We are living through an interesting, but as a whole, frightening and worrisome period, with a aspect that may be difficult to define today, which the new generations, perhaps fifty years from now, can only understand.
Mass deaths, epidemics, civil wars, proxy wars, psychological-psychiatric problems, increasing divorce-violence-murder rates and the global famine concern that has been pumped over the climate change discourses in recent days...
A healthy person who follows all these news, events and developments must have a rock-solid faith, belief and will in order not to experience a material and spiritual collapse.
As a matter of fact, each of us has personally observed how some of our friends and relatives around us, even during this corona process, were affected by the process and could not leave their homes for fear of death.
"It is not work that kills, but worry," our ancestors said.
We all know that psychological problems such as stress, sadness and anxiety are the basis of many diseases, and that at this point, people can get better by self-suggestion or, on the contrary, they can get sick, both in terms of knowledge and observation.
We are going through such a process in the political context as well. We are experiencing a process that directly targets our minds, hearts and ultimately our actions. We are not talking about a mood that only a group of people experience. Anxiety, stress and hopelessness are known to be widespread throughout the world. I think it would be appropriate if we started the process we are experiencing these days with the September 11, 2001 attack. The drive to act together against the "potential enemy" threatening them became an important political tool in Europe after the September 11 attack on the Twin Towers.
The idea that security problems stemming from refugees and immigrants across Europe and that the settled European culture was threatened for the last 15 years has become the dominant paradigm with the terrorist attacks that exploded one after the other in various European capitals but were cut like knives afterwards.
We say so because upon careful examination it will be seen that the rise of the nationalist wave in Europe shows a more general spread not only associated with far-right parties.
However, if an average European were asked today, "What harm have you suffered from the Muslims who have lived with you for 60 years due to the Islamic faith", the answer you would get would be "We have not suffered any harm". Official statistics, observations, reports confirm this.
However, the label of "potential terrorism" was created virtually and made to be perceived as real.
After the swine and bird flu, we see that a similar mood is created in the coronavirus process. There is such a wave of fear that no one can tolerate your saying "I wonder". But we are all aware that when real fear arises in war zones such as Syria, Yemen and Ukraine, false/virtual fears suddenly disappear. Ukrainians, who lived at a distance with masks yesterday, are living in shelters in crowds today, fearing for their lives.
So actually there are a lot of question marks in the process. However, thanks to the management of perceptions, people are pushed to position themselves in the face of "potential threat".
It is possible to say that there has been a similar propaganda in the news about sunflower oil stocks and oil reserves recently. Not only in Turkey but also in Europe, it is seen that the concern of global famine has been put on people's agendas. Combined with the uncontrollable hike rates and the shortsighted agricultural, industrial and trade policies of the governments, this concern literally affects people.
In short, we are put into a tunnel of fear, but although this tunnel contains some truths, it seems to have a virtual character that is far from reality. I will talk about two movie examples about this, let's continue next week if possible, but I have to state that; We need to focus on what is aimed with these processes, without getting caught up in these processes themselves. Our target should be puppeteers, not puppets!