I've been thinking about the tendencies of social groups, of which I am a part of and those that i try to understand from research, Internet and travels. This post is not a question but I think comments can make this an interesting and relevant topic to discuss.
Well, I live in a community which is prone to suppression, censorship and unnecessary regulatory precautions. I'll try to share my thoughts on why is this so, the ideas of the majority in such communities and what i believe is the problem.
There are some concepts -levels to make this a better train of thought. First is politics and -unfortunately- why science and social planning is used to drive communities with asymmetric knowledge into ignorance and keep the bliss for particular reasons that have been discussed many times before.
Second is the science of social and individual organization, sociology, neuroscience and philosophical approaches the human consciousness maybe.
Third is the understanding of institutions. How the system is unfortunately the one that makes the rules instead of the reason and societal progress. How technology is helping at extreme levels for creating a common sense, free thinking platforms and approachability of knowledge anywhere anytime. This, to a degree, is now constructing the very existence of us as species.
And fourth is the system itself, of which we all are a part of but has grown to a point it's difficult for a individual to digress and comprehend.
Political approaches towards Turkey, the new election and the way Turkey is accepted in the global economy has a lot to explain about the foreign policy and internal affairs of Turkey and why the suppression is meant. ([1][1], [2][2], [3][3], [4][4]) In the world of today, the main point of any country in the world is to approach to politics with money's point of view - or bigger share from the market. There are different approaches to this idea such as controlling the areas of energy as USA does, and fixing the price of something to their own money that they make from paper. The policy of USA created ability to control most of oil and thus ability to control and balance dollar, barrel of oil ratio with the expense of many bad things and that is another topic. After certain events, the sustainability of this policy also appeared to be crucial and “The Partnership for Improvement and a Common Future with Northern Africa Region and Expanded Middle East” also known as “Great Middle East Project” was put into notion.([5][5]). In this report, The RAND Corporation which worked as a strategic R&D Department (Think-Tank) gave a report blossoming from the thesis of "The civilization clashes is more likely to happen if the Islam and Muslim nations are not adapted to the western democratic culture and global order" ([6][6]). This may sound like a good idea but the report also includes of classifying the communities of Middle East as radicals, traditionalists, seculars and moderate (modern) Islam. The idea was to drive the population, by various tools, into and closer to the moderate Islam and away from the other groups. These tools include military, economy and manipulation of beliefs and cultural background.
For Turkey to be guided into moderate Islam, the tool used was the Islamic ideology that has been in Turkey since the 30s and has grown to massive depth and width throughout the society today. "The Cemaat" or "Nur Movement" or "Gulen Movement" with its main ideologist Said Nursi, and its expander Fethullah Gulen (Who is currently residing in Pennsylvania / USA ([7][7]), is a somehow spiritualist, deeply conservative Islamic ideology which is self expansionary by supplying the poor from young age with house, food and education and constructing their religious and conservative identities along the way. Education helps with staffing and it has reached to a state the prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, president Abdullah Gul and many other government officials are products or sub-products of this ideology, although direct connections still uneasy to be found, there are obviously support and communication between the sides. ([8][8] - video is in Turkish, the thank you speech for winning the referendum with majority granting the government vote of confidence to change constitution of Turkey. Also thanks beyond the ocean for Fethullah Gulen's support in saying the good Muslim should vote "yes". min. 04.20 - 05-10)([9][9] Fethullah Gulen then denied his call for "yes" vote had any political motivation as it's relevancy is questionable after the massive effect on the fairly religious majority which still holds Fethullan Gulen and religious dogma dearly) . And In the report itself stated that "Fethullah Gulen is a good leader for “Moderate Islamic outline” for Islamic countries. The name of Turkey was originally in the regions of containment. Then removed by the request of Turkey with the protests from Turkish military, pointing the Turkey’s secular constitution and the term used was changed from “democratic moderate-Islam country” to “democratic partner” which is too vague in the meaning.
If we step back from the complex politics and try to understand why this system is working even though it is not built around human needs, educational progress or improving empathy related understanding. The asymmetric knowledge and comprehension of the world comes into question as a second level of looking at this. There are some ideas and concepts to manipulate cultures and masses of people. I believe it is the part of science itself that is all around us, in our lives, which we are yet to absorb and personalize to become resistant to the manipulation by the misuse of. Here's what I mean. I believe most of you are familiar with Russell’s Teapot, as the teapot lacks the grandeur of an omnipotent creator, it also says it is so much easier for individuals to follow the common belief and ideas of the community that individual is in. This is also shown in The Asch Conformity Experiments conducted in 1950s ([10][10]). This has been understood for a long time and various studies was made in attempt to sufficiently classify groups of people by their pre known cultural and social environments. One of the most popular is "The Cultural Dimensions Study" by Geert Hofstede. It's also shown in behavioral neuroscience over and over again the development in the brain is at its peak in early years and everything we are exposed to until a certain age has effects on the neurological formation of our brain thus perceiving the world around us. The study of Hofstede is a class taught in Business Management and with the help of it companies can insert their products to our cultures and lives in the most accurate ways ([11][11] - The values of US in the Hofstede graph).
This means the majority of people can be an is being manipulated into certain ways of thinking, this has been done by religion for centuries, now the market itself with its invisible hand as Adam Smith puts it([12][12]) aligns it's attention whoever has the most profit. Unfortunately the market is the system and profit is god.
The first and second steps work perfectly together when this is understood; the major outcome of this series of events is enormous amounts of profit towards the plan makers and those involved. This is not the explanation of corruption or self gain by those in power, they are also the ones trapped in the system and probably all about continuing the money flow in the country too.
This approach unfortunately has not improved the life standards of Turkish public, but the majority would disagree and say "The life standards has gone up, many roads, better municipal building are being built." Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party even put up billboards before the election citing "Now I can easily ride in planes with help of AKP". These developments come from the overwhelming tax and natural advances of technology, nothing that the people haven't deserved and it's a natural progress all around the world. The public is intentionally pushed into this delusion good lives, Islam is protected by the government and only way to keep them this way, is to somehow prevent them from seeing this material that can balance the asymmetry in knowledge. This is by banning 1.000.000 websites, locking up journalists -well, anyone who has opposing ideas- thus declining and keeping them occupied with different thoughts, such as religion (again), ever changing media agendas and fear.
On the other hand to all these negative thoughts there is a very interesting fact, the world has become a great place to live in and getting better. Communication and approachability of information is in seconds. Everyone from everywhere has something to reflect, and it's all approachable with the internet and global trade market. This has started to create the change in minds, belief in free speech, right to be informed, the movement against censor and copyright. richarddawkins.net is a very important and beautiful example to this, Turkish lawyers volunteered to reopen rd.net this means the free thinking is happening and a generation is being born into this. And Finally I think the "good Samaritans ([13][13])" are connecting, feeding from each other and will reach enough quantity to produce better wired brains with much more compassion and free thinking.
Hopefully you didn't get tired or bored and read the entire article. Comments are also appreciated
[1]: http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/empire/2011/06/201161682640911172.html
[2]: http://www.economist.com/node/18774786?story_id=18774786
[3]: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/26/business/global/26turkey.html?_r=1
[4]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L87SPk6i-hM&feature=channel_video_title
[5]: http://http://eab.ege.edu.tr/pdf/4/C4-S1-2-%20M15.pdf
[6]: http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1716.html
[7]: http://familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.5921/pub_detail.asp
[8]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTF1ve9snbQ
[9]: http://www.en.fgulen.com/press-room/news/3623-fethullah-gulen-says-his-call-for-yes-vote-not-linked-to-political-motives
[10]: http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1991-01155-001
[11]: http://www.geert-hofstede.com/hofstede_united_states.shtml
[12]: http://www.investorwords.com/2633/invisible_hand.html
[13]: http://faculty.babson.edu/krollag/org_site/soc_psych/darley_samarit.html
