Let no one deceive themselves anymore: There is no audience in this story. We are all on the stage. We all hold a part of this decay - some by keeping silent, some by legitimizing it, some by being a direct part of it.
Many years ago Grigory Petrov said: “The people are rotting physically, spiritually, intellectually and morally, and no one sees it. It is as if everyone's character has been corrupted, or everyone has become accustomed to this corruption and thinks it is a natural state of affairs.”
Today it is no longer a question of not seeing this decay. It is a question of seeing it and still continuing to live.
Decay in the modern world does not come in big breaks. It is quiet, slow and insidious. One day we don't lie; we bend a small truth. One day we do no injustice; we turn a blind eye. One day we don't defend injustice; but we pass by saying “it doesn't touch me”. This is precisely why decay is so strong: Because no one feels guilty.
In Turkey, this situation is even more acute. Because the issue here is not just individual weaknesses, but a collective habit. We talk about merit but favor acquaintances. Justice is demanded but we keep silent when it suits us. Harsh language is criticized, but the same language is reproduced in daily life. Everyone complains, but no one really wants to give up.
Politics is the most naked reflection of this picture. But it is also an excuse. We exonerate ourselves by saying “they are doing it”. But what we call politics is nothing but the mirror of this society. If the image in the mirror is dirty, it is an easy escape to look for the problem in the glass.
The most dangerous point is that it doesn't bother us as much as it used to. And what one gets used to becomes normal over time. Today, many things that should anger us are only talked about for a few minutes and then forgotten. This state of forgetting is the greatest ally of decay.
But perhaps the harshest truth is this: this is as much a character problem as it is a system problem. Because systems are only as clean or as dirty as the people who maintain them. If the individual is constantly tolerating small wrongs, big wrongs become inevitable.
So it is no longer a question of blaming others. The point is to look in the mirror. Because if there are really innocent people in this story, they have already been neutralized by their silence.
And perhaps the most disturbing sentence is this:
This society has rotted because we allowed it to.