{"id":283478,"date":"2026-03-09T07:06:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T07:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/?p=283478"},"modified":"2026-03-09T07:06:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T07:06:27","slug":"were-dead-like-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/were-dead-like-this\/","title":{"rendered":"This is how we rotted"},"content":{"rendered":"

How does a society decay?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Societies do not decay all at once.
\nThere is no story of decadence that wakes up one morning and says, \u201cNo more morality, no more conscience.\u201d.<\/p>\n

Decay starts silently.<\/p>\n

First the language deteriorates.
\nThen the values stretch.
\nThen norms shift.
\nEventually, people no longer see what is wrong as wrong.<\/p>\n

At that point, society is rotten.<\/p>\n

And this is exactly the crisis Turkey is facing today.<\/p>\n

This is not just an economic crisis.
\nThis is not just a political crisis.<\/p>\n

This is a is a crisis of conscience.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is how we rot<\/strong><\/p>\n

We did not experience decay all at once.<\/p>\n

Even our own cultural teachings, proverbs, and social wisdom have ceased to be moral compasses. We have turned it into a justification for moral flight.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe said, \u201dThe one who holds the honey is the one who licks his finger.\".
\nWe normalized bribery.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe said, \u201dThe state's property is the sea, whoever doesn't eat it is a pig\".
\nWe have made the plunder of public resources commonplace.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe said, \u201dThey eat what they don't eat.\".
\nWe considered fraud as intelligence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe said, \u201dRide the horse, take up the sword.\".
\nWe have substituted power for morality.<\/p>\n

These are not just words.<\/p>\n

They are the is a sign of the collapse of their moral reflexes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Decay is not only the fault of the individual<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is simplistic to attribute the decay of societies solely to individuals.<\/p>\n

Because it is not only personal character that shapes individuals.<\/p>\n

Institutions.
\nIt is politics.
\nCulture.
\nIt is ideology.<\/p>\n

The decay in Turkey today cannot be explained solely by individual moral weaknesses.<\/p>\n

This also means is a political decay.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The political culture produced by the government, the alternative not produced by the opposition and the system of interests accepted by the society have created a cycle that feeds each other.<\/p>\n

The new economy of politics: rent<\/strong><\/p>\n

Politics in Turkey is no longer based solely on ideologies.<\/p>\n

Politics has an invisible but very powerful dimension:<\/p>\n

rent economy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tenders
\nzoning decisions
\nmunicipal projects
\nurban transformation<\/p>\n

These are not only technical management areas.<\/p>\n

These are also are spheres of political power.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A zoning decision can increase the value of a plot of land tens of times overnight.<\/p>\n

One tender can bring in millions of liras.<\/p>\n

That is why politics is often not based on ideology, over resource allocation<\/strong> takes shape.<\/p>\n

Municipalities: service or patronage?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Municipalities in Turkey are local service institutions.<\/p>\n

But they are also huge centers of economic power.<\/p>\n

Zoning plans.
\nInfrastructure projects.
\nTransportation tenders.
\nMunicipal companies.<\/p>\n

Where there is such a large economic space moral risk also grows.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Therefore, municipalities are sometimes not only service-producing institutions, but also political patronage mechanisms<\/strong> it can become.<\/p>\n

Parties win municipalities.<\/p>\n

Then municipalities feed the parties.<\/p>\n

Patrimonial politics<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the political science literature, this structure has a name:<\/p>\n

patrimonial state.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this system, institutions function through relationships, not rules.<\/p>\n

Loyalty trumps merit.
\nCadres based on subservience are formed.<\/p>\n

The state or local governments cease to be public institutions and become part of political networks.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This system is not just a problem of one party.<\/p>\n

Over time, this system can infiltrate almost all political structures.<\/p>\n

Opposition's comfort<\/strong><\/p>\n

Political debate in Turkey is often reduced to this dichotomy:<\/p>\n

power is bad
\nopposition is clean<\/p>\n

But politics is not that simple.<\/p>\n

The biggest problem of the opposition is often not criticizing the government.<\/p>\n

Issue, is that it does not produce a moral alternative.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Instead of transforming politics, it often develops an understanding that aims only to take over power.<\/p>\n

This creates the following perception in society:<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if the government changes, the system will not change.\u201d<\/p>\n

And people lose confidence in politics.<\/p>\n

Silent society<\/strong><\/p>\n

But the biggest cause of decay is neither the government nor the opposition.<\/p>\n

The biggest reason is the silent society.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Turkey's most powerful political ideology is this sentence:<\/p>\n

\u201cLong live the snake that doesn't touch me.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Everyone tries to protect their own small interests.<\/p>\n

Everyone is after a small advantage.<\/p>\n

A business.
\nA tender.
\nA torpedo.<\/p>\n

That is why great injustices grow in silence.<\/p>\n

Corruption is ignored.
\nLawlessness becomes normalized.<\/p>\n

Nietzsche's prophecy<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Friedrich Nietzsche said \u201cGod is dead\u201d he was not really making a religious argument.<\/p>\n

He is a member of modern society that you've lost your values<\/strong> he was saying.<\/p>\n

Old values were destroyed.<\/p>\n

But new values had not yet been established.<\/p>\n

What was left in the middle was this:<\/p>\n

Benefit
\npragmatism
\nselfishness<\/p>\n

And often in the name of \u201crealism\u201d<\/strong> It's called.<\/p>\n

The dark side of enlightenment<\/strong><\/p>\n

Adorno and Horkheimer describe the tragedy of modern society as follows:<\/p>\n

Instead of liberating, reason can become an instrument of domination.<\/p>\n

Politics today often does not seek the truth.<\/p>\n

Strategizes.<\/p>\n

Knowledge does not produce wisdom.<\/p>\n

It produces manipulation.<\/p>\n

And so society becomes more and more sophisticated but more and more immoral<\/strong> it becomes like this.<\/p>\n

The tragedy of modern man<\/strong><\/p>\n

Modern man thinks he is very clever.<\/p>\n

But most of the time it is just a more rational selfishness.<\/p>\n

People today don't often ask the question:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is right?\u201d<\/p>\n

He asks:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is advantageous for me?\u201d<\/p>\n

This is where the decay begins.<\/p>\n

The banality of evil<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hannah Arendt came to a shocking conclusion while analyzing the Nazi bureaucracy.<\/p>\n

Evil is often not evil.<\/p>\n

It is ordinary.<\/p>\n

Great evils are not often done by bad people, by people who don't think<\/strong> It is done.<\/p>\n

This is often the case in Turkey.<\/p>\n

People are not bad.<\/p>\n

But they don't think.<\/p>\n

They do not question.<\/p>\n

And they remain silent.<\/p>\n

How does a society get back on its feet?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Decaying societies end in two ways.<\/p>\n

Either they collapse completely.<\/p>\n

Or a moral awakening<\/strong> they live.<\/p>\n

This awakening often does not come from politics.<\/p>\n

It does not come from parties.<\/p>\n

It does not come from the state.<\/p>\n

This awakening from intellectual courage<\/strong> income.<\/p>\n

It starts with some people saying this sentence:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis order is wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is how we rotted.<\/p>\n

We remained silent.
\nWe normalized it.
\nWe ignored it.<\/p>\n

But recognizing decay is the first step towards rebirth.<\/p>\n

Because it is not the majority that changes societies.<\/p>\n

They are a minority with a conscience.<\/p>\n

And history shows us this:<\/p>\n

Societies rise with their values.<\/p>\n

Societies that lose their values are not only economic, and morally bankrupt.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is how we rotted.<\/p>\n

But there is still a chance we can get back on our feet.<\/p>\n

If we dare.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Erosion of Social Conscience, the Rent System of Politics and Modern Man<\/p>","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":283480,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[286],"tags":[289],"class_list":{"0":"post-283478","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-yazarlar","8":"tag-manset"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283478"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":283481,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283478\/revisions\/283481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halkweb.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}