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
- Part 2 of the Burgess's Answer to Ashok Panikkar's Questions about Hyperpolarization and Today's World -- We finish answering Ashok Panikkar by talking about other drivers of hyper-polarization: globalization and technology driven job loss, identity politics, cable news and social media, and distrust of institutions. We also address Ashok's notion of theory of continuity and share what we think it will take to "save" liberal democracy in the U.S. -- Mar 30
- USIP, CRS, and FMCS and Responding to Ashok Panikkar's Question about Hyper-Polarization -- We reflect on the implications and impact of the closing of FMCS, USIP, and probably CRS, what might be done about that, and then turn to answering Ashok Panikkar's question about whether hyper-polarization is "logical and rational," given the current state of the world. -- Mar 28
- Heidi and Guy Burgess Talk with Tom Klaus and Lamar Roth in their "Third Space" - Part 2 -- The second half our Guy and Heidi Burgess's conversation with Lamar Roth and Tom Klaus on their podcast "Getting to Third Space." Here we talk more about what is driving American polarization, why it is a problem, and what can be done to address it. -- Mar 25
- Colleague, News, and Opinion Links for the Week of March 23, 2025 -- Lots of readings about the Trump administration and responses to it -- plus other readings and videos of note. -- Mar 23
- Responses to Fiddling While Rome Burns - Part 2 -- The Burgesses respond to Bernie Mayer's comments on "Are We Fiddling While Rome Burns," arguing that bridging and advocacy are both needed for change, along with other elements in David Eisner's "renewing democracy ecosystem." -- Mar 20
- Responses to: Are We Fiddling While Rome Burns? - Part 1 -- A discussion with David Eisner and Bernie Mayer of how bridging efforts relate to other efforts to strengthen American democracy in what David refers to as the "renew-democracy ecosystem." -- Mar 20
- Colleague, News, and Opinion Links for the Week of March 16, 2025 -- Our weekly collection of readings, not surprisingly, heavily focused on Trump's moves and responses to those moves. -- Mar 15
- Can we lower toxic polarization while still opposing Trump? -- In the United States, hyper-polarization has escalated to the point where President Trump is trying to destroy pretty much everything Democrats care about. The question is how can the Democrats defend themselves while also working to defuse the hyper-polarization that made Trump's Presidency possible. -- Mar 11
- Are We Fiddling While Rome Burns? -- A reflection on why it still makes sense to try to find a middle ground between the far left and the far right, even as the far right seems to be profoundly threatening U.S. democracy. -- Mar 09
- Colleague, News, and Opinion Links for the Week of March 2, 2025 -- Another installment of our weekly suggested readings and viewings. -- Mar 06
- James Coan and Katie Hyten on Scaling Up Dialogue and Other Forms of Interpersonal Communication to Bridge Political Divides -- Interpersonal communication is not the only way to reduce political divides; other much more "scalable" approaches work in addition to, not instead of, one-on-one communication to reduce hyper-polarization. -- Mar 02
- Louis Kriesberg's "For All the People" and Related Thoughts About Paths Forward for the U.S. -- Taking Kriesberg's essay as a starting point, this newsletter explores, from left-leaning and centrist perspectives, a range of hopeful responses that are emerging to the most extreme actions of the still young Trump presidency. -- Feb 27
- Lou Kriesberg's "For All the People" and Related Thoughts About Paths Forward for the U.S. -- Lou Kriesberg, the Burgesses, and a variety of commentators agree. America needs to be governed by and for all the people, not just by and for a few rich folk. Pushback is starting to work toward that goal. -- Feb 26
- Colleague, News, and Opinion Links for the Week of February 23, 2025 -- Our weekly roundup of interesting reading and viewings, along with one event announcement. -- Feb 23
- The Engineering and Medical Approaches to Fixing Broken Systems -- Complex adaptive systems cannot be fixed using typical engineering problem solving. Rather they need to be approached using a "medical model," which is designed to deal with systems we don't entirely understand. -- Feb 20
- Rosa Zubizarreta-Ada: Transformative Power and Empathic Connection: Changing Contexts, Generating Inclusive Mindsets -- Rosa Zubizarreta-Ada explores solutions to the "Achilles Heel of democracy," in which free speech allows illiberal speech, which then threatens the very democracy that allows it. -- Feb 17
- Heidi and Guy Burgess Talk with Tom Klaus and Lamar Roth in their "Third Space" -- Tom Klaus and Lamar Roth talked with Guy and Heidi Burgess about Beyond Intractability, hyper-polarization, constructive conflict, and ways we are going to get out of the "mess" we are in. -- Feb 13
- Colleague, News, and Opinion Links for the Week of February 9, 2025 -- More important readings from our colleagues and journalists of note. -- Feb 09
- Daniel Stid -- PS: Three Further Reflections on "Pluralism in the Trump Era" -- Daniel Stid's three key "take-aways" from a conference on Pluralism in Action: we have a choice between pluralism and war; political resistance and civic renewal are different tasks, and pluralism is not a field. See why! -- Feb 08
- Reprise: Sharp vs. Fuzzy Feedback — The Distinction That Explains Why Society Can Be Both Astonishingly Smart and Incredibly Stupid -- We are good at understanding and responding to sharp feedback, but not nearly as good seeing and responding to fuzzy feedback, which is the source of many serious mistakes. With current hyper-polarization, will any feedback be heeded? -- Feb 03
- Colleague, News, and Opinion Links for the Week of February 2, 2025 -- Our weekly set of readings renamed to clarify the contents, trying to help our readers understand the challenges we face. -- Feb 01
- Reprise: The Google Maps and Adopt-a-Highway Approach to Systems -- A repeat of a two-year old post, explaining "thinking and acting systemically" by using the metaphor of Google Maps and "Adopt a Highway" programs -- both systemic ways of managing vast amounts of traffic on the U.S. highway system. -- Jan 30
- Daniel Stid: Top Down Democratic Decline vs. Bottom Up Civic Renewal: 8 Working Hypotheses -- The civic renewal we need is not primarily political or governmental, but rather, cultural. While Federal governance is still in a shambles, cultural change at the local and state levels promises a healthier democracy. -- Jan 29
- Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Links for the Week of January 26, 2025 -- Two weeks' worth of readings from colleagues and journalists about hyper-polarization, intractable conflict and more. -- Jan 25
- Potpourri Newsletter #2 -- Comments on our U.S. democracy post, Ashok Panikkar's question about contemporary education, and uplifting essay from Anne Leslie, and a new case study on Burundi from Emmy Irobi. -- Jan 22
