‘If there’s no such thing as living like a human being in this world…’ *

Bülent Korman

Undoubtedly, in a century marked by great technological advances

but also by setbacks,

as humanity as a whole, we cannot accept

this “unprecedented disgrace” that we are “made to endure”

(nihilism is terrible, after all)

The question that troubles me in this period is:

Who is making me live this?

What?

What thought?

What mistake?

Of course, I am not looking for a “person”.

My intention is certainly not to “stand up”.

While saying “tremendous progress in this and that”,

and also for this “misery”,

I don’t know how many years or centuries ago,

“human helplessness”

in the face of epidemics,

shouldn’t there at least be a sense of “shame”

today?

Couldn’t this disaster have been experienced with at least a tiny difference,

a “different” one,

especially in some countries, in the so-called “peaceful”,

“death houses” where the elderly are piled up?

Was it something that could be swallowed,

what some state officials dared to say

without hesitation?

Is it really so understandable

that in the vast expanse of America

there isn’t even a factory to sew “cloth masks”?

Because all the sewing machines that would produce them

are in the Far East, in front of the “slave labourers”

who make clothes for “luxury brands”.

Is there not a “worldview distortion”

a “systemic failure”,

a “lack of foresight”,

a “neglect of preparation”,

a “support for error”,

a “mercy deficit”

a “delusion”

in all this?

Because they have never crushed an ant,

never broken a single branch in their lives,

and are certain that they have “never harmed nature”,

they do not ask themselves these questions,

enjoying a “narrow-minded comfort”

of “peace of mind”.

Or, for some, even turning into

“a new distinction” that is completely unnecessary

and suddenly brought up without hesitation,

actually left behind in ancient times

‘science lovers’

(what a problematic combination)

to overcome all problems

by placing excessive trust in a “chic” stance, if anything.

Yet, how late it is,

for all “presumptions of innocence” in every field touched by the human hand and mind.

Attempts to explain it with phrases like “this subject runs deep”, “primordial”,

“survival instinct”,

“genetic chain unbroken for centuries”,

etc.,

are they really enough for us:

Ganyan results,

announced that day which one finished ahead

“life-and-death results”,

like a Bergman film figure trying to stall Azrael who appeared in front of him while fleeing the plague,

while we hid in our home

and were buried in our armchair -isolated- watching?

Suppose someone else, in a similar way,

but right before our eyes,

because of a mistake,

an oversight,

if all the pipes in a city burst at once,

if sewage flooded from one neighbourhood to another,

from one street to another, covering the entire city,

would people retreat to their homes so unquestioningly?

Would they accept, under the guise of the “new normal”,

wearing a specially developed

“mandala” distributed by ration card,

walking around in rubber boots that are impermeable to the knee,

with such a thin neck?

No, they wouldn’t.

Because there were people who would ‘stand up’.

Now there are no such people—apparently.

Just like the virus.

That is precisely the problem.

People are being ‘controlled’ by their most basic instinct:

Fear for their lives.

With uncertainty.

That’s why everyone is afraid of each other.

That’s why we can no longer offer each other

‘Every society is governed as it deserves’

chewing gum.

Not even for the sake of saying something.

‘Forget,’ some say,

‘forget everything you know now!’

Is it so difficult, instead,

like Orhan Bursalı,

‘Our salvation is in being able to say that we are COVID-19’

?

May 2020

* ‘If there is no such thing as living like a human being in this world,

what remains from the centuries?’

Behçet Necatigil