The Pope’s Words and Their Aftermath

السلام عليكم, and hi,

Finally, after quite a busy couple of weeks, I’m able to write another post. An English one. I’m busy with courses and schedule, and may therefore be unable to post as often. By the way, an earthquake happened in the Aegean Sea last Friday, causing several buildings in İzmir to collapse and many lives to be lost under them. Still, we were so happy that two little kids were found in good health and rescued, one after 65 hours and the other 91. And yesterday, Turkey’s Medipol Başakşehir beat Man Utd. 2-1. I also proudly inform you that the first dose of vaccine candidates produced in Turkey has been tested on a volunteer today at Erciyes University.

So, Pope Francis’ words on the “LGBT+” issue is still debated. It’s clear that many Catholics are deeply unhappy about this; but my question is, have you ever looked at this issue from this side?

Note: I’m busy as a student studying at a university where those individuals are widely favored and this propaganda gains explicit support.

Enes DENİZ

EDUCATION: A UNIVERSAL RIGHT OR AN OPPORTUNITY ONLY THE ELITE SHOULD HAVE?

Today’s history textbooks often claim that everything began some six centuries ago, when some brave Europeans dared challenge at great costs the dogmas accepted by the Church. These textbooks never mention the East, but this is the subject of another long discussion.

From then on, as the textbooks read, these “brave” Europeans relied more and more on experiments and observations, gradually abandoning and later on opposing the classical methods of education, namely superstitions and the belief in the mystical, replacing them with what they called “reason” and “rationality”. These brave venturers took their first step by following Luther’s lead and translating the Bible into their own vernaculars. Literacy rates rose and people began to read the Bible and various texts written by the leading thinkers of their time. Who could predict that this long path would eventually lead to what we now call “Enlightenment”, after which education would become a “fundamental and indispensable right” for all citizens and a duty for the newly-established nation states? Even in the eighteenth century, who could foresee that I, as a male commoner, would study at a “prestigious” university and discuss what only philosophers and politicians were “eligible” to discuss until roughly a couple of centuries ago? Who could even dream I would be able to use this machine to type this essay and share it with you on the Internet? The most important question to be asked, however, is, how did we end up where we are, and are we heading in the right direction?

Just when we felt relieved to have overcome the first shock after facing Positivism and Modernism, we first met the Radio and Television, then computers and “social media”, which were followed by smartphones. Today’s societies are educated more by the Internet than schools. Infants learn how to read and right before they begin their first grade, thanks to the smartphones given ignorantly to them by their parents. Everyone can blather about everything, and information has almost totally lost its significance. We’ve been asking whether AI will someday be able to read the human mind, but we never ask whether we will even need to use our brains in the future or whether our brains will still be able to hold enough memories to make all the efforts worth the achievement. Google is at our disposal to do all the research for us, and many of us never feel the need to actually learn anything as all they need is a few key presses or taps and swipes in order to recall the results of their previous search. Besides, we confidently believe that no more than a few tweets suffice to shape our political view and make us the most knowledgeable person on earth. We are proud to have earned equal access to many opportunities that only the elite had in the past, but we never acknowledge that we see ourselves not much differently than how the classical aristocrats saw themselves. The worst thing is, those arrogant aristocrats constituted only a small portion of their societies, but we are much greater both in numbers and in proportions. What we call “individualism” has taken the form of vast amounts of “self-improvement” garbage. We’re always subconsciously exposed to the belief that we can do everything. They constantly repeat these fancy words: “You have the capacity to do everything you wish. You just need to have dreams, inspiration and passion.”.

My opinion, in conclusion, is that only a small group should be educated; though this group should be made up of not the wealthiest, but those who really deserve to be educated. Also, everyone should learn what their job requires. Only so can we raise knowledge to its actual holy place.

Enes DENİZ

On Democracy

Türkçe okumak için tıklayınız.

Democracy… The governance system currently accepted to be ideal by many. “The rule of people.” The magic wand to civilize (!) Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Sudan, Syria and many other states and Turkey. A wand that the one hit by it cannot get up from where they collapse. A wand that is only in the hands of powerful illusionists, and they (the illusionists) rule the real world as we see ourselves in wonderland. As sensitive citizens vote and “determine their own destiny” and protest to “defend their rights” descends this magic wand upon the heads of the weak. Coups become legitimate and even necessary for the restoration and ensuring of democracy once elections do not result as some wish. I shall try to discuss, rather than how democracy is abused, why it is problematic and unreasonable in this essay.

First of all, democracy is a type of governance that works, or shown to us by the illusionists as if it does, based on the decisions of the whole of a people. Both the knowledgeable and the ignorant may, and according to democracy, should be able to express their opinions. I do not know how to distinguish the educated from the ignorant, nor those who are eligible to express their opinions from those who are not, but it is obvious that not everyone is qualified to decide on the matters that a people “determines their own destiny”. It must be either the June 7th or the November 1st elections. I remember what my mother told us about a woman who came up to her as she was voting: The woman approaches her with a ballot in her hand and shows the area belonging to a political party whose name is not needed, and asks, “Am I to vote for that?”. It is quite possible that she does not know how to read. My purpose is not to disdain the illiterate. What I would like to explain and emphasize is this lady’s having not decided of her own will. What does our being literate change anyway? The statements and campaigns around us that we hear and see prevent most of us from reasoning and acting right-mindedly. We were once controlled by TV channels and now we suppose we have saved and “liberated” ourselves from them, but neglect and deny the control of social media over us. Particularly, as a platform where everyone willing can blather as they wish, Twitter hampers our creating and bravely expressing our own ideas; because you are attacked whenever you attempt to act against the norms.

From another aspect, democracy asks not only the uneducated but also the uninterested. Those who do not vote also indirectly influence the outcome by taking away one of the potential votes for a party. Your opportunity to say, “I am not involved in these affairs, and I do not vote.” is taken from your hands; since the vote that you do not cast also determines who is to rule over you, and this is a heavy responsibility.

Another matter is democracy’s working based on the 50%+1 principle. The election system resembles a camera taking momentary shots. You decide under the control of the things that I mentioned above, and this decision remains in effect until the next voting. The Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom and the events that have followed it, are an outstanding example to this case. By the way, speaking of photography, it is also useful that I remind that one possibility for sure is the photo’s having been montaged (the votes’ having been altered or stolen).

Democracy’s self-imposing characteristic is yet another issue. The only legitimate form of governance in democratic governments is democracy. Although it is claimed that we have freedom of expression, we may not target democracy. Just like religions and philosophical doctrines that promise absolute righteousness… In that case, democracy calls for being worshipped so as to prevail.

* I should clearly state that I am against neither asking for the opinions of others nor taking decisions together. Rather, it will gladden me so much that you share your valuable opinions in your comments. In al-istishara (consultation) exists al-baraka (blessing).

As I end my essay, I congratulate the entire Islamic world on the new hijri year.

Regards and best wishes…

Enes DENİZ

See Also:

الليبيرالية: دين القرن الواحد والعشرين – محمد حجاب

Last updated on: 14 Safar 1442/1 Oct 2020