This lyric by the singer David Sylvian, paraphrasing the philosopher Hannah Arendt, has been floating around my head since the “senseless” attack on the CHP leader. Then the tragic images and disturbing video shared widely of an ex-partner shooting his ex-wife in cold blood in the street and the escalating number of such fatalities in Turkey, over and above comparable nations.
Such “random” incidents are of course not random. Britain last year saw riots and attacks on asylum seekers, inevitably leading to attacks on Foreigners and with the far right (The Reform Party) now the major opposition in the UK, this is likely to continue mirroring the USA under Trump. Instead of questioning and attacking the established order, they punch down (literally) to those most vulnerable.
In Turkey a climate has been constructed in which it is sometimes permissible to attack a politician, a woman, a person’s sexual orientation, a child, or even animals. The othering is turbocharged.
What is above them can’t be seen. They are fed a diet of who are the chosen ones and those who are dammed.
It follows that in all levels of society the result is that such behaviours are normalised and as Hannah Arendt stated in her infamous quote it becomes ordinary “The Banality of Evil.”
“See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil"
Like mole hills they are popping up everywhere, but instead of carefully removing the problem they are blowing up the field.
A demonstration organised by the CHP at İstanbul University nearly didn’t take place, as they wouldn’t allow the lights to go on.
That vanguard of free speech and its henchman Elon Musk have now taken down İmamoglu Twitter account, following a high-level request. Freedom of speech is important to X only when it’s their form of freedom of speech.
At a university recently students were enjoying a film by the recently deceased DEM party politician Sırrı Süreyya Önder, but this was stopped because, well, something might happen.
This climate of paranoia and crack downs is spreading.
The question they ask is, could this or that gathering lead to a revolt, however small it is.
As Hannah Arendt saw it, it is far better and easier and less threatening to keep people lonely and disengaged and not meet and disseminate potential harmful idea or viewpoints.
And yet in this fog the powers that be are getting lost. In that, they forgot that they still have some support within the population.
Not seeing the wood for the trees may lead to the entire forest unnecessarily being raised to the ground them. (DM/VK)
