I heard one of the most awful ones from a doctor friend of mine. He complained about taking his sick father to the hospital but being unsure if he was treated well. He had serious concerns about it. True, almost all the people around me visit at least two doctors for some of their complaints, but hearing this from a doctor certainly gave me the chills.I've also heard many times of clients not trusting their lawyers but still choosing to keep them because they believe a “trustable” lawyer cannot be found.
Maybe certain professions are problematic everywhere in the world, but in Turkey, it seems like it is a matter of the larger system. We not only don't trust the doctors, but we don't trust the entire health system; we not only don't trust the lawyers, but we don't trust the entire legal system.
This lack of confidence is not confined to only some professions. Rather, it casts a long shadow on all kinds of our relations. Only a few of my female friends trust their partners, and the same is true of the men. There is even a lack of confidence between children and their parents. Left and right I hear parents and children making promises to each other to do even the most mundane of things. For example, if parents tell their child they'll all go out for a movie, the child doesn't say “Thank you” or “How nice,” but “Do you promise?”
I worked on a story this week about an intensification of violence. While doing so, I kept in mind the question of why we are so insecure about everything. To hear experts say that there are many reasons, though the primary one is the militarization of the society, explained a lot, but was not at all surprising. Psychiatrist Selçuk Candansayar and sociologists Nükhet Sirman and Halil İbrahim Bahar pointed out the various aspects of the violence, but all underlined that Turkey's dominant political culture has had a major effect on the society's view of violence as a means to solve problems.
“The main reason behind the violence is the militarization of the society. Over the last 25 years, the state has tried to solve all its problems with violence. The society adopted this idea and began to perceive violence as a way to solve problems. Every mine blast that resulted in the death of soldiers was followed by Turkey bombing northern Iraq. This sends out a very clear message: If someone hurts you, make them pay for it. This is why people who only fought in traffic in the past are now killing each other,” Candansayar said.
I then realized that the reason behind the people's lack of confidence in one another -- as is the case with violence -- is multifaceted. And just as with violence, our dominant political culture and state actions teach us to not trust anyone.
From its very foundation this state has not trusted its citizens. Its founding ideology was based on the idea that citizens can betray the state at any time and harbor “dangerous” thoughts; they can be pawns of “foreign powers.” The military and civil bureaucracy always acted from the angle that if the people were left alone, they could vote for the “wrong” political parties. Constitutions and laws were always prepared with the understanding of protecting the state from its citizens.
In order to prevent the spread of violence, Sirman said the political structure should give up violent methods. Bahar underlined that in order to prevent violence, people must be trained to negotiate and manage their anger. I think this holds true for a lack of confidence, too. The state should stop viewing its citizens as “enemies” and adopt confidence-building measures. Speaking of violence, Candansayar said that if we take measures now, we'll see returns within 25 years. It is unfortunate that even if we begin implementing confidence-building measures today, results will not come about immediately.
