The Depolarizing of America

The Depolarizing of America PDF Author: Kirk J. Schneider
Publisher: University Professors Press
ISBN: 1939686644
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 142

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Book Description
Our nation needs healing dialogues--especially now. In the wake of the coronavirus and George Floyd killing, many of the issues dividing us as a nation--race, politics, class, gender, climate change, globalism, and religion--have only been magnified, and although the U.S. Surgeon general has called for an end to bickering and partisanship, it is unclear to what extent this will take effect. What is clear, however, is that safe, mindfully structured dialogues are imperative if we are to salvage our republic and the democratic principles on which it is built. The Depolarizing of America is the culmination of years of effort to promote safe, mindfully structured dialogues in homes, offices, classrooms, and community centers. It is an attempt to "give away" the time-tested skills with which the author, Kirk Schneider, has intimate experience, to a range of both laypersons and professionals; people who yearn to socially heal. The book begins with personal observations about our polarized state, both within the United States (and by implication) the world. It follows up with a reflection on how the sense of awe toward life--issuing in part from America's founding spirit--can serve as a counter to this polarized state. It concludes with practical strategies centered on dialogue. These strategies translate awe-based sensibilities, including humility and wonder toward life, to a rediscovery of one another, a rediscovery of our potential to shape and revitalize our times. As a follow up to Schneider's groundbreaking book, The Polarized Mind, The Depolarizing of America is an essential read for those who are striving for social healing and positive collective change.

The Depolarizing of America

The Depolarizing of America PDF Author: Kirk J. Schneider
Publisher: University Professors Press
ISBN: 1939686644
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 142

Get Book Here

Book Description
Our nation needs healing dialogues--especially now. In the wake of the coronavirus and George Floyd killing, many of the issues dividing us as a nation--race, politics, class, gender, climate change, globalism, and religion--have only been magnified, and although the U.S. Surgeon general has called for an end to bickering and partisanship, it is unclear to what extent this will take effect. What is clear, however, is that safe, mindfully structured dialogues are imperative if we are to salvage our republic and the democratic principles on which it is built. The Depolarizing of America is the culmination of years of effort to promote safe, mindfully structured dialogues in homes, offices, classrooms, and community centers. It is an attempt to "give away" the time-tested skills with which the author, Kirk Schneider, has intimate experience, to a range of both laypersons and professionals; people who yearn to socially heal. The book begins with personal observations about our polarized state, both within the United States (and by implication) the world. It follows up with a reflection on how the sense of awe toward life--issuing in part from America's founding spirit--can serve as a counter to this polarized state. It concludes with practical strategies centered on dialogue. These strategies translate awe-based sensibilities, including humility and wonder toward life, to a rediscovery of one another, a rediscovery of our potential to shape and revitalize our times. As a follow up to Schneider's groundbreaking book, The Polarized Mind, The Depolarizing of America is an essential read for those who are striving for social healing and positive collective change.

The Depolarizing of America: A Guidebook for Social Healing

The Depolarizing of America: A Guidebook for Social Healing PDF Author: Kirk J. Schneider
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781939686633
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 98

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Book Description
Our nation needs healing dialogues--especially now! In the wake of the coronavirus, many of the issues dividing us as a nation and world--such as politics, race, class, gender, climate change, globalism, and religion--have only been magnified, and although the U.S. Surgeon general has called for an end to bickering and partisanship, it is unclear to what extent this will take effect. What is clear, however, is that safe, mindfully structured dialogues are imperative if we are to salvage our republic and the democratic principles on which it is built. The Depolarizing of America is the culmination of years of effort to promote safe, mindfully structured dialogues in homes, offices, classrooms, and community centers. It is an attempt to "give away" the time-tested skills and methods with which the author, Kirk Schneider, has intimate experience, to a range of both laypersons and professionals; people who yearn to socially heal. The book begins with personal observations about our polarized state, both within the United States (and by implication) the world. It follows up with a reflection on how the sense of awe toward life--issuing in part from America's founding spirit--can serve as a counter to this polarized state. It concludes with practical strategies centered on dialogue. These strategies translate awe-based sensibilities, including humility and wonder toward life, to a rediscovery of one another, a rediscovery of our potential to shape and revitalize our times. As a follow up to Schneider's groundbreaking book, The Polarized Mind, The Depolarizing of America is an essential read for those who striving for social healing and positive collective change.

The Way Out

The Way Out PDF Author: Peter T. Coleman
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231552157
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 453

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Book Description
The partisan divide in the United States has widened to a chasm. Legislators vote along party lines and rarely cross the aisle. Political polarization is personal, too—and it is making us miserable. Surveys show that Americans have become more fearful and hateful of supporters of the opposing political party and imagine that they hold much more extreme views than they actually do. We have cordoned ourselves off: we prefer to date and marry those with similar opinions and are less willing to spend time with people on the other side. How can we loosen the grip of this toxic polarization and start working on our most pressing problems? The Way Out offers an escape from this morass. The social psychologist Peter T. Coleman explores how conflict resolution and complexity science provide guidance for dealing with seemingly intractable political differences. Deploying the concept of attractors in dynamical systems, he explains why we are stuck in this rut as well as the unexpected ways that deeply rooted oppositions can and do change. Coleman meticulously details principles and practices for navigating and healing the difficult divides in our homes, workplaces, and communities, blending compelling personal accounts from his years of working on entrenched conflicts with lessons from leading-edge research. The Way Out is a vital and timely guide to breaking free from the cycle of mutual contempt in order to better our lives, relationships, and country.

Existential-humanistic Therapy

Existential-humanistic Therapy PDF Author: Kirk J. Schneider
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
ISBN: 9781433804625
Category : Existential psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
History -- Theory -- The Therapy Process -- Evaluation -- Future developments -- Summary.

Awakening to Awe

Awakening to Awe PDF Author: Kirk J. Schneider
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780765706652
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
Awakening to Awe is a self-help meditation on an alternative--and growing--spiritual movement. This is a movement comprised of people who refuse the "quick-fix" model for healing, whether that model entails popping pills, indulging in material comforts, or adhering to doctrinal dogmas. By contrast, the movement about which Schneider writes is composed of people who have developed the capacity to experience the humility and wonder, or in short, awe, of life deeply lived. In particular, this book highlights the stories of people who through the cultivation of awe have transformed their lives. For example, readers will discover how awe transformed the life of an ex-gang member into a beloved and productive gang mediator, an ex-drug addict into a communally conscious healer, and a sufferer of stage three cancer into a contemplative and spiritual seeker. The book will also inform readers about the challenges and joys of awe-based child-raising, education, humor, political activism, and aging. Drawing on the philosophy of Schneider's earlier work, the acclaimed Rediscovery of Awe, Awakening to Awe tells the down-to-earth stories of a quiet yet emerging revolution in the transformation of lives.

A Quiet Revolution

A Quiet Revolution PDF Author: Leila Ahmed
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300175051
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
A probing study of the veil's recent return—from one of the world's foremost authorities on Muslim women—that reaches surprising conclusions about contemporary Islam's place in the West todayIn Cairo in the 1940s, Leila Ahmed was raised by a generation of women who never dressed in the veils and headscarves their mothers and grandmothers had worn. To them, these coverings seemed irrelevant to both modern life and Islamic piety. Today, however, the majority of Muslim women throughout the Islamic world again wear the veil. Why, Ahmed asks, did this change take root so swiftly, and what does this shift mean for women, Islam, and the West?When she began her study, Ahmed assumed that the veil's return indicated a backward step for Muslim women worldwide. What she discovered, however, in the stories of British colonial officials, young Muslim feminists, Arab nationalists, pious Islamic daughters, American Muslim immigrants, violent jihadists, and peaceful Islamic activists, confounded her expectations. Ahmed observed that Islamism, with its commitments to activism in the service of the poor and in pursuit of social justice, is the strain of Islam most easily and naturally merging with western democracies' own tradition of activism in the cause of justice and social change. It is often Islamists, even more than secular Muslims, who are at the forefront of such contemporary activist struggles as civil rights and women's rights. Ahmed's surprising conclusions represent a near reversal of her thinking on this topic.Richly insightful, intricately drawn, and passionately argued, this absorbing story of the veil's resurgence, from Egypt through Saudi Arabia and into the West, suggests a dramatically new portrait of contemporary Islam.

Breaking the Two-party Doom Loop

Breaking the Two-party Doom Loop PDF Author: Lee Drutman
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0190913851
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
American democracy is in deep crisis. But what do we do about it? That depends on how we understand the current threat.In Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop, Lee Drutman argues that we now have, for the first time in American history, a genuine two-party system, with two fully-sorted, truly national parties, divided over the character of the nation. And it's a disaster. It's a party system fundamentally at odds withour anti-majoritarian, compromise-oriented governing institutions. It threatens the very foundations of fairness and shared values on which our democracy depends.Deftly weaving together history, democratic theory, and cutting-edge political science research, Drutman tells the story of how American politics became so toxic and why the country is now trapped in a doom loop of escalating two-party warfare from which there is only one escape: increase the numberof parties through electoral reform. As he shows, American politics was once stable because the two parties held within them multiple factions, which made it possible to assemble flexible majorities and kept the climate of political combat from overheating. But as conservative Southern Democrats andliberal Northeastern Republicans disappeared, partisan conflict flattened and pulled apart. Once the parties became fully nationalized - a long-germinating process that culminated in 2010 - toxic partisanship took over completely. With the two parties divided over competing visions of nationalidentity, Democrats and Republicans no longer see each other as opponents, but as enemies. And the more the conflict escalates, the shakier our democracy feels.Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop makes a compelling case for large scale electoral reform - importantly, reform not requiring a constitutional amendment - that would give America more parties, making American democracy more representative, more responsive, and ultimately more stable.

Imagining Judeo-Christian America

Imagining Judeo-Christian America PDF Author: K. Healan Gaston
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022666385X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 361

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Book Description
“Judeo-Christian” is a remarkably easy term to look right through. Judaism and Christianity obviously share tenets, texts, and beliefs that have strongly influenced American democracy. In this ambitious book, however, K. Healan Gaston challenges the myth of a monolithic Judeo-Christian America. She demonstrates that the idea is not only a recent and deliberate construct, but also a potentially dangerous one. From the time of its widespread adoption in the 1930s, the ostensible inclusiveness of Judeo-Christian terminology concealed efforts to promote particular conceptions of religion, secularism, and politics. Gaston also shows that this new language, originally rooted in arguments over the nature of democracy that intensified in the early Cold War years, later became a marker in the culture wars that continue today. She argues that the debate on what constituted Judeo-Christian—and American—identity has shaped the country’s religious and political culture much more extensively than previously recognized.

Horror and the Holy

Horror and the Holy PDF Author: Kirk Schneider
Publisher: Open Court
ISBN: 0812698754
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
Dr. Schneider draws upon a detailed and telling analysis of eleven well-known horror stories: Dracula, Frankenstein, The Phantom of the Opera, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Invisible Man, The Incredible Shrinking Man, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Birds, Forbidden Planet, Vertigo, and Alien. He finds that a spiritual understanding of life can be attained through horror. Classic horror steers a middle path between fanaticism and despair: the path of wonderment. Horror teaches us that the human personality is paradoxical, that revulsion and disgust are the obverse of excitement and freedom, and that both poles are vital to individual, social, and ecological well-being.

Bridge Builders

Bridge Builders PDF Author: Nathan Bomey
Publisher: Polity
ISBN: 9781509545933
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
In these turbulent times, defined by ideological chasms, clashes over social justice, and a pandemic intersecting with misinformation, Americans seem hopelessly divided along fault lines of politics, race, religion, class, and culture. Yet not everyone is accepting the status quo. In Bridge Builders: Bringing People Together in a Polarized Age, journalist Nathan Bomey paints a forensic portrait of Americans who are spanning gaping divides between people of difference. From clergy fighting racism in Charlottesville to a former Republican congressman engaging conservatives on climate change and Appalachian journalists restoring social trust with the public, these countercultural leaders all believe in the power of forging lasting connections to bring about profound change. Though the blueprints for political, social, and cultural bridges vary widely, bridge builders have much in common—and we have much to learn from them. In this book, Bomey dissects the transformational ways in which bridge builders are combatting polarization by pursuing reconciliation, rejecting misinformation, and rethinking the principle of compromise.