Hemlock has removed a body.
But the disturbing truth is still among us.
399 BC. A court is established in Athens.
The accused Socrates.
The accusation is familiar; corrupting the youth, destabilizing order.
501 people vote. The decision is narrowly decided. Death.
But it was not just one man who was on trial that day.
A society was eliminating a mind that made it uncomfortable.
Socrates was not giving information.
He was poking at things that people thought they knew.
“What is justice?” he asked, unpacking the answer step by step.
As the conversation progressed, people were confronting what they did not know.
One does not accept this easily.
“I don't know” is heavy.
So most of the time we don't think.
We suppress restlessness.
We change the subject.
We ignore it.
Or we devalue the person who reminds us of that unease.
History has shown this time and time again.
The questioner disturbs first.
It is then labeled.
“Dangerous.”
“Disruptive.”
“It does.”
A decision is then made.
And everybody relaxes.
Is it really so different today?
A sentence is being formed.
We look at who said it, not what he said.
We pass judgment in minutes.
The idea is not being discussed, the person is being discussed.
This is the fastest extrajudicial execution of modern times.
Maybe no one is killing anyone.
But people now weigh themselves before they speak.
“He thinks, ”What will happen if I say this?"
and most of the time he is silent.
Now let's be honest.
Are we really discussing truthfulness?
Otherwise, everything we are uncomfortable with
“We push it aside because it's ”disruptive"?
Because it's easier.
You demean the speaker,
the promise also shrinks.
And you'll be comfortable.
Democracy does not start at the ballot box.
It starts with your reaction when you hear an idea you don't like.
The measure of freedom is not what you can say, but what you say
is what you encounter.
The level of civilization of a society
not how many people are talking,
by how many people are silent.
Now ask yourself.
Have you ever kept quiet just to avoid a reaction?
Have you ever swallowed something you thought was true?
If it happened,
Socrates is not that far away.
Nothing had changed with Socrates or Uğur Mumcu.
They could not tolerate their ideas, they eliminated their bodies.
And what happened?
Nor were Socrates' questions silenced,
nor what Ugur Mumcu put forward has been lost.
On the contrary, every silenced voice
resonated in more people's minds.
“Until yesterday morning, you could not refute anything I had researched and written.
So hit them, smash them.
From every part of me will be born those like me, those who will surpass me.”
And so it was.
They destroyed their bodies.
But they could not kill their ideas.
I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to those who were silenced for their thoughts.
Uğur Mumcu, Çetin Emeç, Ahmet Taner Kışlalı, Hrant Dink, Musa Anter and hundreds of journalists, writers, philosophers and thinkers...
Learn to tolerate ideas.
Every idea you silence is your helplessness.
A mind that cannot endure its opponent is not strong, it is cowardly.
Where everyone is silent, there is not thought but surrender.
So now... who's next?