This is one of the most inspiring resources we know
It’s easier to stay curious when you’ve got great resources to support you. Today, one of my favorite bridge builders, Julian Adorney, is going to tell you about one of the best: the Enemies Project. — Moni
Dear reader,
My name's Julian, and I have a dream.
I work in prisons, and I dream of getting a group of inmates and a group of correctional officers together in a room… and of helping them to make peace. Best case scenario, I want to help them to love each other.
This dream is audacious. For one thing, each group has dehumanized the other in a thousand ways large and small. For another, there's years (sometimes decades) of prejudice on each side, reinforced by some very justified fear. It's hard to make peace with people who you're scared might kill you.
f I'm going to pursue this dream, I have to be selective about what resources I turn to. There are lots of good depolarization resources. Very few are "John and Dan wanted to kill each other, and now they're friends" level good.
The Enemies Project, run by peacemaker Larry Rosen and his daughter Sadie, is one of them.
What Is the Enemies Project?
The Enemies Project YouTube channel puts people who disagree on fundamental issues in a room together and helps them to make peace.
The most popular episode (with 1.1 million views) features Eve, a transitioned woman, and Nancy, a MAGA gender fundamentalist. By the end of the episode, each person had built a deep love for the other. In the final moments of the video, they came together for a spontaneous hug.
The coolest workshop I've ever been a part of
I got to experience the power of this approach first hand at a workshop Larry ran at the Braver Angels National Convention.
First, he broke us up into ideologically divided pairs (Red and Blue) and asked each of us to talk at the other person for three minutes. The idea was to help us to remember how painful it is when someone refuses to see our humanity.
Then came the really powerful part: He asked each of us to answer two questions to our interlocutor.
1) "What's something beautiful in your life?"
2) "What are your politics trying to protect?"
I listened raptly as my Blue partner told me about her children and her husband and how full they made her life. I listened as she told me how important it was for her to use her privilege to protect people on the margins of society.
Within ten minutes, I felt like I knew her more deeply than I knew many of my oldest friends. The disagreements remained…but underneath them, distance and animosity were replaced by something approaching love.
Giving people hope
The Enemies Project has given hope to thousands of people. As Larry told me in an email:
"Every once in a while we receive a comment on YouTube or Instagram from a young person who is struggling that says The Enemies Project helped them survive. An episode gave them hope that a hostile world could be a place of understanding and friendship. That is more important to me than millions of views.”
I love how Larry ended the episode with Nancy and Eve: "We're so tired of hating and being hated."
I know I am.
Check out The Enemies Project and see what audacious possibilities it sparks in you.
Cheers,
Julian
