Making a magpie on the roof speak sociology

"Philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it," Karl Marx wrote in the 11th of his Theses on Feuerbach. This saying has always had a special yet equally contradictory meaning for the left. The actions and revolutions they undertook in the name of answering the call to action that would change the world made the world even more unacceptable and unbearable, even by their own theories. The history of the socialist movement is therefore also the history of the transformation of utopian quests into totalitarian, authoritarian dystopias.

That being so, they must have believed that turning back to interpretation again would be a more solid path, for the path they adopted afterward was nothing but endless words, commentary and polemic. Increasingly, the typical leftist mode of action could not go beyond efforts to set cheese ships sailing with talk.

The work of interpreting the world is in fact not something to be belittled. Others will do the work, and you will put a name on that work. What the nature of that work is will acquire meaning through your words, and you will be able to cover the truth in whatever way you like with leftist chatter. The practice of getting ahead of action, practice and reality with theory, talk and words, and covering it up, of presenting it as something other than what it is, has in fact been given a name in Islamic literature. Let us not mention that name now.

While the left busied itself setting cheese ships sailing with talk, those who looked at the world from a more devout, conservative window went on doing work that truly changes the world. This was so in Turkey just as it was in the world. The left, instead of doing work, tried to make up for its lack of action with a multitude of words by naming what was done and theorizing what was done. The effort of theory thus also became the name of a break from reality, and they could not even notice it, because inside the world of theory they had created there was also a regime of truth, and this regime made what they did look pleasant to themselves.

Enough of these theoretical reflections on the left's perception of reality for now. This much suffices to explain its incapacity to read Turkey's reality and the history of Islamist or conservative politics.

The zinc factory opened in Siirt in recent days is, from whatever angle you look at it, an unprecedented story of action for Turkey and for the region in many respects: It is a real and effective step of solution to the unemployment, which reaches 35 percent in the region. Let us say that 15,000 people applied to a recruitment notice announced for this factory for a staff of 300, and you can think about the rest. With the investment level it will reach within 3-4 years, it is targeted to become a complete development dynamic, with the industrial employment it will provide for 7,500 people. In the strategic products Zinc, Lead, Silver and Sulfuric acid, it will end Turkey's dependence on foreign countries, and it will ensure that the country's minerals, which are already exported abroad as raw material, are processed in Turkey. Thus the technology of metal production in Turkey will be developed. The investment is being made with a Turkish and Qatari partnership, without taking a single kuruş of credit from the state or from banks. That is, foreign capital is entering Turkey, and moreover the Southeastern region, in direct industrial investment. Every dimension is a step full of gains for Turkey. If you go and ask the people of Siirt and the region, and even all of Turkey, what excitement this step has created in the region, the only answer you will receive is: an investment that gives hope and pride.

But the country's leftist (or, again exempting the sincere ones, would-be leftist) media, as usual, has deprived itself of the fortune of sharing the whole people's joy and excitement. According to them, nothing positive can happen in this country. Behind everything that looks positive there must be some wickedness, and if there is not, it must be invented. They looked at the scene, thought and pondered, twisted and turned it again, wondering where to grab it and put a name on it, and they put a name: Where does Yasin Aktay stand in this affair?

Unable to restrain himself, he gave his own answer: "From Sociology to Zinc Trading: A Portrait of Yasin Aktay."

You wretches, is this what you could see in that beautiful event?

And what kind of connection is this? A perfect magpie-on-the-rooftop connection.

Yasin Aktay is not, of course, a zinc merchant. No simple trading is being done here, nor brokering. On the contrary, production is being carried out with all its positive gains, and within the framework we mentioned above an epic is being written for this nation. If they asked, they would learn that Yasin Aktay, as part of a responsibility he undertook during his time as a member of parliament, is trying with heart and soul, but without expecting anything in return, without taking a single kuruş of fee and without being a partner in any investment, to take the lead in making or having made this investment and other investments in his hometown.

We said responsibility, yes. This is a feeling that those who constantly see themselves as creditors of society and feel no debt they owe to society cannot understand. On this occasion I would like to introduce an Islamist understanding that perceives being a member of parliament, or any office in politics, not as a lucky bird that has landed on one's head but as a responsibility placed on one's shoulders, and that sees itself not always as a creditor of society but continually as its debtor.

But suppose that sociologist were a zinc merchant: what would be the side of it that contradicts his being a sociologist? Are zinc merchants guilty, sinful, immoral? Do they do some harm to this nation that we do not know of? Moreover, when a sociologist engages in an action that takes the lead in establishing a zinc factory, how and into what has he been transformed?

Could there not be, for instance, a transformation such as not being content with interpreting the world but also venturing to change it?

Could this not be the name, quoting Marx, of the thing that you keep saying and saying but never manage to do

?

For instance, we said, let us keep opening it.