All over the world now, people drink the same sodas, eat the same hamburgers and consume the same kind of pizzas. They wear the same clothing and shoes. They listen to the same music and dance the same way. Children play with the same toys, grow up listening to the same fairy tales and identify with the same heroes. It is a globalized culture of consumption of a single variety.
But the culture of consumption emerges not only when it comes to goods. It is also visible in the speeding up of lifestyles. Life in the cities of the world is speeding up. From cars to computers, we see it everywhere; it is as though an endless panic and restlessness is being conceived and created everywhere we look. The philosophy of living for the day and forgetting about tomorrow seems to have become the philosophy of societies everywhere. We are turning into a society of people who speak in careless, short, rapidly consumed sentences, a society constantly running after something, but never attaining it. Perhaps it is because the elderly move more slowly that we even seem to value them less these days.
And, as the speed increases, so does the lack of satisfaction, and thus the level of consumption. The consumption is endless, while the restlessness with what is actually being consumed is growing. Food is eaten quickly. "Buy and toss" is turned into a consumption ideology. Everything is actually being consumed: lovers, marriages, friendships, foods, toys, clothing, furniture, homes, cities, towns and villages -- everything. And in the midst of this rapid-fire consumption, respect and tradition are being forgotten. People are being pushed into a lifestyle that resembles a horse race. Life's tempo and speed are constantly being increased, while life itself becomes more and more of a competition. Within the family, among friends, at school and at the workplace, it is a life focused completely on competition and success. A life spent racing from one test to the next. But at the same time, we are producing a generation, or generations, of people who, in the face of all this speed and competition, cannot plan for the future and cannot see what lies before itself.
One part of this careless, speed-driven life based on fast consumption is that no one reads anymore. People don't read books or even full articles all the way to their end. They simply skim through them, missing sentences or even whole paragraphs. Rather than reading things in full, people try to simply pick up the summary, the short version of what has been written. Ideas are formed without information actually being acquired. People search out information in "pill" form. There is no attempt to actually judge things for what they really are, to really get to the bottom of questions. Preconceptions are seen as adequate. Nothing is examined deeply. Only computer screens and televisions are watched closely. And television programs are attuned to the mentality of the 7-9 age group. We are presented with programs that we can understand even while busy with other tasks. There seems to be no felt need for anyone to actually think. Confusion is literally being encouraged; in people's mentalities, in their sexualities and even in their drinks. We are living in the era of "three-in-one" drinks. No need for work. Everything is pre-prepared.
Within the globalized culture of consumption, violence and sexuality are two important factors. The society we live in is becoming accustomed to both violence and sexuality. In fact, children and youth in particular are being left to face a life that contains much violence and sexuality. Violence and sexuality are being turned from parts of life into the central aspects of life. We see this in many children's toys, which are often based on the concepts of destruction and violence. The same can be said of films, television series and media news, which so often has themes of either violence or sexuality.
At the same time, you might observe that the characteristics that actually humanize us are constantly being torpedoed by this globalized culture of consumption. "Drink, eat, have lots of sex, travel, fight, be open to violence, be strong, don't feel sorry for the weak -- in fact, drive over the weak. Just don't question the system; don't think too much. Live for today; don't be worried about what tomorrow will bring," we are told by the tools of mass communication, like newspapers, magazines, books, television and radio. These ideas are thereby injected into our cultures over and over.
In countries that are still developing, like Turkey, the effects of the globalized culture of consumption are actually even stronger. In a country like Turkey, which does not have mechanisms in place to protect the weak, higher rates of consumption and even waste turn the system into one in which the society becomes based on "power." The society is slowly remade into one based on position and the power of money. Even traffic takes these power levels into account, and so traffic rules and even traffic lights start to hold no power or effect over people and become meaningless. Cities are laid out for those who speed through the left lanes. Official cars operate outside the traffic rules. No attention is paid to the rights of pedestrians, bicyclists or even people riding scooters. Sidewalks are either eliminated altogether or built at heights that are useless for the elderly or the handicapped. Children's parks and schoolyards, which were already insufficient in number, are slowly being turned into what are essentially car parks. A plastic world is being presented for all who will take it. These days, our parks, flowers, palm trees and even oak trees are made from plastic. We are being encouraged to live a virtual life -- a life where ignoring unpleasant things, or just erasing them, is easy. And, thus, disrespect and disregard take over our society. We watch wars, natural disasters and all sorts of acts of violence on our television and computer screens. Everything appears virtual. And when we turn these screens off, we are absolved of any responsibility for the things happening in the world around us. We don't care if these dangers around us come to our front doors or even enter into our homes. We accustom ourselves to simply pressing the "delete" button on our friendships, our loves and our relatives. We grow less and less used to the feeling of responsibility with every passing day.
Is Turkey at the head of a curve being taken by this globalizing world? Or has the cultural decline of Turkish society, which is fast becoming debased and hungry for power, finally become institutionalized?
