to the control of any kind of government -- the kind of anarchy that produces lives that are "nasty, brutish, and short."
Colleague Activities
Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.
Networking
Bridging Communities, Events and Insights in a Fragmented World — This draft paper is for boundary-spanners, community catalysts, and organizational leaders who see cycles of duplication and knowledge loss. It’s for anyone who believes that how we weave knowledge across divides might be as important as the knowledge itself.Psychological Complexity
The Vibes to Conflict Pipeline — Perceptions can foment conflict, even when they’re not grounded in the underlying reality.Networking
All of US — A directory to help people find organizations near them working to improve communities, schools, jobs, and daily life. Find out how to get involved, learn new skills, and contribute to massively parallel democracy building!Civil Society
What Americans Really Want is an Opportunity to Make a Difference — A new report from the Beacon Project explores how Americans think about hard work, opportunity, and the American Dream.US Politics
Congress Should Measure Twice and Cut Once on Charitable Sector Reform — The House GOP's ill-considered excise tax hike on foundations would put these institutions – and the pluralistic charitable sector they support – on a slippery slope. Nothing good lies at the bottom.Saving Democracy
Why Even the “Losers” Embraced the Outcome: What Citizens’ Assemblies Teach Us About Democratic Legitimacy — In democratic politics, every decision produces winners and losers. The critical question is: Will the losing side accept the outcome? This concept, known as losers’ consent, is foundational to democratic legitimacy.Communication Complexity
The new dark age of censorship — An exposé of how bad censorship has gotten in the U.S., but also how we can fight back.Saving Democracy
People Say Democracy Isn’t Working — An article in the Journal of Democracy showing that people around the world think democracy isn't working as it should, but there seems to be little interest in fixing it. Why? Joel Day asks.Violence
How to Prevent Political Violence — An Amanda Ripley article on violence targeting political officials and how to stop it.Saving Democracy
People Power #3: Ostbelgien’s Permanent Citizens’ Council — A New Pillar of Democracy — A story from Just Citizens about a citizens' council established in 2019 in Belgium. Randomly selected citizens are integrated into the legislative process, with agenda-setting powers and a structured platform to influence policy decisions.Education
Universities have no choice — Thoughts on the role of negotiation and compromise in the context of the ongoing battle between universities and the Trump administration.Culture and Religion
Does Uncompromising Morality Harm or Help? — Outrage over sacred values -- however morally justified -- can all too easily harden divisions and make progress much harder to achieve.De-Escalation Strategies
Forgiving Our Enemies and Our Exes — When we are willing to engage in a forgiveness process and are willing to do the work, it is like peeling the layers of an onion. First you have to acknowledge your grief, pain, and fear, then you can release it.
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.)
Immigration
Is Civil War Coming to Europe? — From a frequent skeptic of Civil War talk, a disturbing analysis of the enormous strains that immigration, primarily from Muslim societies, is placing on Europe.Israel / Hamas War
It’s easy to preach peace when no one is trying to kill you. — It's easy to tell others to make peace and agree to a cease-fire when you are not in the line of fire.Culture and Religion
The Ancient Roots of Western Self-Criticism — One of the big features of Western society, and a major source of its dynamism, is its willingness to be self-critical and continually strive to do better (rather than simply accepting its fate).US Politics
How the Left Loses its People — A retrospective historical look at the many things that the left has done over the years to undermine its support.Class Inequity
The Elite Overproduction Hypothesis — An analysis of the hypothesis that many of our conflicts result from the fact that there are not enough positions in the upper levels of the social hierarchy to fill the demand from people who feel entitled to those positions.Saving Democracy
The Supreme Court Is Watching Out for the Courts, Not for Trump — A reassuring look at recent Supreme Court decisions that contrast with more popular partisan analyses and gives hope that the judiciary may continue to fulfill its constitutional role.Artificial Intelligence
Are We Really Willing to Become Dumber? — More food for thought for those trying to understand the relationship between AI intelligence and human intelligence and how the former might undermine the latter.Interstate War
Kinetic War vs. Cyber War: The Potential Battlefields Ahead — More information about radical changes now underway in military technology -- changes that are profoundly altering the balance of power and undermining our ability to prevent (or, at least, limit) war.The Scale and Complexity Problem
Adam Kucharski: The Uncertain Science of Certainty — Thoughts on how to navigate the inevitable uncertainties that characterize even the most trustworthy sources of information.Saving Democracy
Nondelegation and Major Questions Doctrines Can Constrain Power Grabs by Presidents of Both Parties — A report on two of the biggest legal issues surrounding efforts to constrain Presidential power — issues that are often misunderstood in partisan ways.Interstate War
‘Basically impossible to get them back’: Russia’s mass abduction of Ukrainian children is a war crime, say experts — Yet another heartbreaking look at the unfathomable cruelty associated with Russia's invasion of Ukraine (and another reason why this kind of aggression can't be allowed to succeed).Interstate War
More conflict in 2024 ‘than any year since Second World War’ — Hard data supporting that which should be self-evident to any observer of current events, the forces taking us away from a peaceful world are stronger now than they have been at any time since the world wars of the 20th century.Corruption
The first rule in Trump’s Washington: Don’t write anything down — Another angle on the importance of governmental transparency (and tricks that unscrupulous leaders use to avoid accountability).Media Reform
It Was the Damn Phones — For parents of young children, and anyone trying to understand how phones have been affecting the lives of young people — a first-person account of what a phone-based childhood is like.Israel / Hamas War
How Israel-Aligned Hackers Hobbled Iran’s Financial System — A case study of one important way in which cyber tactics can be integrated into conventional (kinetic) warfare.Social / Economic Complexity
Our Knowledge System Has Collapsed. Can We Survive Without It? — A thoughtful exploration of the complex ramifications of ongoing changes to the way in which our society accumulates, stores, and disseminates knowledge.Theories of Change
Word Jumble: When Nonprofits Talk Fancy, America Tunes Out — An argument for plain English political communication and against jargon and buzzword-related communication strategies (that undermine clear thinking).Culture and Religion
The Enlightenment’s Gravediggers — The enlightenment which gave birth to scientific inquiry, market economies, and democratic systems of governance is now being subjected to serious challenge. This article explores what's at stake.US Politics
How the Democrats Lost Men Like Me — As an alternative to the in-depth analyses that Democrats are doing to try to figure out why they have lost the support of so many men, one man offers his opinion.Immigration
Multiculturalism sounds nice — until it destroys your society. — A thought-provoking and likely controversial exploration of the limits of multiculturalism and the value of the shared national identity.Artificial Intelligence
Big Tech’s AI Endgame Is Coming Into Focus — An analysis of where, several steps down the pipeline, the AI-led technological revolution is going and what the high-tech industry has planned for 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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