Getting Beyond Polarization #2—Climate Change As Teacher

I feel deep concern about how, with issues of every sort, people today are dividing almost immediately into polar camps. The concern ultimately relates to something of much greater significance than just the unpleasantness of discord. Polarization is getting in … Read More

No, David Brooks, the Task is to Go Forward, Not Back—Just Not Toward a Reactive and Naive Populism, Rather Toward a More “Grown Up” Kind of Understanding That We are Only Now Beginning to Grasp.

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David Brooks is one of the writers in the political sphere that I most respect. In a recent piece, he made a dramatic observation that I think could very well be accurate and prescient. But his observation left us hanging. … Read More

If the Democrats Had Wanted to Open the Door to a Trump Reelection, They Couldn’t Have Done a Better Job—The Recent Presidential Debates and Today’s Needed “Growing Up” in How We Understand

As someone who has devoted much of his life to training leaders, I found the initial Democratic presidential debates disappointing. Given the profound inadequacy of Donald Trump, the 2020 elections should be the easiest in history to win. But the … Read More

Perspective for a Time of Deep Discord: Why We See Things So Differently (and Why Just Trying To Talk About It Is So Often Not Helpful)

In these times of extreme social/political polarization it can be unsettling—indeed frightening—just how differently people with conflicting views can see things. We can legitimately wonder if the discord we encounter today will in time put the whole democratic experiment in … Read More