Fantastic piece. Have you ever thought about speaking at colleges or debating people like Mehdi Hassan who argue that to be Arab is synonymous with being anti-Zionist?
It is always good to think that the Indian Mehdi Hassan can define what being Arab means. I sometimes get invited to speak at colleges, though I'm not a member of anyone of those circuits. And I'd love to take on anyone of these clowns, Hassan or people like him, if there is ever a debate.
Thanks for the effort. To improve your argument I would recommend you to Read Blanko 2016, thé invention of Palestinian citizenship to better understand democracy, sovereignty and Palestine ...
"Since 2003, I have focused my energy on trying to understand why democracy never spread among the Arabs." I read "The Rope" at the same time as Michael Lewis' "The Undoing Project." Both books have short passages that describe how professors relate to inquisitive university students (in Iraq vs. Israel.) I am no expert on Iraq nor on honor system-based cultural norms, but the author of The Rope seems to be, and he describes a scene in which a bright Iraqi student simply asks his professors a question at the end of a private talk. The professors berate and punish the student because they seem to be threatened by questions that challenge or seek to clarify their underlying theories or established norms. In Israel, Lewis describes how visiting professors from America cower in fear of vocal and disruptive Israeli students who don't even wait for Q&A time to lob disruptive questions and air alternative theories to an entire lecture hall, directly challenging a professor's life work and theories. Might the ability to question leaders, to doubt, to offer alternatives, and to be wrong without losing face be one of the pillars of democracy? Leadership failures everywhere in the world can result from lack of useful information rising through the hierarchy. When underlings are punished for contradicting leaders, they remain quiet and the flow of information ceases, leading to eventual system failures. This was true in the US military pre-9/11, too. Isolated military leaders, surrounded by sycophants ignored internal intelligence that identified active threats from bin Laden simply because their Cold War focus and years of training did not allow for it. Agents were not heard.
Wonderfully wise and so well written. I would like to post it on Facebook. Is it possible?
You don't even have to ask :)
Fantastic piece. Have you ever thought about speaking at colleges or debating people like Mehdi Hassan who argue that to be Arab is synonymous with being anti-Zionist?
It is always good to think that the Indian Mehdi Hassan can define what being Arab means. I sometimes get invited to speak at colleges, though I'm not a member of anyone of those circuits. And I'd love to take on anyone of these clowns, Hassan or people like him, if there is ever a debate.
Really like this article. Its touching and so beautifully human.
Thanks for the effort. To improve your argument I would recommend you to Read Blanko 2016, thé invention of Palestinian citizenship to better understand democracy, sovereignty and Palestine ...
Have you read, The Rope?
no I haven't, is it a novel?
"Since 2003, I have focused my energy on trying to understand why democracy never spread among the Arabs." I read "The Rope" at the same time as Michael Lewis' "The Undoing Project." Both books have short passages that describe how professors relate to inquisitive university students (in Iraq vs. Israel.) I am no expert on Iraq nor on honor system-based cultural norms, but the author of The Rope seems to be, and he describes a scene in which a bright Iraqi student simply asks his professors a question at the end of a private talk. The professors berate and punish the student because they seem to be threatened by questions that challenge or seek to clarify their underlying theories or established norms. In Israel, Lewis describes how visiting professors from America cower in fear of vocal and disruptive Israeli students who don't even wait for Q&A time to lob disruptive questions and air alternative theories to an entire lecture hall, directly challenging a professor's life work and theories. Might the ability to question leaders, to doubt, to offer alternatives, and to be wrong without losing face be one of the pillars of democracy? Leadership failures everywhere in the world can result from lack of useful information rising through the hierarchy. When underlings are punished for contradicting leaders, they remain quiet and the flow of information ceases, leading to eventual system failures. This was true in the US military pre-9/11, too. Isolated military leaders, surrounded by sycophants ignored internal intelligence that identified active threats from bin Laden simply because their Cold War focus and years of training did not allow for it. Agents were not heard.
https://www.npr.org/2016/03/16/470677372/the-rope-chronicles-a-good-death-and-a-bad-start
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/249860/the-rope-by-kanan-makiya/