A Prototype Man or a Prototype Society?
For a long time, there was a chorus of criticisms about raising a prototype man. Sometimes, they start with: "Educational activities are good, but in the end, they tend to raise prototype men."
When you examine those people called prototype you don't see prototype people. How can one tailor the people coming from all age groups and diverse professions or locations in a uniform manner? Moreover, the people being labeled as prototype represent the group within civil society with the highest level of education in the country. There are scientists and artists within the group.
The poor and the rich are there. In a sense, you can find all sorts of intelligence and unique experiences there. If you attempt to force such a community to be uniform, do you think they will accept it? No, it is impossible! Particularly in this age. While the world is becoming more and more transparent and access to information is gaining traction, can you tell them to be shrouded or to wear a straitjacket? If you do, they will surely beat you!
Can it be that those who parrot this story of conformity are actually referring to those who have similar tendencies for clothes, colors or shaving, i.e., who are like each other in terms of appearance? No, this is not the case. The communities being accused of being prototypical accommodate all sorts of people, including those with or without mustaches, those who have ponytails, those who have shaved their heads and those who do or do not wear headscarves. If a community contains individuals ranging from professors to students, or from painters to teachers, isn't it natural for it to have diverse types of people?
I must pronounce the bitter truth: Those who voice these accusations of conforming to a prototype know nothing about the groups that they tend to call a religious community. Actually, the members of those groups do not call themselves a religious community, and I must note that nothing would change if they did call themselves a religious community. The important thing is that people should maintain their civilian identities and demand their democratic rights through peaceful means. Certain circles are taking an Orientalist view of a group of people, treating them as if they come from outer space and trying to alienate them; they then strategize based on the misconceptions they've formed about this group. And here is another bitter truth: The majority of those who are critical about the prototype identity produced by communities have desires and plans to create a uniform society. "Be as I say! Be as I order!" they say.
Of course, everyone may want to raise the ideal man or the ideal generation. I do not know whether there is a scholar or an intellectual who has not expressed such desires in our past. Tevfik Fikret had seen in his son an ideal generation, one which he told to bring the flame from Prometheus. The flame represented science, modernity or whatever he meant. Like him, Mehmet Akif Ersoy fancied an ideal youth, which he called "the generation of Asim" — Asim was his son. The national poet shed many tears for this youth. The ideal of raising an exemplary new generation is the legacy of this nation's thought. Eventually, these ideals are offered to the general public for adoption, and sometime they are accepted, sometimes not. If the general public adopts an ideal — even to a certain extent — no one can take it away from their hearts, and if an ideal is rejected, no one can force it to be accepted. Men gather together for the sake of an ideal and then they share this ideal with society. If the ideas being suggested are not rational, society will fend them off, marginalizing them. If you attempt to align civil society movements according to requirements of the state, the system or the regime or try to assign legitimacy to them, then you will hinder the conscience of the general public. Labeling democratic mass movements as public or governmental enemies means ignoring the pluralist spirit of democracy. The preaching on the dreams of an ideal generation cannot even fit into an encyclopedia. This is the same in the world's intellectual history.
Such illusions are useless. In modern times, an individual does not surrender his or her logic to another person or group. It is for this reason that you do not submit petitions before joining or leaving a civil society movement. Voluntary movements do not harm anyone (and only the law should be able to determine if it is otherwise). In this day and age individuals will not surrender their logic and accept a prototype existence, nor will society accept ideals that are imposed upon them. Those who think otherwise are actually seeking fascism and nothing else.
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