How can we cultivate hope in Turkey?

It is observed that a feeling of weariness, helplessness, and hopelessness is becoming increasingly prevalent in Turkish society at times.

Street interviews are filled with people reflecting this situation.

Even more dire is the fact that the educated young generation, having lost expectations for a better life in Turkey, is primarily migrating to Europe.

These developments provide a suitable environment for the monist worldview that maintains its dominance in Turkey as it does globally—in other words, for governments that uphold capitalist production and relations—to advance their goals.

Hopelessness pushes people out of life and enslaves them.

Our hopeless people turn into what the famous Kyrgyz Turkish writer Chingiz Aitmatov described as a "mankurtized creature."

What is the Backyard of Hopelessness?

To address this, one must first see that the monist worldview and the neoliberal system imposed with the claim that 'the end of history has arrived' do not bring happiness to people.

Does the existing system promise us a more beautiful world in the future, or does it tell us to be content with what we are given?

The situation is clearly visible:

The neoliberal system imposes inequality in every area of life, from access to food to health and education, and from security to organization.

The system has widened the gap between the poor and the rich to an unprecedented degree.

For example, in my article titled "Income Distribution and Artificial Agendas," I mentioned that according to the "Income Distribution Statistics" for 2023 by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), the share received by the top 20 percent is nearly 10 times that of the lowest-income 20 percent, and this ratio reaches much higher multiples in the top and bottom 5 percent brackets.

The same situation applies to countries where capitalism is dominant.

On the other hand, one must not lose sight of how much the imperialism created by capitalism has increased the income gap between the global north and the global south.

The system has effectively eliminated our economic, social, and cultural freedom.

As in the world, a cultural and ideological hegemony(*) that operates according to the values of the ruling classes has been established in Turkey.

Through the tools of this hegemonic approach—news, cinema, TV broadcasts, series, and websites—the labor-oriented classes have been led to believe that their interests will be realized by neoliberal governments.

Thus, our people have accepted becoming a "social object" instead of a "social subject" by abandoning the struggle for class power or by ensuring that this struggle is conducted only within the limits permitted by the neoliberal system.

How Can Hopelessness Be Broken?

In the life of societies, we can break hopelessness by hoping.

What keeps a person alive and connected to life is hope.

Hope is an emotion that makes a human, human.

To hope is to act. The name of this action is "to resist."

In this context, it is worth taking a look at the book "Time for Outrage!" by Stéphane Frédéric Hessel, which I read years ago.

Hessel was a young-hearted sage(**) whom we bid farewell to eternity at the age of 95, who defended enlightenment values and was on the verge of being hanged while fighting against fascism during the Second World War.

Hessel makes this observation:

"...The thought brought by the West has dragged the world into a crisis, and to escape this crisis, one must escape through a radical break from the idea of 'more'—not only in the monetary sphere but also in the fields of science and technology. It is definitely time for morality, justice, and lasting balance to come to the fore. Because very great risks threaten us. These risks could end the human adventure on a planet that will become uninhabitable for humans."

In his book, Hessel addresses the younger generations in particular and calls them to "...a real passive resistance against the mass media that only show mass consumption, contempt for the weak and culture, a general loss of memory, and the relentless competition of everyone against everyone..."

Hessel says, "To create is to resist. To resist is to create."

How Can We Cultivate Hope in Turkey?

Let us take a stand against all forms of defeatism and hopelessness that say, "I can't do anything, there is nothing I can do."

Let us develop organization based on labor and productivity.

Let us evaluate political organizations—both the government and opposition parties—according to the interests of labor.

Let us create healthy and honest mass media outlets and protect the existing ones.

Let us react against all forms of privatization and defend public ownership(***).

Let us make approaches that address collectivism on the basis of libertarianism dominant against the inequality created by neoliberal economic policies.

In short, instead of the hopelessness created by the neoliberal system, let us bring hope to the fore and resist the system.

(*) One of the thinkers who analyzed "Hegemony" as an ideological concept most competently is "Antonio Gramsci." His main selections published in Turkish are: *Intellectuals and Society*, trans. V. Günyol, F. Edgü, and B. Onaran (Istanbul: Çan, 1967); *Philosophy and Politics Problems*, trans. Adnan Cemgil (Istanbul: Payel, 1975); *The Experience of Workers' Councils in Italy*, trans. Yusuf Alp (Istanbul: Belge, 1989).

(**) Stéphane Frédéric Hessel (b. 1917-Berlin, d. 2013-Paris) was a French diplomat, resistance fighter, and writer. He participated in the drafting of the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" in 1948. In his final years, he was involved in social activism on issues such as economic inequality and the Israel/Palestine conflict. His short book *Time for Outrage!* (Indignez-vous!) sold 4.5 million copies worldwide.

(***) The action initiated on November 20, 2024, by approximately 500 mine workers in the Nallıhan district of Ankara, who locked themselves in the mine underground to protest the privatization decision of the Çayırhan Thermal Power Plant mining fields, is a beautiful answer from the working class to the question "How can we cultivate hope in Turkey?"