Those Are My Principles: Ece Temelkuran

The Turkish writer and novelist on the state of global democracy

My problem with the word democracy to begin with is this: what kind of democracy are we talking about? There is a growing reaction against democracy. From where I stand, what I see is the crisis of the capitalist system coupled with a broken form of democracy.

It is natural and understandable that people have lost their faith in democracy on a global level – and especially in those countries where we thought the system was mature and well-developed. For decades, especially since the end of the Cold War, the democratic ideal has failed to fulfil its promises: the fundamental contract of equality has been cancelled by capitalism. I believe the unleashed form of capitalism called neoliberalism has taken over.

People are reacting to this reality in various ways, whether it be authoritarian regimes, general cynicism against democracy or a reaction to politics. People are trying to find another system which fulfils the promises of human equality, dignity and justice.

The most important achievement of neoliberalism or capitalism is that it made us believe that it’s not an ideology – it’s the given order and the natural way of things. Many people think that this is the world – that capitalism is the world. Many people think America is capitalism. Many people do not realise that both America and humanity are bigger than this.

There are many books on this, including my How to Lose a Country (2019). Much of the debate around these things evades the question of capitalism, and the way in which neoliberalism deformed the idea of democracy. The idea is that if we can fix one or two things in the political machine then everything will be back to normal. The analysis also often outsources the problem to the people – we say the people don’t believe in democracy enough and that it needs to be reinvigorated.

The question became: Why did we lose our faith in democracy? There was a massive panic after Trump came to power and there was a desperate mobilisation. We watched it from the other part of the world with pitiful eyes.

What drives Trump, Modi or Erdogan supporters? They are reacting to a system but a system with a narrative they’ve been given. It is an essentially emotional narrative which tells the supporters that they are victims, their pride is broken and if they come together and support this strongman, he will go to the power hub, defend their pride and make the elite kneel down before them.

It was the politics of emotions, which they are masters of, which brought those people together. The victimhood was true – it was to do with inequality. But then there was another bit manufactured victimhood. Many of us cannot know what ordinary people feel in life. We cn approach it, or glimpse it, or understand it – but e cannot feel it. We do not know the urge to feel part of a greater thing which we are living right now. These strongmen, these political leaders, promised them that, they promised them meaning and a cause – these are the things which progressives and the left in general have left behind. So we need to go back to emotion, cause, faith, meaning.

I left my country in 2016 because the fear was paralyzing and it was impossible to do any intellectual work. I moved to Zagreb on the borders of Europe. I was watching the same movie on a bigger screen with more high definition. I was going around in Europe and the Unite States saying: “This is what is going to happen to you.” It took them quite a long time to accept that the crisis they were going through was different. They thought things happened in Turkey because it’s a Muslim country, in India because it’s a crazy country – Western exceptionalism blinded them to what was really going on.

But they forgot there are seven easy steps from democracy to dictatorship, which I outline in How to Lose a Country. They just don’t always happen in the same order. So what’s the common reason? It was capitalistic ideals taking over democracy. It was eating up what was left of democracy.

Modi and Trump were caricatures of human cynicism.  There were serious articles in 2016 that Trump would only last one year – and now there is a Supreme Court hearing about his immunity. The fact is, fascism – and I do not call it rightwing populism anymore – is inherently present in the neoliberal system and we realised it too late.

Some people expect to see people in army boots when we talk of fascism. This was necessary in the 1930s when there was a massive workers’ movement. Today, there is no such massive strong workers’ movement or leftist movement. Actually, they can come to power through clownish figures such as Trump.

It was painful to see American democracy come to pieces in four years. Modi, Erdogan – these are political animals. They had fascist of political Islamist organisations which had been therefore decades. Trump had nothing, just funny hair and a television show and we saw the whole mechanism coming down.

We have to do something globally about this. We have to share information – and my part of the world has to share experience and the West share the stamina. Ask anyone in Turkey or India, and they’re exhausted. First, we have to come to the agreement that the system as it currently stands is inhumane.