The second part of our newsletter describing how the process of democratic subversion is playing out in the United States.beyondintractability.substac…

This update of a set of newsletters from 2024 describes democratic subversion as a four-step process of demoralization, destabilization, crisis, and normalization. These newsletters are even more chilling now than they were then.beyondintractability.substac…

A tool to get AI to provide evidence-based analysis of the news, rather than a simple summary of headlines. It is intended to help users understand both what has happened and why it matters.beyondintractability.substac…

A new collection of links to news and opinion articles and organizations that are, in various ways, contributing to the massively parallel effort to help us understand and more constructively handle intractable conflict.beyondintractability.substac…

John Paul Lederach's notion of "the meeting place" of truth, justice, peace, and mercy being reconciliation can be applied to democracy also. And Guy adds "vision" as a fifth element to put in the mix.beyondintractability.substac…

The U.S. is now facing yet another election that both sides say is "existential" -- if they lose, all will be lost. This essay reflects on how to and how not to respond to this situation. beyondintractability.substac…

A new collection of links to news and opinion articles and organizations that are, in various ways, contributing to the massively parallel effort to help us understand and more constructively handle intractable conflict. beyondintractability.substac…

This essay explains how concepts based on neural networks and quantum theory's Heisenberg principle can help us navigate today's many assaults on the knowability of objective truth. beyondintractability.substac…

If it exists, it must be possible seems obvious. But it apparently isn't, because we ignore that belief all the time. Paying attention to it opens up possibilities we badly need. beyondintractability.substac…

A new collection of links to news and opinion articles and organizations that are, in various ways, contributing to the massively parallel effort to help us understand and more constructively handle intractable conflict. beyondintractability.substac…

Citizenship is a contested word with many dimensions. Rather than abandoning or replacing the word, we should help people understand it better and work to reach the "sweet spot" on at least four dimensions. beyondintractability.substac…

We have more people willing to help than we have had in years, but fewer able to make a long-term, standing commitment to fill the civic spaces that need them. What is scarce is not the impulse to help. It is the ability to keep showing up. beyondintractability.substac…

A new collection of links to news and opinion articles and organizations that are, in various ways, contributing to the massively parallel effort to help us understand and more constructively handle intractable conflict.beyondintractability.substac…

Curiosity is transformative -- it allows us to see the world as it really is, not as we pretend it or wish it to be. And that transformation makes solutions possible that weren’t possible before.beyondintractability.substac…

Two very different approaches to improving democracy, but both are innovative examples of courageous citizenship -- one in practice, the other in theory, aspiring to become the practice of all of us. beyondintractability.substac…

A new collection of links to news and opinion articles and organizations that are, in various ways, contributing to the massively parallel effort to help us understand and more constructively handle intractable conflict.beyondintractability.substac…

Part Two of Harry Boyte's description of how public work and civic organizing differ from advocacy, and why it is much more effective and powerful. Here he explains how it is better than "technocracy"-- rule by experts.beyondintractability.substac…

Public work is an approach to democracy and civic engagement that is fundamentally different from advocacy, and is a much more powerful way, not only to get things done, but to improve oneself and one's community in the process.beyondintractability.substac…

A new collection of links to news and opinion articles and organizations that are, in various ways, contributing to the massively parallel effort to help us understand and more constructively handle intractable conflict.beyondintractability.substac…

Both hyper-polarization and institutional failure a can reflect the same deeper problem: people losing the capacity to work through conflict, exercise agency, and shape public life together.beyondintractability.substac…