Our Contentious Culture

The past four days I've spent with our board and staff in Chicago talking about the past, present and future of Strong Towns. I'm going to share a lot of this quite soon, but for now, I want to share a video that we watched and discussed at length. It features Jonathan Haidt, the author of The Righteous Mind, which I can almost guarantee will be my top recommended book for 2017.

I realize this is long. Do yourself a favor and take the time at some point during the week to watch it. It is deeply relevant to our time, especially when we realize that building a Strong Town requires that we work together and working together means, first and foremost, that we attempt to understand each other.

Haidt's first suggestion toward the end -- that we don't demonize others, even when they are wrong -- is a best practice for civil discourse that I'm going to try even harder to live by.