Adm. Cem Gürdeniz, a name tied to the Ergenekon case, appears to be speaking to his elder brother about his retirement plans. During the speech the two brothers agree with each other that metro passengers are boors of different kinds. The two console each other about a future necessity of using the metro, saying it is a kind of “free zoo with various kinds of boors.” The conversation includes occasional references to the Turkish nation as “characterless,” “done with” and “46 percent stupid [referring to the people that voted for the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in the June 22, 2007 elections].”These lines are not nice of course. But the two brothers entertained me when they discussed life in İstanbul. The rear admiral says it is terrifying to live in İstanbul and suggests that he would either be manic depressive or would kill one or two people and be imprisoned if he had to settle down there. The elder brother says neighborhoods such as Sarıyer, Tarabya, Fener and Boğaziçi are, in fact, nice places to live. “You shouldn't go down,” he says. “Down” does not signify altitude. There are no settlements below Boğaziçi or Fener. They are already sea level settlements. “Down” refers to the neighborhoods of the lower classes. “Down” refers to the places where those boors in the tube live.
I am one of those boors.
I have been riding not the tube, but the Metrobüs for four months now and am living “down” in Eyüp. I have not developed any manic depressive disorders and would prefer to be killed rather than killing others.
The entertaining thing in this conversation is that it decodes almost all the psychological abnormalities of elitist intellectual despotism. They hate the common folk. God forbid, if they have to live among them, they can kill one or two. “One or two” here does not refer to a number. It in fact refers to the elitist despotic view that their number does not matter. “One or two” can be replaced with “five or six” without any lost or added meaning. Their space is not organized according to the boors' geographical parameters. “Down” means “them,” the 46 percent; “up” means “us,” the “enlightened minority that is destined to rule.”
But there is one thing extra in this speech. Our rear admiral expects imprisonment after killing some “boors.” That factor of accountability is new. That is the addition that the Ergenekon case made to this mockery.
My dear rear admiral, let me advise you about living in İstanbul. We boors travel by all kinds of public transportation. Our buses and metros are packed like cans of sardines. We do have hairy gorillas among us. Let alone a bright boy like you, even our chimpanzees are driven crazy in the tube. We have crooks, we have beggars, we have louts and we have hooligans. We have clumsy boys, and we have rough and naughty boys. We have quarrelsome chaps, and we have qualified burglars. And you know what, admiral? This is only normal. This is a normal society. A society composed of only educated, perfumed and mannered intellectuals is not a normal society. A normal society needs those who will gather the garbage and will then take the tube smelling and sweating. A normal society is a society where there are illiterates and teachers to educate them, sinners and preachers to guide them, criminals and policemen to stop them…
It is only when a society has a military junta that it ceases to be normal.
