From screen bullying to peer bullying

The term "peer bullying" is being tossed around everywhere. There are complaints about violence and bullying that are intensifying in middle and high schools, and even reaching down into elementary schools. Students being beaten up in schools and on the streets, teachers being attacked in classrooms, young bullies extorting younger children, and drug dealers staking out school entrances are all striking snapshots of the current situation.

First and foremost, let us note that peer bullying is a natural reflection of a culture of violence that has reached the dimensions of a social threat. If violence and bullying have become rising values, and if they have been adopted as a shortcut to social mobility and gaining respect, then we are facing a serious problem that is shaking society to its foundations. In this case, should we just complain about peer bullying, or should we get to the root of the problem and seek solutions?

Are we really going to expect peer bullying to be prevented while TV series on TRT and private channels glorify and model patriarchal family structures that keep feudal traditions alive, mafia-like hierarchies that exert pressure on society, and armed individuals/organizations that can reach anywhere and achieve any result they want?

What else can we expect from our children, who are poisoned by the radiation of a mafia culture that models earning without working or producing, seizing other people's property, living an illegitimate lifestyle, and disregarding law and order, other than peer bullying?

Let us underline that high-violence series with little connection to historical reality, such as Diriliş Ertuğrul, Kuruluş Osman, Kuruluş Orhan, and Fetihler Sultanı Fatih Sultan Mehmet, are forms of screen hypnosis aimed at providing legitimacy to the current political power and mass support for the "leader" (reis) model. Let us draw attention to the fact that Ertuğrul, Osman, and Orhan Gazi, as well as Fatih Sultan Mehmet Han, are portrayed as characters who behead rivals and traitors and politically execute those who object to their orders, which serves to legitimize and sanctify leader-driven violence.

What must be done to keep our children away not just from peer bullying, but from a culture of violence that surrounds society like a cancerous tumor and shakes it to its foundations? What kind of model should be presented to prevent our children from becoming the potential "leaders" of tomorrow?

The solution lies in the correct answer to the question of whether the country will be governed by a "leader" model or by a contemporary rule-of-law model based on the separation of powers and an independent and impartial judiciary. The solution lies in making respect for human rights a fundamental state policy, where freedom of thought and expression can be exercised freely, where the law is not instrumentalized, and where the judiciary is not turned into a weapon.

The solution lies in ending the screen bullying that triggers and encourages peer bullying, and in urgently abandoning the sanctification and glorification of a culture of violence.

The solution lies in turning our backs on medieval sociology, feudal structures, tribal hierarchies that legitimize violence, and the "ummah" model that does not question or criticize but only obeys, and instead turning toward contemporary civilization.