My question: if "value-based, narrative-driven, covenantal education is the only educated way forward," what narrative should be taught to the students in, say, Jordan? The United Arab Emirates? Somalia? Iraq? Pakistan? Or any other nation slapped together by retreating colonial administrators? What are the Stories that will animate and inspire the kids of those nations?
Ah, yes, of course. I remember now. >> I just reread both chapters (13 & 20), and then listened to them during a morning errand. You've nailed the diagnosis, Daniel. The problem is precisely what you've described (in my opinion). But here's what I struggle with...
If I'm reading you correctly, the pan-Arab and pan-Islamic dreams must give way to the true, indigenous people of the region -- the Copts, Kurds, Yazidis, et al. These people are the region's true nations who deserve states of their own. They should not be subsumed into either a Nasserite Arab nationalism, or a caliphate, or remain trapped inside the post-colonial administrative grid that is destined one day to collapse.
But take me inside the classroom of, say, a future Kurdish nation-state. Kurds have a history, a culture, and a land -- but what they lack, I think, is what the Abrahamic family delivers: a narrative AND a philosophy of history that is both particular and universal. The local variant -- Islam -- provides that meaning and purpose, a teleology, that I think the Kurds don't have. (Marxism is another popular teleology that's packaged and ready for export and rapid adoption, even though it's a lie.)
Yes, the Kurds are currently animated by their self-definition as "not Iranian" and "not Turkish," but once the Kurds get what they want -- national independence -- they'll have to confront the teleology hole in their souls.... The Palestinians face a similar problem: Their self-definition is almost entirely a negation -- not the Jews, not Israel. But if they were suddenly transported to an empty island in the Pacific, who would they push against to create their identity? (The Jewish answer to that question is: Torah. Text. Memory. Hope. Holidays. Shabbat. And Story. We figured out a way to define ourselves *without* a state AND without a simple negation: Not Pharaoh, Not Egypt. That's the genius of Sinai.
Sorry to go on for so long. Shorter version of the above: I don't think your vision of a national independence movement for the indigenous people of MENA delivers what people clearly hunger for -- a Story that is both particular AND universal. "I am a Kurd, but my national Story is part of the greater universal (teleological) Story because _____(fill in the blank)________."
Thanks again for writing Pax Arabica. It's a clear-eyed assessment of what's gone wrong, even if it struggles -- as we all do! -- to prescribe what should come next.
Thank you Daniel for this invitation. Alan, thank you for raising such an important question. I think you've put your finger on one of the deepest issues facing not only the Kurds, but every national movement.
I agree that a nation cannot live indefinitely by negation alone. "We are not Turkish," "not Arab," or "not Persian" is not a philosophy of history. Nor is independence itself a sufficient destination. Every successful national project eventually has to answer a more demanding question: What kind of political community are we trying to build, and why should it matter beyond ourselves?
Where I would perhaps differ is in the assumption that such a story must necessarily be teleological in the Abrahamic sense.
The Kurds certainly possess a long historical memory, literature, music, poetry, language, and a deep attachment to place. What they have lacked is not a story, but a sovereign political framework within which that story could develop into a shared civic philosophy. Statelessness has forced Kurdish identity to focus overwhelmingly on survival. Survival is a necessary chapter, but it cannot become the whole book.
The question I increasingly ask is therefore not, "What story should replace survival?" but, "What principles should govern a Kurdish state if it is ever to become worthy of the sacrifices that created it?"
For me, that answer is not another grand historical destiny. It is something more modest and, I hope, more durable: a political culture that protects the dignity of the individual, welcomes criticism, corrects its own mistakes, and refuses to make any party, leader, ideology, or even the nation itself immune from scrutiny.
In that sense, I do not think the Kurdish contribution to humanity should be another universal empire or another universal creed. If Kurdistan is ever to offer something universal, it should be an example of a people who, after generations of being denied self-rule, chose to build a society in which freedom is measured not only by sovereignty, but by the permanent capacity for self-correction.
Perhaps that is a smaller ambition than previous civilizational narratives.
But after the twentieth century, I suspect it may also be a wiser one.
"[T]he Western educator seeks to breed a new generation of activists"...because the professoriate (for lack of a better term) and all our other aspiring bureaucrats of thought (teachers, intellectuals, journalists etc) have long since congealed as a class and have repurposed their fields to no longer be about the student and his/her needs, but about the social, career and political needs of this class.
Our University-processed intellectuals consider themselves a permanent shadow govt or even a ruling class in exile and their project since the 60s has been to create a mass movement based on the ideology we know as Social Justice, with the ultimate hope and goal of gaining total power for their social-engineering schemes. Essentially their project aimed at seizing the means of cultural and educational production and installing their ideology as an official state faith, some cross between the Vatican and the Politburo. (And they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.)
This helps explains why they turn their charges into angry, brittle and confused rage addicts who know nothing about the world except that they want to "change" it—they've essentially been weaponized for other people's causes. And this hostile takeover has exented to everything from culture to morality to history, all of it co-opted by the radical professoriate and reconfigured for their purposes.
The West handed over the responsibility for the transmission of its cultural patrimony to people who hate it and who have successfully deconstructed it. This is why many more people are now indoctrinated but not educated. Aspiring social controllers don't want educated citizens, they want them docile, miserable and easily manipulated. If you have any interest in free thought or expression (or in a real education for your child), you need to steer far clear of academia, which is where these things go to die.
👏👏👏 A true masterpiece in every sense of the word, Daniel! One of the best Substack articles of 2026! Truly a must read for all educators, parents and students! Education in of itself is NOT necessarily a good thing! It depends on what kind of education it is. But education in of itself is an amoral thing. It can be used for good or for evil. The cultural-ideological matrix in education you find in schools in the West and around the globe is very bad. It makes absolutely no sense to say, teach students to be good Americans while also teaching them to be little activists who tear all our institutions down with no idea how to do it practically or about the complexity of the problems we face as a country. The same goes for every other country in the world. Schools can also be used to indoctrinate children and poison their minds with hate and propaganda as is done at the UNRWA schools in Gaza and the West Bank and schools in totalitarian societies such as Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, Myanmar, Belarus, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Congo, Uganda, Oman, Brunei, and Sudan. We must break out of the cultural-ideological matrix! We must restore the classical education of the Ancient Greeks! We also need to scrap teaching kids to be radical activists. Students also should be taught rationalism, critical thinking and respectful debate. We must teach them respectful questioning, listening, hearing, and hearing. Present them with multiple points of views on a wide range of issues. Teach them also that tolerance must go both ways. It must be taken and it’s must be given. Students also need to be exposed to other cultures and religions with talks in classes and at assemblies too. As to immigration, here is how students should to be taught about the issue. Immigrants who come to our country to enrich and expand our culture but are willing to assimilate, speak the language, follow the laws, adopt our values, and be loyal citizens should be welcome. If you intend to come here and immerse yourself in our society and join our grand national narrative, you are free to knock on our doors. But if you abhor our country, its values and our grand national narrative, you better stay far away from our doors! We also will have to put limitations and regulations on immigration. Radical activism knocks the train off the tracks. Cultural uniformity just keeps the train stick in the station. But national, narrative solidarity creates a bullet train of purpose that carries all a country’s citizens to the promised land of peace and prosperity!
I think education went wrong when it swerved away from classical education, which gave students tools - how to read, how to speak, how to write, how to count, how to draw, and went into what to read, what to speak. This swerve brings in ideology. The purpose of Finnish education should not be how to be a good Finn. It should be how to read, write, count, draw, and that should be the purpose of a good Arab education too. Goodness cannot be taught; it has to be modelled, both by parents and by teachers. If a teacher is cruel and abusive but gives you lectures about how to be good, those lectures will not work. But even a cruel teacher can teach you grammar or 2+2=4.
Unfortunately, their education was far from disinterested. All Gazans are educated in hatred of Jews and of the West, both in madarsas and in their regular schools (overseen by UNRWA!!!). They would have been educated in that way for at least 12 years before they received engineering training of the Western kind.
Education in skills is good; ideological education, which is what most education worldwide has become, is not. I think I’ll write about this soon in the context of the history of education
Fascinating piece, Daniel.
My question: if "value-based, narrative-driven, covenantal education is the only educated way forward," what narrative should be taught to the students in, say, Jordan? The United Arab Emirates? Somalia? Iraq? Pakistan? Or any other nation slapped together by retreating colonial administrators? What are the Stories that will animate and inspire the kids of those nations?
The existence of States without a Nation is precisely the issue I highlighted in Pax Arabica Chapters 13 and 20.
Ah, yes, of course. I remember now. >> I just reread both chapters (13 & 20), and then listened to them during a morning errand. You've nailed the diagnosis, Daniel. The problem is precisely what you've described (in my opinion). But here's what I struggle with...
If I'm reading you correctly, the pan-Arab and pan-Islamic dreams must give way to the true, indigenous people of the region -- the Copts, Kurds, Yazidis, et al. These people are the region's true nations who deserve states of their own. They should not be subsumed into either a Nasserite Arab nationalism, or a caliphate, or remain trapped inside the post-colonial administrative grid that is destined one day to collapse.
But take me inside the classroom of, say, a future Kurdish nation-state. Kurds have a history, a culture, and a land -- but what they lack, I think, is what the Abrahamic family delivers: a narrative AND a philosophy of history that is both particular and universal. The local variant -- Islam -- provides that meaning and purpose, a teleology, that I think the Kurds don't have. (Marxism is another popular teleology that's packaged and ready for export and rapid adoption, even though it's a lie.)
Yes, the Kurds are currently animated by their self-definition as "not Iranian" and "not Turkish," but once the Kurds get what they want -- national independence -- they'll have to confront the teleology hole in their souls.... The Palestinians face a similar problem: Their self-definition is almost entirely a negation -- not the Jews, not Israel. But if they were suddenly transported to an empty island in the Pacific, who would they push against to create their identity? (The Jewish answer to that question is: Torah. Text. Memory. Hope. Holidays. Shabbat. And Story. We figured out a way to define ourselves *without* a state AND without a simple negation: Not Pharaoh, Not Egypt. That's the genius of Sinai.
Sorry to go on for so long. Shorter version of the above: I don't think your vision of a national independence movement for the indigenous people of MENA delivers what people clearly hunger for -- a Story that is both particular AND universal. "I am a Kurd, but my national Story is part of the greater universal (teleological) Story because _____(fill in the blank)________."
Thanks again for writing Pax Arabica. It's a clear-eyed assessment of what's gone wrong, even if it struggles -- as we all do! -- to prescribe what should come next.
Let's ask @KhaledSalih what he thinks about the Kurdish story.
Thank you Daniel for this invitation. Alan, thank you for raising such an important question. I think you've put your finger on one of the deepest issues facing not only the Kurds, but every national movement.
I agree that a nation cannot live indefinitely by negation alone. "We are not Turkish," "not Arab," or "not Persian" is not a philosophy of history. Nor is independence itself a sufficient destination. Every successful national project eventually has to answer a more demanding question: What kind of political community are we trying to build, and why should it matter beyond ourselves?
Where I would perhaps differ is in the assumption that such a story must necessarily be teleological in the Abrahamic sense.
The Kurds certainly possess a long historical memory, literature, music, poetry, language, and a deep attachment to place. What they have lacked is not a story, but a sovereign political framework within which that story could develop into a shared civic philosophy. Statelessness has forced Kurdish identity to focus overwhelmingly on survival. Survival is a necessary chapter, but it cannot become the whole book.
The question I increasingly ask is therefore not, "What story should replace survival?" but, "What principles should govern a Kurdish state if it is ever to become worthy of the sacrifices that created it?"
For me, that answer is not another grand historical destiny. It is something more modest and, I hope, more durable: a political culture that protects the dignity of the individual, welcomes criticism, corrects its own mistakes, and refuses to make any party, leader, ideology, or even the nation itself immune from scrutiny.
In that sense, I do not think the Kurdish contribution to humanity should be another universal empire or another universal creed. If Kurdistan is ever to offer something universal, it should be an example of a people who, after generations of being denied self-rule, chose to build a society in which freedom is measured not only by sovereignty, but by the permanent capacity for self-correction.
Perhaps that is a smaller ambition than previous civilizational narratives.
But after the twentieth century, I suspect it may also be a wiser one.
"[T]he Western educator seeks to breed a new generation of activists"...because the professoriate (for lack of a better term) and all our other aspiring bureaucrats of thought (teachers, intellectuals, journalists etc) have long since congealed as a class and have repurposed their fields to no longer be about the student and his/her needs, but about the social, career and political needs of this class.
Our University-processed intellectuals consider themselves a permanent shadow govt or even a ruling class in exile and their project since the 60s has been to create a mass movement based on the ideology we know as Social Justice, with the ultimate hope and goal of gaining total power for their social-engineering schemes. Essentially their project aimed at seizing the means of cultural and educational production and installing their ideology as an official state faith, some cross between the Vatican and the Politburo. (And they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.)
This helps explains why they turn their charges into angry, brittle and confused rage addicts who know nothing about the world except that they want to "change" it—they've essentially been weaponized for other people's causes. And this hostile takeover has exented to everything from culture to morality to history, all of it co-opted by the radical professoriate and reconfigured for their purposes.
The West handed over the responsibility for the transmission of its cultural patrimony to people who hate it and who have successfully deconstructed it. This is why many more people are now indoctrinated but not educated. Aspiring social controllers don't want educated citizens, they want them docile, miserable and easily manipulated. If you have any interest in free thought or expression (or in a real education for your child), you need to steer far clear of academia, which is where these things go to die.
👏👏👏 A true masterpiece in every sense of the word, Daniel! One of the best Substack articles of 2026! Truly a must read for all educators, parents and students! Education in of itself is NOT necessarily a good thing! It depends on what kind of education it is. But education in of itself is an amoral thing. It can be used for good or for evil. The cultural-ideological matrix in education you find in schools in the West and around the globe is very bad. It makes absolutely no sense to say, teach students to be good Americans while also teaching them to be little activists who tear all our institutions down with no idea how to do it practically or about the complexity of the problems we face as a country. The same goes for every other country in the world. Schools can also be used to indoctrinate children and poison their minds with hate and propaganda as is done at the UNRWA schools in Gaza and the West Bank and schools in totalitarian societies such as Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, Myanmar, Belarus, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Congo, Uganda, Oman, Brunei, and Sudan. We must break out of the cultural-ideological matrix! We must restore the classical education of the Ancient Greeks! We also need to scrap teaching kids to be radical activists. Students also should be taught rationalism, critical thinking and respectful debate. We must teach them respectful questioning, listening, hearing, and hearing. Present them with multiple points of views on a wide range of issues. Teach them also that tolerance must go both ways. It must be taken and it’s must be given. Students also need to be exposed to other cultures and religions with talks in classes and at assemblies too. As to immigration, here is how students should to be taught about the issue. Immigrants who come to our country to enrich and expand our culture but are willing to assimilate, speak the language, follow the laws, adopt our values, and be loyal citizens should be welcome. If you intend to come here and immerse yourself in our society and join our grand national narrative, you are free to knock on our doors. But if you abhor our country, its values and our grand national narrative, you better stay far away from our doors! We also will have to put limitations and regulations on immigration. Radical activism knocks the train off the tracks. Cultural uniformity just keeps the train stick in the station. But national, narrative solidarity creates a bullet train of purpose that carries all a country’s citizens to the promised land of peace and prosperity!
A much appreciated review Noah.
I think education went wrong when it swerved away from classical education, which gave students tools - how to read, how to speak, how to write, how to count, how to draw, and went into what to read, what to speak. This swerve brings in ideology. The purpose of Finnish education should not be how to be a good Finn. It should be how to read, write, count, draw, and that should be the purpose of a good Arab education too. Goodness cannot be taught; it has to be modelled, both by parents and by teachers. If a teacher is cruel and abusive but gives you lectures about how to be good, those lectures will not work. But even a cruel teacher can teach you grammar or 2+2=4.
Thanks for your comment Ruth, but surely a disinterested, skills-based education leads to talented engineers in Gaza building terror tunnels?
Unfortunately, their education was far from disinterested. All Gazans are educated in hatred of Jews and of the West, both in madarsas and in their regular schools (overseen by UNRWA!!!). They would have been educated in that way for at least 12 years before they received engineering training of the Western kind.
Exactly. So I return to the point of the article. Is it moral to fund education on the false basis that education in itself is good?
Education in skills is good; ideological education, which is what most education worldwide has become, is not. I think I’ll write about this soon in the context of the history of education