But it is precisely here that a break begins.
Because the most dangerous downfall of a society is not hunger or poverty. The real danger is when these conditions are legitimized in language and become the new norm of life.
Today Turkey is crossing exactly this threshold.
One understands not with time, but with difficulty:
Eid is no longer a calendar event, but a threshold. But this threshold is not a threshold of happiness, but of decadence.
If a society's understanding of Eid has changed, the reality of that society has changed. Because a holiday is a mirror of what a society sees as “excess”, what it sees as “normal” and what it sees as “deficient”. When we look in that mirror today, what we see is not a celebration, but a normalized lack.
And this shortcoming is no longer a coincidence.
This is a manufactured situation.
To put it more bluntly: This is a managed collapse.
It is said that breathing is a holiday.
To hear someone's voice, to not be alone, to hold on to a job...
If these things, which used to be the most ordinary parts of life, have come to be called “holidays” today, there is not only an economic but also an ontological collapse.
Man no longer lives;
he's grateful for as much as he can.
Because when language changes, reality changes.
If “getting by” has become a way of life in a country, people no longer define themselves in terms of “living well” but in terms of “not being worse off”.
This is not a change of emotion; it is a profound ideological transformation.
The holiday is no longer a collective joy, but an aestheticized form of an individual survival reflex.
“Thank God today has passed...”
“At least I'm not alone...”
“At least I have a job...”
These sentences are not hope; they are the language of surrender.
And this language is not accidental.
This language is the defense mechanism that a society develops against its own reality. But at the same time, this mechanism turns into the most functional tool of the system. Because as soon as a person begins to convince himself, he no longer needs to be convinced from outside.
This is where consent is produced.
Once upon a time, Eid was about reuniting, multiplying, sharing.
Now the feast is: not to lose, not to fall, not to be alone.
So the holiday is no longer a gain, but a postponement of a loss.
This transformation is not a simple cultural change. It is a direct transformation of consciousness.
What is happening in Turkey today is not a process of impoverishment in the classical sense. It is something deeper and more dangerous: making poverty the norm and internalizing this norm at the level of consciousness.
Poverty used to be a problem.
Today it is a language.
Loneliness used to be a break.
Today it is a character trait.
Desperation used to generate objections.
Today it is marketed as “maturity”.
That is why the issue is not economic; it is epistemological.
One no longer lives in reality;
he builds a story to fit it.
This story is the individual's mechanism of self-persuasion. But it is also the system's most invisible form of power.
Because the most powerful power is not established by force, but by consent.
“Thank God.”
“At least.”
“It's okay.”
These three words are the ideological trinity of today.
These are not consolations; they are adaptation protocols.
When one is constantly shortchanged, one either rebels or convinces oneself. In Turkey, the second option is no longer a reflex, it has become the norm.
So poverty is not the most dangerous thing today;
is the legitimization of poverty.
Because what is legitimized is not questioned.
What is not questioned becomes permanent.
The permanent one starts to look “natural”.
This is where politics comes in.
But not politics in the classical sense.
Modern governments do not only manage the economy; they also manage perception, language and emotion.
It teaches people not what to live, but how to make sense of what they live.
This is a directive power, not a coercive one.
A power that is not oppressive but internalizing.
Poverty becomes “patience”.
Inequality becomes “fate”.
Loneliness is rewritten as “being strong”.
And Eid
Eid becomes the most refined tool of this language. Because Eid is the most aesthetic way of making the lack invisible.
One begins to celebrate not what one does not have, but what one has not lost.
At this point we have to ask the question:
Why does a society celebrate the postponement of small disasters and not great happiness?
Because he has lost great expectations.
And a society that loses its expectations ceases to be a political subject.
He won't demand it anymore.
It just adapts.
That is why poverty is not the biggest problem in Turkey today;
is a lack of demand.
People don't want a good life anymore.
He just doesn't want a worse life.
This is not a fall; it is a conscious acceptance.
And acceptance is the greatest victory of power.
It is said that a mother's voice is a holiday.
It is a holiday when a friend knocks on the door.
Yes, these are valuable. But it is not about value; it is about necessity.
If such things “have to be a holiday”, something is missing.
Because what is normal does not have to be a holiday.
Here is the biggest break of today:
The normal is replaced by the exception.
And unless this change is recognized, nothing will change.
Today we are told to “be happy with small things”.
This is a half-truth.
Yes, it is a virtue to be happy about small things.
But to stop wanting big things is a downfall.
And in Turkey these two are deliberately confused.
People are not taught happiness; they are taught contentment.
Because the aim is not to make people happy;
is to make him not question his unhappiness.
Let's say it more clearly:
People in Turkey today are not unhappy.
It is at a more dangerous point:
They have made their unhappiness manageable.
This is the ideal situation for the system. Because uncontrolled anger is dangerous, but managed unhappiness is sustainable.
Conclusion:
Most of what we call “holidays” today are illusions.
It is not a gain but a postponement of a loss.
It is not happiness, it is the covering up of a deficiency.
Real Eid;
It is the day when man does not discuss survival, but living well.
It is the day when justice is the norm, not the exception.
The day when one does not have to defend oneself.
And most importantly:
It is the day when the ordinary does not need to be described as a holiday.
Until that day comes:
Every “thank you” is a little silence,
Every “just fine” is a bit of a retreat,
Every “holiday” is a little bit incomplete.
And the last question is inevitable:
Are we really happy,
or have we found ways to make our unhappiness more bearable?
If the latter,
there is no feast.
It's just skillfully produced,
well packed,
and there is a socially accepted deprivation.
And perhaps the most disturbing fact is this:
People no longer reject this deprivation.
She is learning to live with him.
Because a society that is constantly repressed does not produce resistance after a while; it produces compliance.
Harmony is not only the opposite of freedom;
is a forgotten form of freedom.
That's why it's not just about the holiday.
It is a matter of a society reaching a point where it does not realize what it has lost.
And if a society doesn't recognize its loss,
is no longer just poor.
He justifies his deprivation.