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‘I Worship so I Can Do Anything I Like’ is Turks’ Lifestyle: Scholar |
16 June 2012 By Barçýn Yinanç, Hürriyet Daily News
Turks like to live as they please and the fact that the majority of them are defined as religiously conservative does not alter this lifestyle, according to a professor at Sabancý University. “You worship, so you are religious,” Professor Ersin Kalaycýoðlu said in the wake of a field survey for the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) that he helped conduct with Professor Ali Çarkoðlu about health but which also touched on a number of other issues.
The theological and moral aspects of religion are not really internalized by a huge majority of the population, he told the Daily News in a recent interview.
What do your findings tell us in a nutshell?
There is a demand for a social welfare state that is voiced by a large segment. Two out of three polled want the state to provide not only basic healthcare, but all types of healthcare at no cost to the citizen. It is also very egalitarian. When asked if it would be fair for those with a higher income level to spend their own money to choose healthcare they want, the majority said no. We want a Scandinavian-type social welfare state. People expect state capitalism.
The citizen does not want to pay for the services, but where is the state supposed to find the money? Did you ask people this?
We did not, but I am not sure whether they know the answer. There are misconceptions about the state in Turkey. The state effectively has the status of God. There is no actual such thing as the state from an economic point of view. My money is the state’s money. [The perception of the people is] that there is something called the state that is above all of us and has plenty of means. This is, of course, a legacy of history. But political cadres that exploit this [perception] efficiently can gain popularity. But at the end of the day, if you endorse this policy, you can only run the state with a budget deficit.
Although many seem happy with healthcare services in Turkey, it looks like we don’t have very healthy lives.
There are problems. We smoke, and we don’t exercise; we have only made it so far because we are still young, as Turkey has a young population.
According to the poll, health and education issues are not seen as primary problems in Turkey.
The economy and terrorism are seen as the major problems. These two make up almost 90 percent of the issues that are seen as major problems in Turkey. Health and education make up 5 percent, while calls for justice, democracy, the drafting of the constitution, freedoms and rule of law comprise the final 5 percent. All those are marginal problems for Turks.
People are happy with healthcare services. Does that necessarily mean that we have a well-functioning healthcare system?
Society is changing, and it is getting older. In another generation, we will be facing different problems. There are options for governments: It can take preventive measures by asking society to smoke less and exercise [more], or it can invest in the medical sector’s infrastructure for the probable health problems that will arise. The first one is cheaper but more difficult to implement because you are recommending that healthy people change their lifestyles. This is difficult. We have a nation that is fond of the pleasures of life. Essentially, it says to the state, “I won’t change, you take the necessary measures and provide the necessary medical help.” It tells the state “I will continue to smoke and you have to take care of me, this is my right.”
Maybe that’s why Turks are happy given that the findings show such an outcome.
This is not the only reason. All findings in the world suggest that the level of happiness increases as religiosity increases. . But we can never reduce an outcome to one factor.
Turks like to live as it suits them. I don’t call this freedom. This is about boundless, arbitrary irresponsible behavior. [For example,] a guy takes a curve in the road at 150 km/h and gets killed; if he doesn’t die, this means he lives as he wants and brags about how he crashed the car. There is such a lifestyle. This is “anomie,” the concept invented by French thinker Émile Durkheim.
But what you say seems to contradict the general conviction that Turkish society has an authoritarian character. Aren’t Turks known to respect and be obedient toward the state?
Turkish society is not obedient to the state, it is very good at avoiding the state as much as possible with whatever measures of avoidance it can deploy, including bribery and corruption. They take the state very seriously, and they don’t challenge the state; instead, they act as if they are going along with the state, but they simply ignore it. You present a nice, politically correct face to the state, but behind it, you have a second life of your own which has no rules or restrictions.
This can pose a problem as the government is thought to be taking steps to interfere in private lives.
These [steps] are not taken positively, I am sure.
But the government’s support level is 50 percent, according to polls.
But it is to do with the perception of how the economy is handled. The overall image is good since it’s an image based on economic interest. That does not mean that people approve of the government in everything it does. In addition, most people in Turkey – 60 to 65 percent – are religiously conservative, and the values espoused by the government are also religiously conservative values.
One would think that religiously conservative people would not lead the anomie type of life you describe.
I am not so sure about that. Religious conservatism has a lot to do with the definition of religion, which is not necessarily anything that goes much beyond worship. You worship, so you are religious. Once you worship, you can do whatever you want: That’s the major perception of the people. Religiosity in Turkey is reduced to worship. The philosophical, theological and moral aspects of religion are most likely not internalized by a huge majority of the population. It is more or less [analogous] to pre-Reformation Europe. |
16 June 2012
HDN
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