Propaganda is one of the main agenda-setting forces in Turkey as it is in the world.
Both supporters of the government and opposition circles know or at least have heard of Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda minister of Nazi Germany. His name is famous; his evil is registered. He is the brand, the embodiment of lies and propaganda.
But almost no one knows the real founder of modern propaganda, the “father of public relations”: Edward Bernays.
Yet he is largely the mental architect of the order we live in today.
In his book Propaganda, published in 1928, Bernays makes his thinking clear. In a common and crude summary, he says the following:
In modern society, the masses cannot grasp complex realities.
People are not rational; they act on their emotions.
The masses must therefore be guided.
If democracy is left to its own devices, it will descend into chaos.
More precisely, he wants to say this, but he cannot say it openly: He moves away from capitalism, he becomes a communist. For him communism is chaos.
According to Bernays:
Perceptions must be managed.
An agenda must be produced.
Aspirations should be designed.
He calls this “engineering of consent”.
People = child
Elite = parent
Propaganda = pedagogical tool
In this perspective, democracy is not the will of the people; it is a managed theater.
Bernays is one of the intellectual forefathers not only of advertising, but also of modern politics and what we today call the “fake opposition”. He was a consultant to the CIA and designed the perceptual basis for the coups in Central America, especially in Nicaragua.
Its name has been forgotten, but its method lives on.
Because this is the age Bernays described:
“The Age of Me”, “The Age of Ego”.
The age when perception replaces reality.
So, what is the situation in Turkey?
The question is this:
How will the government change in this country with an opposition that treats its own voters as fools?
Or is this really just a theater of democracy?
Politics in Turkey cannot be done by ignoring feelings of belonging.
Either you will be sincere or you will be “Eastern cunning” You will play Bernaysism.
But then you will know the fault lines well.
Turkey's fault lines are not limited to earthquakes:
Alevi-Sunni, Kurdish-Turkish, secular-religious, right-left...
These rifts are deep, historical and still bleeding.
But what is the opposition doing?
A congress every six months.
Its own base is “in the bag”.
Don't become right-wing to convince the other neighborhood.
Don't exclude members who have worked for years.
Don't fill the party with right-wing figures...
Alevis have not forgotten Sivas, Maraş and Gazi.
Let alone the 80s, 90s...
Five hundred years on, Çaldıran is still remembered.
Despite this, Alevis are targeted on so-called opposition channels.
Former presidents are compared to Yavuz Sultan Selim.
District heads call cemevis “pirates”.
The scandal does not end; it is an endless chain of scandals and gaffes...
What about the attitude towards Kurdish voters?
Kurdish voters are attacked with a different mindset.
MPs recruited from the right call Kurdish elected MPs “terrorists”.
Then they are said to be “in love with their executioner, suffering from Stockholm syndrome”.
And who is the executioner?
“I will not make menemen, not the constitution”,
Then they sit down at “constitutional tables, commission tables”.
“They say, ”We will be transparent" and then a confidentiality decision is taken.
At the same time, the ability to confront Atatürkist voters!
This picture shows only one thing:
“Our audience is ossified. They vote no matter what we do.
Let's play the other neighborhood.”
This is a local and cheap Bernaysism.
Yesterday it existed, today it doesn't.
Under the previous president, the opposition at least knew this:
Power cannot be squeezed without the people behind it.
“We will return to the parliamentary system”.
“Where is the 128 billion dollars?” was the question being asked.
The gangs of five were targeted, “we will hold them to account”.
Without even the need for armies of trolls, young people were cornering the government with humor on social media:
“Where is the 128 billion?”
“Daddy boat.”
“Daddy, did you reset the money?”
Shoeboxes
The Kabatash lie
Pensioners' salaries, bonuses...
The government was being cornered.
What's today?
Shaving its own base,
There is an opposition that does not care about Alevis, Kurds and leftists.
Feeding an army of trolls instead of organizing the people,
“The one who welcomed the man he called a ”dictator" with a smile at the party gate,
“We have the Bernays who say, ”We will normalize".
Baklava boxes instead of shoe boxes,
Makeshift boats instead of boats,
Instead of 128 billion dollars, corruption cases,
“Where is the 32 hours of footage?” instead of the Kabataş footage...
And an opposition that gets beaten in the ring.
Son ring.
Will this opposition be in power?,
Or will this government be gifted another five years?
There is no struggle for democracy.
There is a theater being run.
And the price of this theater,
We, the society, whose hopes diminish a little more with each passing year, are paying the price.
Can Firat Acisu