The illusion of eliteness

"Every society has its whites. The problem with us stems from the whites not being of quality."

So says Prof. Hüsamettin Arslan in his article published yesterday in Açık Görüş (Star newspaper).

Some time ago, the results of a study presented under the headline "The survey that exposes the elites" were published. The study titled "Elites and Social Distance," published by Bilgi University's Center for Civil Society Studies and prepared by Prof. Füsun Üstünel and Assoc. Prof. Birol Caymaz, aimed to reveal the view of Turkey's "elites" toward other segments of society. As a result of interviews conducted within the study with 40 people regarded as "elite" by certain criteria, their views on "minorities," "conservatives," "the headscarf" and "Kurds" were set out. The result turned out, as expected, truly grave.

The gravity is not that those regarded as elite other these segments. On the contrary, the gravity stems largely from the low quality they display even while doing this othering. Otherwise, from a certain standpoint, you may regard it as normal for any formation that sees itself as a social group to other others. The perception of whiteness or the feeling of eliteness is a feeling that those who hold certain areas of privilege can fall into. However, the elite consciousness in Turkey is neither able to read the developments the country is going through properly nor in a position to cope with the consequences this situation produces.

Turkey is a rapidly developing country. The increasing rate of university education and the country's overall growth and enrichment are expanding and diversifying the elite stratum more and more.

It is clearly seen that the Republican-secular elites that were the subject of the study are not very happy with this expansion. They feel that the new elites are sharing their position, and that this reduces their own privileges. While taking refuge in a simple nostalgia for modernity with an extremely archaic protective reflex, they are drowned in complex feelings.

With these feelings they do not hold back from stating that they see the rise of the new elites as a threat to themselves.

They feel a neighborhood pressure upon them.

True. But the source of this pressure is only the existence of others. And the only way for them not to feel this pressure is nothing other than the most natural right of others to exist being attacked.

Most of the survey participants cannot tolerate seeing both headscarved women and Kurds in their social circles,

and they also regard the newly educated experts who came with the AK Parti government as "second-class diploma holders." Evidently, even if the existence of so many diploma holders means the country's development and the rise of its education level, this does not make them happy at all. Because they see that as the education level rises, no environment remains to feed their feelings of eliteness.

There is truly no way of relieving this "neighborhood pressure."

All the participants say that while attending the Republic Rallies, democracy could be suspended in the face of the Sharia danger, and that if there were a coup at that time they would support it.

Having studied in Turkey's best schools constitutes one of the sources of their eliteness.

This alone is, in fact, a good occasion to think about the function of these "best schools." So the school gives people not only technical education but also instills this delusion of "eliteness," accompanied by an elitist ideology.

The only thing that stands out in this delusion of eliteness is shallowness and simplicity. In all their views on "minorities," "conservatives," "the headscarf" and "Kurds," the thing that stands out most is this intolerance and simplicity.

This eliteness, which shows no sign of quality, condemns the power struggle in Turkey too to poor quality at every level.