3-1- The future of institutions in education

The archer does not know global politics; they know the banner and the anthem.

In this game, there is a tendency to feed people with imaginary enemies and myths. For instance, raising children without stories or lies is impossible because, for a child who is new to the world, everything is akin to a fairy tale. Since they lack an internal framework to process reality, myths and legends become the keys to their understanding. Everyone is like a child in areas outside their expertise, needing simple metaphors, like fairy tales, to comprehend complex ideas. For children who are new to the concept of living, we resort to lies and distortions—codes they can grasp.

Education consists of manageable narratives.

Education has always been about changing human behavior by transmitting past experiences through myths and comprehensible distortions. This is a legacy passed down by our species. For example, without the coding of language, one cannot participate in humanity. No one teaches their child words by saying, “This is called a table, but feel free to question it.” We educate by coding and conditioning. Likewise, no parent tells their child they are bad and should listen to other parents instead. No state educates its children to question its goals. Everyone undergoes a mythological brainwashing process.

For years, we scan and memorize old scripts. Our brains are washed and coded. Humanity, for its survival, needs such coding during childhood and youth, even if it’s mythological and incorrect. Without this coding, people could waste their potential, harming themselves and their surroundings. This can be likened to salting: people salted and deceived by fairy tales grow into adults who can think, learn, and deconstruct myths into knowledge. Without this process, they might fill their mental voids with violence, sexuality, fame, and other delusions—damaging themselves in the process.

The state needs people beyond its armies.

States provide certainty and mythology in education, but at some point, they must allow certain individuals to question, redraw, and direct society’s trajectory. In totalitarian states, however, the trajectory may slow or even reverse. Societal control reduces the number of questioners. For instance, visions explained through metaphors in religious education might lose their significance within state dogma, becoming perceived as concrete objects. Allowing reform and questioning is vital; otherwise, religion—like in today’s world—can fall into ridicule, and oppressive ideologies can fail to convince even their citizens.

The state objectifies individuals, reducing them to numbers that it can sum up or subtract. In its need for archers, it may dismiss genius individuals who lack the skills of an archer, labeling them failures. The greatest flaw of formal education today is its tendency to elevate and celebrate a single type of individual—the one who obeys authority. Systems originally designed to educate the labor class for industrial-age needs have persisted with minor reforms into the present. However, today there are no soldiers or factory workers to train as command-followers. While such roles might reemerge tomorrow, for now, we must cultivate individuals who can think and act independently.

A portion of preconditioned individuals must become archers, leaders, artisans, philosophers, or merchants. In the future, the most valuable individuals will be those who build upon state-provided education to create something new. The state’s frameworks and institutional directives will not suffice to satisfy people. Only those who pursue intellectual joy will feel fulfilled and proclaim, “I have truly lived.”

The state demonstrates the education it deserves.

The superiority of Western education stems from necessity. No one advances through comfort. At a minimum, competition and creative destruction are at play. States clinging to militaristic control fail to move their citizens beyond the barracks. Success is defined as doing nothing outside what the state dictates. While this brings internal stability, defeat on external fronts becomes inevitable.

In reality, the test comes before the lesson. Schools that teach repeating the state’s commands can only produce obedient followers unprepared for life’s challenges. States adjust this only through crises and social unrest. Since education prepares for danger, isolated communities, untouched by other cultures or the destructive creativity of cultural conflict, cannot provide effective education. State education is often the result of hard-earned lessons transformed into school curricula.

The state chooses the best archers, but archery may no longer work.

Like everything else, the state must gamify itself.

Everything we declare “not child’s play” must become a game. Without creating a state game, survival in the globalized world is impossible. People should work as if spending time on a game—they will demand this themselves. What do we have students do in classrooms? That is what they will do. That is what they will want to do. If we teach rote memorization, they will try to live through memorization. Yet, we must remove everything non-essential, leaving only conversation or lessons on solving critical problems. When nothing unnecessary remains, perfection will be achieved.

Why do citizens admire overseas enemies? Why do they wear their clothes? Not because those enemies are better, but because we are engaged in an imitation necessary for survival. In our current educational environment, apart from jokes and friendships, we rarely feel useful. We are stuck, unable to turn back. To make this bearable, we create exceptions and take pride in past achievements.

Institutions must be like block toy manufacturers.

State postulates will remain, but they must be like building blocks that can later be reshaped. An unexamined life is not worth living because, without questioning, we cannot know whether life is good and might unknowingly live a bad one. The state must build structures designed to be questioned later. Otherwise, even the strongest state will collapse—history is a graveyard of once-mighty states.

If institutions provide education, it must be designed for future renewal. The best education imparts the perspective of humanity and eternity. Individuals must eventually abandon childhood games, desires, and status to live enlightened lives independently. To achieve this, we must first give them the games, desires, and status—then use those blocks to construct enlightenment. Institutions must be neither too rigid nor too lenient; balance is sufficient.

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