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
- Don't Take the "Hate Bait!" -- Returning hate with hate hurts everyone. Much better to return hate with inquiry and respect (even if it isn't deserved), and try to defuse the anger before it explodes. -- Apr 23
- Three Organizations Teaching Students to Navigate Political Difference – BCB #94 -- Profiles of 3 organizations (Essential Partners, Braver Angels, and the American Exchange Project) with noteworthy approaches to teaching students (and everyone else, really) do better deal with political conflict: -- Apr 22
- Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Links for the Week of April 14, 2024 -- Another of our weekly suggested links from readers and the Burgesses. -- Apr 19
- No Labels, No Alternatives, No Escape -- A postmortem on No Labels' failed effort to put a "national unity" candidate on the November Presidential ballot. -- Apr 16
- Become Part of the Solution -- The American electorate includes True Believers, Pro-Democracy Transpartisans, and the Disillusioned, Disengaged, and Politically Homeless. We need to grow the second group, while shrinking the other two if we want American democracy to survive. -- Apr 16
- Knife Edge Elections, the 51% Hammer Strategy, Hatemongering, and Scapegoating -- Why are the United States' elections so close and so bitterly fought? Guy Burgess argues our knife-edge elections are caused by scapegoating, hatemongering, and our drive to get as much as we can for ourselves, by taking it away from the other side. -- Apr 14
- Joint Campus-Law Enforcement Preparation for Campus Demonstrations and Hate Incidents amid Violence in the Middle East -- An extensively annotated checklist based on input from current and former campus security. city police chiefs and mediators who have worked large-scale crowd events and hate incidents. -- Apr 13
- The Prophets: Eric Hoffer -- Given the prominent role that "true believers" are playing in contemporary politics, a timely reflection on the work of Eric Hoffer -- the man who coined the term. -- Apr 13
- Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Links for the Week of April 7, 2024 -- Reader-suggested links, along with the Burgess's compilation of colleague activities and outside readings of interest. -- Apr 10
- The dark side of active citizenship -- The dark side of active citizenship Context & All List The dark side of active citizenship https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/04/01/political-polarization-leads-to-more-polarization/ ~~ The most politically active citizens are the biggest drivers of destructive polarization -- a fact that suggests that we ought to consider rethinking the norms of civic involvement. -- Apr 08
- Rescuing Identity Politics -- Review and summary of an important new book that tries to offer identity politics a positive path through the backlash that is threatening its success. -- Apr 08
- Polarization and Political Violence: Rachel Kleinfeld -- Rachel Kleinfeld says people talking across differences isn’t enough to end polarization-- there needs to be institutional change and politicians who come together to defend democratic norms. -- Apr 08
- Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Roles - Part 2 -- The first of two posts explaining the actor roles needed for a massively parallel peacebuilding/democracy building effort to work, which combined with an earlier post on strategy roles, makes up the current MPP role list. -- Apr 07
- National Week of Conversation | April 15 - 21, 2024 -- National Week of Conversation was created for those exhausted by the division and hatred who seek ways to turn down the heat of polarization. it is a week to become inspired, equipped and engaged in bridge-building activities. -- Apr 06
- Lorelei Kelly on Strengthening Democracy at the Top and the Bottom -- Lorelei Kelly describes the work of the bipartisan Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress which passed 202 recommendations, many unanimously. Over 1/2 have been implemented and most others are in progress. -- Mar 31
- Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century -- A report by the Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship on how we can work together, instead of against each other to achieve a true democracy. -- Mar 28
- Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Links for the Week of March 24, 2024 -- A rename of our regular "colleague and context links" to highlight how these readings and the activities they describe all fit within our "massively parallel" peace and democracy building framework--or show why it is needed. -- Mar 28
- Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Roles - Part 1 -- People engaged in massively parallel peace and democracy building play at least 50 different roles. In Part 1 of this three part series, we explore the roles played by the "strategizers," or "big thinkers" who help us understand the both nature of the problem and possible responses. -- Mar 27
- Anne Leslie: Slurps, Sulks, and Family History: Do You Care Enough to Argue? -- Sometimes it is better to have an argument, rather than stew in silence, and have it with the mindset of wanting to learn more about the other person's truth instead of wanting to 'win'? -- Mar 24
- What Would You Have Israel Do to Defend Itself? -- An exceptionally complete and thorough analysis of the pros and cons of the many strategies that Israel's critics have suggested that they pursue. -- Mar 24
- What is the Building Civic Bridges Act and Why Support it? -- A set of essays from conflict resolvers, advocates, a retired four-star general, an educator, a business leader, and others about why the Building Civic Briedges Act is so important. -- Mar 23
- America’s Most Overlooked Political Divide Is Also Its Most Revealing -- A persuasive argument that we ought to be paying a lot more attention to the conflict between political activists and everyday citizens. -- Mar 23
- How to beat the backlash that threatens the liberal revolution -- From Fareed Zakaria, an overview of his major new analysis of threats to liberal democracy. -- Mar 23
- Heidi Burgess Talks With James Coan about Taking De-Polarization Work "to Scale." -- Dialogue is great for the few participants, but it simply cannot be scaled up enough to change societal attitudes and behaviors. James Coan and Heidi Burgess discuss alternative ways to scale depolarization work. -- Mar 18
- You're Thinking About Polarization All Wrong -- Another look at the problem of hyper-polarization -- one that argues that partisan blocs are less rigid than it might appear. -- Mar 17
