Tuesday, April 19, 6-7:30 PM Eastern
One of the hallmarks of IBECC is that it is more “practical” than most academic case competitions. The majority of our judges come from the corporate ethics and compliance community, and they aim to help students understand how to navigate the real world challenges in promoting ethics in business. Our essay competition and academic/athletic biathlon lead to donations to worthy charities. Simply put, at IBECC we’re serious about finding practical ways to make the world a better place. In light of that goal, and in light of the unacceptable divisiveness and rancor that currently characterizes public discourse, this year IBECC is partnering with Braver Angels to hold an event online session to discuss the effects of political polarization and what we can do as individuals to bridge the divide while staying true to our own beliefs. Click here for more information and to register.
Launched in 2016, Braver Angels describes itself as a national citizens’ movement to bring liberals, conservatives, and others together at a grass roots level–not to find centrist compromise, but to find one another as citizens. Braver Angels helps Americans understand each other beyond stereotypes, form community alliances, and reduce the vitriol that poisons our civic culture. Their “Red/Blue” workshops bring together a small, evenly divided group of conservatives and liberals, or “reds” and “blues,” for a series of exercises designed to help participants clarify disagreements, reduce stereotyped thinking, and discover common values. Click here for more information about the organization and the workshop.
Of particular note is Kenneth Goodpaster’s reflection on Braver Angels. (Professor Goodpaster has a distinguished career in business ethics and is an emeritus professor of business ethics at the University of Saint Thomas. IBECC is especially proud of the fact that Professor Goodpaster is one of our long-term überjudges and a member of IBECC’s Board.) Reflecting on the future of business ethics in his forthcoming book (Times of Insight: Conscience, Corporations, and the Common Good), he writes:
[One] reason for my emphatic affirmative answer to the question about signs of hope is the founding and flourishing of a non-profit organization called Braver Angels. This is a grassroots organization that originated from a simple idea in one state and spread to all fifty of the United States and beyond. The simple idea was that the principles and techniques of family counseling might be “writ large” to help in practical ways to heal the divisions that plague an entire nation. To quote from the Braver Angels website:
[T]oday, there is evidence to suggest that we are now as polarized as we have been since the Civil War. We are in what some are calling a “cold civil war” right at the moment when a spreading pandemic, vast economic trouble, and other national and global challenges call upon us to support each other like never before.
At Braver Angels we do not accept this division. . . Our work is about restoring civic trust in the USA. It is about healing the wounds between left and right. It is about challenging institutions to be better, building community together, and discovering what it means to be American in our time. . . At Braver Angels, our work is about building a house united.
Using an army of trained volunteer moderators, the organization puts on “Red/Blue” and “Skills” workshops (Depolarizing Within, Families and Politics, Bridging the Divide), hosts general debates attended by thousands of citizens, college debates, book discussions, film discussion clubs, Zoom webinars, curates a library, and much more. Braver Angels is just one of many efforts underway at the time of this writing (though it is a particularly striking one) that are signs of hope in difficult times.”