TR 
EN
It is well known that self-interest and personal gain have influenced human relationships in every era. To a certain extent, this may even be regarded as normal. However, today we live within a web we have woven with power, money, ambition, and intrigue, far removed from sincerity. What is more, we seem content with it. What kind of framework of human values will we leave behind for future generations? We do not appear to have the slightest concern about this. These are the realities we experience in every sphere of life today.
We have created for ourselves a depressive world dominated by fleeting desires, egos, ambitions, deceptions, lies, and despair.
The perception of honesty, integrity, and justice as signs of weakness, while regarding cunning opportunism as a virtue, has turned our values upside down. The pace at which neoliberal rationality and globalization have spread has given rise to a new, insidious, and deceitful appetite, along with an aggressive demand inclined to embrace it. As this tendency intensified, the values that nourish and sustain the human spirit began to erode. This phenomenon was staged not merely at the individual level, but through models capable of drawing entire masses into their orbit. For instance, we have all witnessed the cost of the allegedly “Gulen Movement” illusion marketed to us by an international political consortium.
There was a time when we sought to make sense of life by blending our love for people, animals, and nature. Today, however, we have begun to turn into something else, something that pollutes the water, the air, the soil, human beings, and the values that sustain them.
The Refuge Sought by the Soul...
Can literature, cinema, theatre, painting, and other branches of art bring us back to ourselves? Perhaps, if there are people courageous enough to undertake these pursuits and carry out these pursuits in a manner worthy of them. However, a world of suggestive messages composed of short sentences and adorned with emojis is not powerful enough to overcome this corruption and awaken us.
What would a poet who, centuries ago, described their relationship with his beloved through symbols such as birds, hyacinths, and roses think if they were to witness forms of emotional manipulation such as today's "love bombing"? How are we to restore to their true nature those who, when they look at a forest, see not the trees but bulldozers and profit? As the world becomes more polluted, everything is turning into an act of plunder.
It appears that unless a new world order can be established, ethical profligacy will continue to intensify. It is as though we are riding a bicycle on the Wall of Death in a circus. We have been presented with a system in which we are compelled to go ever faster simply to avoid falling.
The neoliberal frenzy that has swept across the world, disregarding the public good in so many areas, has been enough to devastate the world of values and beliefs.
From Values to Self Interest...
We are searching for a way out within a global network. Daily politics seems ill equipped to provide a solution. The alternatives are narrowing. We are living through a period in which growing demands can no longer be met and problems are beginning to swell. Are we moving toward the "Big Bang" of a new rebirth, or toward a different "Big Bang" that will bring about our end?
The growing dominance of global capital over states and political systems is now capable of triggering regional crises and wars. For example, we can all see how domestic politics and internal dynamics in the United States are reflected beyond its borders. At times, those repercussions can extend as far as the killing of primary school children in another country through aerial bombardment. We are confronted with a system that corrupts morality, values, and beliefs. The problem we face is too vast to be viewed from a single perspective.
The solution may involve a process that extends not only to us but also to several generations that come after us. Yet it is within our power to transform the effort to build a better country and a more livable world, using our own mortar and free from external influences, into an international campaign. Even at the risk of venturing to the limits of reason, we can find the courage to assume the risks that may carry humanity toward a new beginning.
Translator: Nilüfer Şen Çakar
