Where are we running to?

Morale is low, people are angry. We have reached a point where no one has any tolerance for anyone else. If you were to ask anyone on the street, they would most likely say that the economy is the reason for all of this. It certainly plays a major role. If people are struggling to make ends meet and finding it difficult to put bread on the table, they are not going to be cheerful; they are bound to be angry. Naturally, they have no tolerance or patience left for others. But this is actually just the tip of the iceberg. The real reasons lie much deeper.

We have been caught in the grip of the capitalist system's ambition, and we are stuck there. It is a cutthroat race, without knowing where we are running, and furthermore, without questioning it. Money has become the rising value; the value of a person and of humanity has come to be measured by money. Once humanity loses its throne to money, the only thing left to do to show one's existence and to be valued is to earn as much money as possible. When money becomes the goal, the human being themselves becomes a tool. Consequently, all the values that make a human being human have gradually lost their meaning. Therefore, human happiness, peace, and the joy of living have become focused on money. If there is money, we are happy; if not, we are unhappy.

And this is the real problem. The loss of human value. The capitalist system makes people forget themselves and other people, presenting money as the fundamental criterion for power, value, respect, and existence. And unfortunately, humanity has loved and accepted this. Perhaps it suited them better. Being human is not easy; making money is easier. Therefore, they run unquestioningly in the direction of the target set by the system. In this rush, they are not even aware of the entrapment they are in. They are completely unaware that they have turned life and the world into a prison for themselves. While it was said that we emerged from the darkness of the Middle Ages and that slavery had ended, the lordship of those who possess money began. Power changed hands from the human to money. Consequently, humanity is losing its meaning, its importance, and unfortunately, its value.

Technological developments also assist in this money-driven rush of humanity. Production, which accelerated with the great industrial revolution, and consequently consumption, have now gained unimaginable speed with digital technologies. Previously, people would meet in shopping environments, markets, and stores, and at least be aware of each other's existence. Now, with the virtualization of trade and therefore shopping, this opportunity has also disappeared. Nowadays, people are in a money-focused interaction in worlds isolated from other people and society.

New technologies play a major role in people forgetting other people. Through digital technologies, people are subjected to a literal bombardment of information, but the quality, utility, and use-value of the information accessed are ambiguous. Furthermore, such intense and rapid information transfer does not give people the opportunity to select quality information, filter it, or transform it into utility in their own lives. Every piece of information accessed becomes obsolete instantly, and new information arrives without any time interval. Therefore, today's people in the information society are actually unable to become informed; on the contrary, they are increasingly becoming devoid of knowledge. Their increasing tension, anger, and violence, and their distancing from feelings of pity and empathy, are the most concrete indicators of this.

Knowledge develops people intellectually, enables them to engage in experience-oriented interaction, and makes them wise. While a knowledgeable person manages their own life with reason, conscience, and thought, they also respect the lives of other people. A knowledgeable person does not neglect to get to know others while getting to know themselves; they empathize with them and understand them. A knowledgeable person is aware of human values and elevates them. Knowledge enables a person to distinguish between human and matter. Thus, instead of transferring value from themselves to matter and power from matter to themselves, a person knows that their own value stems from being human and shapes their life accordingly in the direction of human goals.

However, in our age, humanity has tended to prioritize a lifestyle and understanding that is tangential to knowledge. For this reason, literature genres such as poetry, novels, and short stories are not valued enough. Because literature is the human, intellectual, and emotional expression and interaction of a person. Literature is a magnificent field where thoughts are synthesized with emotion and where the human is prioritized. But in our day, where money is prioritized, literature has also begun to fall out of favor. People no longer read. They cannot find the time to read anyway. Because they know that when they try to stop and read a poem, a story, or a novel, others will get ahead of them in the money-oriented race and they will fall behind in the competition. Therefore, people have no time for reading, thinking, or sharing emotions in this order. Their priorities are not these anyway. Consequently, we cannot empathize, we have difficulty understanding each other, and we do not care about each other. Our anger, our love of violence, our ambition, and our ruthlessness are for this reason. Our preference for consuming instead of producing, and our tendency to consume everything, is for this very reason.

The solution is to read, to engage in emotional and intellectual sharing, and to have human interaction. Most importantly, it is to stop running and catch our breath for a moment, to question what we are doing and where we are running to.

Let the questions remain unanswered; it does not matter, as long as we ask them.