Showing posts with label civil discourse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label civil discourse. Show all posts

Thursday, October 26, 2023

If You Want Unity, Start with Community

A newsletter I subscribe to with a very shareworthy message today


We can only grow by embracing what brings us together  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

If You Want Unity, Start with Community

We can only grow by embracing what brings us together

Oct 25
 
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The Burning of Sodom by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, 1844 and 1857 (public domain - The Met)
 

"In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed.
"A house divided against itself cannot stand.""
— Abraham Lincoln, 1858

 

When Abraham Lincoln gave his "House Divided" speech, he wasn't simply making an observation on the question of slavery that stood before Congress in the 1850s.

He was quoting a familiar concept — one that had its origins in the Bible. In three of the four Gospels, in fact.

By using this well-known phrase, he was calling upon his fellow citizens' common heritage and common understanding.

He was also calling upon common sense.

"I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free."

When you're so divided on something fundamental, can you find unity?

The solution comes through building on smaller shared pieces of ourselves. Pieces that can be found in communities.

 

The CEO / Worker Divide

With issues swirling in the business world such as remote work, artificial intelligence, and company culture, there is a disconnect between the way CEOs see it and the way workers see it.

As if to prove this point this week, Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman claimed remote workers don't work as hard, saying they enjoy a lighter workload at home.

While it's true that working from home gives us more flexibility and freedom, it doesn't mean that those not tethered to their desks aren't as effective. And how hard does Schwarzman think employees are working during their commutes to the office?

Now, let's not forget that Blackstone is one of the largest owners of commercial real estate, so he may have a bit of an incentive for taking the position he did.

The point is this: there is a divide between how different people see the workplace.

Don't let there be a divide between you and other smart & curious people. Sign up for free or paid versions of Timeless & Timely today.

A House Divided

On The World in Time podcast, Edward Achorn said:

"The politics in the country seemed to have broken down. People were talking at each other. They were no longer listening to each other. They were increasingly using violence or looking toward violence as a way to settle their differences. So the whole political system was breaking down…There was a long, protracted fight over the selection of a House speaker, which is normally a pretty much rote action. There was a view…that Washington had become this festering swamp full of elites who didn't have any sort of connection with common people in America." 

Sound familiar? It should. But Achorn was talking about America in 1860.

He's the author of The Lincoln Miracle: Inside the Republican Convention That Changed History.

Today, we're watching a slow-motion trainwreck of leadership in the House of Representatives, as a lack of inter-party and intra-party unity cripples the U.S. government.

There is one party that believes in the rule of law, following the Constitution, and of democracy itself. And there is another that bows to the whims and fancies of an autocrat who seeks to avoid prosecution, continually disgraces and repudiates the Constitution, and wishes to subvert election results.

Case in point: the latest nominated Speaker [INSERT {F_NAME{ {L_NAME}] — indeed every nominee thus far in this cycle — voted to overturn the 2020 election.¹

With such a fundamental schism, with such nihilism in the core tenets of the country — even within a single party — is it possible to keep the house standing?

The Basis of a Community

Whether we're considering a global conglomerate or a disparate collection of states, the idea is simple: people collaborate to create something bigger, better, and stronger.

Nothing worthwhile happens in isolation.

It's no mistake that you can't spell community without unity

The word unity comes from the Latin unus / unitas, meaning "one."

And community is derived from the Latin communitas (meaning the same), which is in turn derived from communis, which means "common, public, shared by all or many."

A community is a social unit wherein its members share a common network.

That network can be expressed in different ways: through values, interests, goals, and kinship. Broadly speaking, there are categories of communities to consider (via Helpful Professor):²

  1. Communities of place

  2. Communities of interest

  3. Identity-based communities

  4. Communities of need

  5. Communities of practice

 

Place

We naturally organize based on proximity. Those around us are the most familiar and have similar needs. This is a driving force behind betting employees to return to the office: it puts us back on a common place.

Interest

Those who share hobbies, pastimes, and interests tend to congregate together. Thus, communities of interest are a natural way to bring people together.

Identity

Who we are and what we stand for are driving forces in developing a culture. It only makes sense that we want to associate ourselves with similar people.

Need

While identity, interest, and place cause people to naturally break into groups, there are wider concerns that can cross these divides. Often times, these needs supersede coteries and cliques because we recognize some things are bigger than us.

Practice

Communities of practice help identify those with expertise and skills — specialists, if you will — to help develop and expand this expertise for the greater good.

If we appreciate and understand these types of communities, we can help those around us flourish. Whether these are hybrid or remote workers, or our duly elected representatives, we have a common, public goal.

"I do not expect the Union to be dissolved – I do not expect the house to fall – but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other."

The crisis has been reached, as Lincoln prophesied.

The question is whether rampant tribalism will allow it to pass.

 I write these essays to help you become a better version of yourself. Your support helps to make them possible.

Thanks, and I'll see you on the internet.

Bonus content, because you read to the end:

1

No, that's not a mail merge or email service error; it was intentional.

2

Drew, C. (December 18, 2022). 21 Types of Communities. Helpful Professor.

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Tuesday, August 22, 2023

Is the US Headed Towards Another Civil War? | Barbara F. Walter | TED (video)

"Based on her work for a CIA task force aimed at predicting civil wars, political scientist Barbara F. Walter examines the rise in extremism and threats to democracies around the globe -- and paints an unsettling picture of the increasing likelihood of a second civil war in the United States. If you love watching TED Talks like this one, become a TED Member to support our mission of spreading ideas: https://ted.com/membership"
Video link -> https://t.co/sxLSSAfEmk 

Sunday, July 16, 2023

"We gathered on the site of the great battle of our Civil War in order to prevent another one"

"On July 5, 2023—160 years after the Battle of Gettysburg—the unthinkable happened.

We came to @Gettysburg to launch a movement, bringing together 650 conservatives and liberals on equal terms to clarify differences, find common ground where it exists, and strengthen our nation.

It was hard to pull off.

How do you bring people of opposing viewpoints together during such an intense time of division?

We leaned on a small, scrappy staff and a dedicated group of volunteers who put everything they had into making the convention happen.

And then, it did."

Read the full thread in this PDF ->   https://drive.google.com/file/d/188dE76N8YydAEV743jbqwyZ-aDyTAgwb/view?usp=drive_link

View the YouTube playlist of the convention that gathered 600 folks in Gettysburg College this July 2023 -> https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKRBV_e51mrpjB5Dfc6mQWqR4eZxvteDY

witf.org, the public news service for 17 communities in Central PA provides some video of some of the conventions goers. ->    https://www.witf.org/2023/07/14/hundreds-gather-at-gettysburg-college-to-bridge-political-divides-through-constructive-conversations/

For more about Braver Angels, the group that organized this event ->    https://braverangels.org/our-mission/

We were led by our two co-Chairs, Erica Manuel ( @ericut ), CEO & Executive Director of  @InstLocGov  and Wilk Wilkinson ( @wilksopinion ), host of  @DeratetheHate  podcast
"We were led by our two co-Chairs, Erica Manuel (
@ericut
), CEO & Executive Director of
@InstLocGov
and Wilk Wilkinson (
@wilksopinion
), host of
@DeratetheHate
podcast
"

Saturday, July 15, 2023

"Disagree Better - Saving Your Family Dinner" - (video)

Mónica Guzmán (@moniguzman) tweeted on Fri, Jul 14, 2023:
"Want better, braver politics? Share the heck out of this video. 
Then ask *your* elected officials what *they're* doing to save our family dinners... & the whole American experiment.

Thanks @GovCox & @GovofCO for stepping the f UP! 🇺🇸"
video link -> 
 https://t.co/NCX0TC13yD  or  https://youtu.be/Ltm0wb9lFAY



Thursday, December 23, 2021

Boston Globe: America is ‘closer to civil war than any of us would like to believe,’ CIA adviser says

"One of the world’s leading experts on political violence and terrorism is sounding the alarm on the state of democracy in America, warning that the country is increasingly on the path to being caught up in the throes of a second civil war.

Barbara F. Walter, a political science professor at the University of California at San Diego, has served on an advisory panel run by the Central Intelligence Agency for the past several years that aims to predict where in the world a “civil war, political violence, and instability is likely to break out,” she said in an interview with CNN on Sunday, where she discussed her new book out January, “How Civil Wars Start and How to Stop Them.”

But Walter, who has been studying civil wars and conflicts in places like Northern Ireland, Ethiopia, and Syria for the last three decades, applied international research and the metrics used to evaluate democracies in other countries to America. What she found was that the nation is “closer to civil war than any of us would like to believe,” according to a passage from the book published by the Washington Post.

“No one wants to believe that their beloved democracy is in decline, or headed toward war,” she writes in the excerpt. “If you were an analyst in a foreign country looking at events in America — the same way you’d look at events in Ukraine or the Ivory Coast or Venezuela — you would go down a checklist, assessing each of the conditions that make civil war likely. And what you would find is that the United States, a democracy founded more than two centuries ago, has entered very dangerous territory.”

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/12/22/nation/america-is-closer-civil-war-than-any-us-would-like-believe-cia-advisor-says/


Listen to Town Administrator Jamie Hellen and I riff on the need for civil discourse in our Winter Solstice episode of "Talk Franklin"https://www.franklinmatters.org/2021/12/talk-franklin-winter-solstice-episode.html

Talk Franklin - the Winter Solstice episode - 12/21/21 (audio)
Talk Franklin - the Winter Solstice episode - 12/21/21 (audio)

Wednesday, December 22, 2021

Talk Franklin - the Winter Solstice episode - 12/21/21 (audio)

FM #684 = This is the Franklin Matters radio show, number 684 in the series. 


This session of the radio show shares my "Talk Franklin" conversation with Town Administrator Jamie Hellen. We had our conversation via the Zoom Conference Bridge.


This was recorded coincidentally beginning with the Winter Solstice at 11 AM on 12/21/21. Maybe the start of a new tradition.


We had a less formal agenda to talk through as we discussed the recent tragedy in Franklin, civil discourse, gratitude for what we do have, and looking ahead to the challenges and opportunities of 2022.


The recording runs about 40 minutes, so let’s listen to my conversation with Jamie.


Audio file -> https://franklin-ma-matters.captivate.fm/episode/fm-684-talk-franklin-12-21-21



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Candlelight vigil recording

https://www.franklinmatters.org/2021/12/candlelight-vigil-coverage-as-franklin.html


GoFundMe for Shirley Owen  https://www.franklinmatters.org/2021/12/gofundme-for-shirley-in-our-hearts.html 


Community Preservation public hearings announced

https://www.franklinmatters.org/2021/12/community-preservation-act-public.html 


Rebuilding Civility in the Public Square (book mentioned by Jamie)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1595941509


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We are now producing this in collaboration with Franklin.TV and Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm) or 102.9 on the Franklin area radio dial.  


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If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com


The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana"  c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission.


I hope you enjoy!

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Talk Franklin - the Winter Solstice episode - 12/21/21 (audio)
Talk Franklin - the Winter Solstice episode - 12/21/21 (audio)