Solid Foundation
There are some immutable values that come with being human. If we don’t really embrace and care about them, who we are and which side we are on becomes irrelevant. Being a communist, liberal, conservative or progressive is like a nice earring. Is it necessary? To make us feel good and special or to make life more livable, maybe, yes. But is it vital? No, I don’t think so, not even the last thing to save in a fire. When we have to decide between life and death, it becomes a piece of garbage to be sacrificed without thinking, without calculating its value.
When we were children, there was an animated series (Il était une fois… la vie) that helped us understand the organs and bacteria in our bodies. I can say that I learned more useful information from this cartoon than from middle and high school. Because life is not learned from colorless books full of incomprehensible definitions, but by appealing to our real and fragile emotions. Maybe by entertaining us, touching our weaknesses, maybe by disturbing us…
This is how I will explain what I want to say.
You have two ears to wear earrings. As long as you have these ears, you can put on and take off earrings of any color and type. Imagine that the earrings are political ideologies or religious views that we hold. One earring is Democracy and the other is Human Rights. Sometimes we dye our hair different colors, get tattoos, wear a T-shirt or a hat of a group we like. We try to give ourselves a different character and personality. What allows us to carry all this is your body, which is built on a solid foundation of bones, blood and veins. When you get a tattoo, the needle goes into your skin and doesn’t kill you. It may hurt a little bit, but it thickens your skin and makes you resistant to pain.
Therefore, what I am trying to explain with the examples I have given is that all political views and religious beliefs that cannot internalize universal values and have problems are doomed to disappear as an ‘adolescent mistake’ that we have left behind.
In other words, fascist politicians who are the mouthpieces of populism cannot be a source of hope for the people, even if they win the hearts of unhappy, anxious, single young people and hopeless, poor people. Because they are representatives of a savage understanding that is far from the depth and subtlety of human nature.
They are aware of this and their only concern is to scratch your back and make you comfortable for a while… So they can make a political career for themselves. But when the itch is gone, all that is left is bleeding tissue.
