Polarization keep things lively
You can not succumb to inertia when you experience a roller coaster of emotions.
I am on a vacation these days. Having this extra time on my hands had me gather my thoughts about how despots choose the increase the pace of political developments to confuse and disorient their citizens. Then I realized that this eventually energizes people to insist on their dissent of the despots.
There is this itch that I like to scratch. I know it is not good for me, but also fuels me to keep going on…
I live in a lively city, I have a small but good core of friends. I participate in the social life of the city, to the best of my ability. A little withdrawn maybe, but still, I live a life that’s full of energizing contradictions.
Contradictions are hard to explain. There is the pressure of traditional order, a force in the society I live in that is ever strengthening in the last 20 years of Islamist conservative rule. On the other hand, a stubborn thread that fuels resistance and creates spaces of liberation, allowing many to come in contact with like-minded dissident individuals. Two contradicting forces, embodied by polarized a public, are forced to cohabitate despite all the points of tension.
This tension keeps things, lively.
Whenever I meet a friend that I have not seen in a while, it is always a dense session, usually because we are led to share the madness of the days that went by. It is dense, because so many important things, like a presidential decree issued overnight to designate a new minister, censorship of a nationwide website/news source, or arrest of a public figure, happen frequently. Things that have a direct effect on our lives, such as the long-term direction of the economy, the accessibility of online news, or the well-being of a rights advocate we rely on to preserve our freedoms. Such a significant part of our lives is spent trying to adjust to these changes. The constant flow of political developments is in a way, tyrannical: the tyranny of constantly new.
This works on so many levels. Currently, the economy is struggling with three-digit inflation, making multitudes of citizens poorer every day, shattering the price stability even in food. So when my friends and I meet, each of us has a story of how we can no longer be sure about how much anything costs. A trip to the store is a roller coaster of emotions, as prices change weekly and nobody knows what is a good deal anymore.
You can not succumb to inertia when you experience a roller coaster of emotions.
Tyranny of the new
When there are too many nationwide important political developments within a week, the result is that as a political observer, you get disoriented and confused.
A trope among news junkies in Turkey claim that Turkey experiences more high-profile developments in a single week than stable democracies in the West do in an entire year. The trope is often shared in the aftermath of big events when a collective excitement holds sway as though a historical moment is taking place. Those who witness say the trope with an air of self-grandiose that seems to imply that what Turkey goes through is exceptional. But this is hardly true. It is just another tactic in the despot’s toolbox.
A part of me says that this tyranny of the new is not too different from what Naomi Klein talks about in her book Shock Doctrine. Shock doctrine is a concept borrowed from shock therapy, which CIA relies on their torture guidebook, the KUBARK manual. Shock therapy confuses the patient, and reduces them into a blank slate on which the doctor, or the despot in our case, imposes his narrative. It is a tool to quiet unrest and protest.
The tyranny of new insists that we citizens basically are robbed of the opportunity to make sense of what happened, make amends when needed, and establish a society-wide reconciliation with the polarized public.
I have come to think that this bombardment of new political developments is done very much deliberately by the ruling despot. As society is forced upon highly polarizing practices and decisions, not having enough time to recover from the effects of such decisions only pushes people over the edges, so that they lose sight of social reconciliation and remain in their designated corners, where they contribute to their own polarization.
Unexpected side effect
But here is the thing: In the current context, the above tactics scarcely work.
After 20 years of rule, the nationalist & Islamist coalition has consumed the full potential of the political narrative they had at hand. The headlines are not so easy to control anymore, and Erdoğan’s personal performance is in demise. He acts only reminiscently of his previous capacity of setting the national agenda.
His political and bureaucratic power is still in place, but he does not control the narrative.
This lack of control of the narrative does not work, as the public does not buy the idea that they have no responsibility to participate in the political sphere and that they can simply go on and enjoy themselves. After all these years, Erdoğan can not design the public that opposes his rule and render them inert in the face of his policies.
This lack of control of the narrative leaves the arena of political discourse up for grabs, and we can see real progressive voices increasing their effect at the parliament. Of course, it is good that labor rights-minded representatives in the parliament are making ways into breaking the game of polarization.
I believe it is also important to see that to fight despot-imposed polarization, the public will have to realize the energizing force of polarization, not necessarily to further deepen the divides.
Staying energetic and lively is important in the struggle against despots, and if polarization itself fuels this liveliness, I personally do not mind.
In solidarity,
Deniz
Good work 👍