Two years ago, George Mitchell, former Senate majority leader and special envoy to Northern Ireland, visited Ireland to celebrate the 25th anniversary of what came to be known as the Good Friday agreement.  When he started trying to get the two sides to stop killing each other, no one thought it would work. It seemed an intractable conflict. And it did take five years to come to an agreement.  What he said was that he spent over two years listening before he got people to the table.

Two years. He spent two years listening. It was those two years when it seemed that nothing was happening, that this was a waste of time, that led the way to the eventual agreement that has held for 25 years.  

What do I take away from this?  First, listening is the key to solving conflicts. Second, it takes a lot of listening. Third, that even intractable conflicts can be solved, it isn’t hopeless.

Today it seems like we have an intractable conflict in our politics. But this idea gives me hope.

Source for this is the Substack newsletter by Heather Cox Richardson, who summarizes the news of the day that a historian of the future would want.