I’ll Be There For You Even When You’re On The Other Side

By Timothy L. Fort, PhD, JD, Eveleigh Professor of Business Ethics, Kelley School of Business at Indiana University

The insights in the Nudges and Bridges series aim to help everyone, including business people, understand how they can contribute to peace. Of course, friendship is its own bridge with others, but could one be friends with someone who is your opposite? With whom you disagree on just about everything? With someone on “the other side?” The answer is yes and that’s what this video is about.

I’ll Be There For You Even When You’re On The Other Side

Of course, friendship is its own bridge with others, but could one be friends with someone who is your opposite? With whom you disagree on just about everything? With someone on “the other side?” The answer is yes and that’s what this video is about.

We’ll look at two famous U.S. Supreme Court justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia, who disagreed on just about every case that came before them, yet truly adored each other. We’ll look at contemporary political theorists Robert George and Cornell West who also disagree with each other on just about everything, yet consider themselves to be brothers. We’ll look a marathon runners who help a complete stranger to cross the finish line.

In an age where it can seem like one automatically holds another in contempt for opposing political views, and yes while also acknowledging that sometimes the differences really are too stark to mend, there are probably a lot more times when we can be friends with others than we might think possible.

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Editor’s Note:

Why might business contribute to peace?
This video podcast series with Tim Fort aims to help us build bridges with others in the pursuit of peace. The insights are applicable to all of us, including businesses. During past discussions held on Business and Peace in the Business Fights Poverty Forum, three main reasons were offered for why businesses might contribute to peace.
The first is that it is simply a morally good thing to do. Business people are, after all, just that: people. Human beings generally do fare better during times of peace and stability and, regardless of what the motivations are, there is a shared desire of businesses, people, and business people to live in an environment of peace and stability.
The second reason pertains to instrumental reasons. Companies will fare better if bombs are not dropping on office buildings and a company’s brand and reputation will likely be better off if associated with peace rather than violence.
Another insight in the discussion was that of timeline. A long term approach to business success might lend itself to an incremental, but strong contribution to peace. This might even occur without a business being aware of the impact of the actions it takes. If, for example, it is true as some have argued, that strong ethical conduct correlates with peace, then long-term, responsible conduct of a business may also influence peacebuilding.
As a result of these conversations, another insight offered was that the biggest impact business can make to peace is in those areas that are neither the most stable nor the least stable. There may be little a business can do in the midst of the chaos of war and, in a stable country, any given contribution is likely to be small and incremental. Yet is in the “in-between” kinds of societies that businesses may make the biggest contributions and this is particularly true in regional and intra-state conflicts rather than in conflagrations occurring across borders.
The insights in the Nudges and Bridges series aim to help everyone, including business people, understand how they can contribute to peace.

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