Recent Beyond Intractability Posts
Including Hyper-Polarization Posts
Posts by BI Section
Lists of recent posts are also available separately for each BI Section:
Hyper-Polarization Discussion Posts | Earlier Constructive Conflict Initiative Blog
Things You Can Do To Help | Conflict Frontiers | Conflict Fundamentals
Beyond Intractability in Context | Colleague Activities
- Jean-Jacques Subrenat: Democracy 2.0, A Call for Awareness and Action -- Attacks on the rule of law in the U.S.A. are having an impact on the political mores of other democracies. The U.S. badly needs to update its own democracy to preserve the safety and prosperity of all around the world. -- Nov 28
- Biden Can Still Get Things Done. Achieving National Unity Isn’t One of Them -- For deeply divided society, a more realistic look at things that might be actually accomplished over the near-term. -- Nov 21
- A Radically Different Model of American Education: UATX’s Jacob Howland Speaks to the PEP -- An update on the University of Austin -- an outside-the-box effort to create a new university capable of avoiding a great many of the problems that now plague higher education. -- Nov 21
- Veterans for Political Action -- A nonprofit with a mission to mobilize veterans and supporters to advocate for election innovations to make our political system less toxic and more competitive. -- Nov 21
- Biden’s Missing Democracy Pages -- A look at the speech that Biden should have given had he really been concerned with the many ways in which US democracy is being threatened. -- Nov 20
- No One Votes for Democracy -- Reflections on the perils of avoiding debates on substantive policy questions and replacing them with vague aspirations of "hope" and "greatness" and the demonization of political adversaries. -- Nov 20
- Princeton University's Bridging Divides Initiative (BDI) -- BDI is a non-partisan research initiative that tracks and mitigates political violence in the United States by building community resilience. -- Nov 20
- How the 2022 Midterms Became a Squeaker -- Based on more than 70 interviews, a detailed account of the strategic and tactical decisions that enabled Democratic candidates to do so much better than expected. -- Nov 19
- Democrats took an unconscionable gamble — and it worked -- More on the Democrats' effective, but morally fraught strategy -- promoting the nomination of extreme "Trumpist" candidates and then running against the threat those candidates pose to democracy. -- Nov 19
- Kristen Hansen: Are Bridge-builders Being "Too Nice" to the Right? -- The primary role of bridge-builders in America at this time is to "call in," not to "call out." That this does not make us irrelevant, it makes us essential. -- Nov 19
- Hillary Clinton Accepted Her Loss, but a Lot Has Changed Since 2016 -- Based on the important new book "The Bitter End," an in-depth look at the process of "political calcification" that has made hyper-polarization such an intractable problem. -- Nov 18
- Why Is America Always Divided 50–50 -- An analysis of the many reasons why the United States continues to be so evenly and so bitterly divided with important insights for bridge-building efforts. -- Nov 18
- Scaling-Up Peacebuilding and Social Justice Work: A Conceptual Model -- An academic exploration of one of the most important and difficult challenges facing peacebuilders – scaling up their efforts to the point where they can positively alter the trajectory of society. -- Nov 18
- Dismantling Structural Racism and Injustice -- An AfP webinar discussing the ways structural racism contributes to the current state of affairs in our country and how we can move toward justice, peace, and reconciliation. -- Nov 18
- Three Theories That Explain This Strange Moment -- An especially perceptive look at three theories that, together, do much to explain the continuing stability and intensity of the United States' hyper-polarized political standoff. -- Nov 17
- The Fever Is Breaking -- A hopeful argument that the 2022 election marks both the beginning of the end of the "performative populism" that has upended US democracy and a new era of real problem-solving. -- Nov 17
- Narrative Engagement Across Difference (NEAD) Project -- The Horizons Project is joining forces with funders, researchers, and movement leaders to develop narrative competencies that can be used to strengthen democracies and combat rising authoritarianism. -- Nov 17
- Matt Legge: Beware the Popular Idea That You Know a Hidden Truth -- This metaphor leads to a binary assumption: I'm right, they are wrong. We'd be well served dropping that assumption, and listening to others to learn how they might, actually, be right, and we are wrong. -- Nov 17
- Frederick Golder on Common Ground instead of Polarization -- We cannot change anyone’s opinions, values, ideas, attitudes, judgments, or viewpoints, but, we can understand each other better through learning conversations and use those to find common ground. -- Nov 16
- The 2022 Election – Did It Make Hyper-Polarization Better or Worse -- While the worst anti-democratic outcomes may have been averted, this election was still not good for hyper-polarization, and perhaps not good for democracy either. -- Nov 16
- Guy Burgess: Finding Common Ground / Constructive Approaches for Addressing Differences -- This process focuses on five questions examining the nature of the different beliefs and opinions, and how they might be dealt with most constructively depending on whether they are fact-based, moral, or both. -- Nov 14
- Andrew Harward: A Vision of Constructive Political Conflict in The United States -- A visioning exercise yields a credible plan for significantly reducing political polarization -- with many additional benefits to individuals, organizations, and society as a whole as well. -- Nov 13
- Guy Burgess: The QED Trap -- The QED trap locks people into a win-lose struggle for power that eliminates any chance of learning, compromise, or collaboration. -- Nov 07
- Civic Health Projects -- Short, simple interventions can reduce partisan animosity (yay)! So, what comes next? -- Ninety ideas for correcting inaccurate stereotypes, appealing to common identities, role modeling, strengthening political leadership, highlighting the threat, modifying social media, etc. -- Nov 04
- Fear of Cancel Culture Is Worse Than Cancel Culture -- The ambiguous and, in many ways, unpredictable ways in which the cancel culture punishes "unacceptable" behavior has dramatically increased its impact (by forcing most everyone to "play it safe"). -- Nov 04
