Can the future of a society be established from outside?

Can the future of a society be established from outside?

On paper, new institutions can be created, new laws can be made, a new political order can be designed. But can a future really be established if all of these are disconnected from that society's own history, culture and common memory?

Maybe this is the point we are missing about the future: The future is not only designed; It can be experienced. In order to survive, people and society must establish a bond with their own lives.

Some futures are like a sapling sprouting from the ground. Its roots are in the past; its branches extend into the future. It does not repeat the past, but it does not break away from it completely. He changes, transforms, renews, but he does this from within his own life.

Some are like a tree brought from another climate. It is planted, watered, protected, but its roots cannot hold on to the new soil.

NATURAL CHANGE

I call the first of these "organic future" and the second "inorganic future".

The word “organic” here does not have a biological meaning. It describes the continuity a society establishes with its own historical and cultural texture. “Inorganic future” means that a model brought from outside cannot sufficiently integrate with the dynamics of the society in which it is placed.

This distinction does not mean rejecting everything that comes from outside. Societies never live completely closed to themselves. Ideas, institutions, science, art and technology circulate among societies. Humanity develops partly thanks to this exchange.

The issue arises in the difference between “taking” and “copying”. If a society can reinterpret the idea it has received from somewhere else to meet its own needs, adapt it to its own life, and over time make it its own, what comes from outside is no longer foreign. Organic change is a bit like this; We can also call this natural change.

NEW ORDER AND HISTORICAL ACCUMULATION

This idea also reminds us of the German philosopher M. Heidegger's questions on technology. Heidegger's real question was not whether technology was good or bad. What got him thinking was that we began to look at the world merely as a resource to be used and organized.*

If we see the mountain only as a quarry, the river only as an energy source, and the land only as a production area, we may miss the deeper relationship they have with us.

So, can we look at societies this way? Is it possible to see a society as a system that can be reorganized independently of its own history and internal dynamics?

Iraq is one of the thought-provoking examples of this problem. In 2003, Saddam Hussein's regime was overthrown by the US-led intervention. Then, not only the government changed; The institutions and political order of the state were also tried to be re-established. The army and the Ba'ath Party were liquidated; New institutions and a new political structure were created.

However, the new order could not easily integrate with the historical accumulation, sectarian and ethnic structure, political memory and internal dynamics of the society on which it would rise.

The point here is not to declare everything that is done right or wrong. There is a more fundamental question: Can the future of a society be established from outside without adequately taking into account the historical texture of that society?

ARTIFICIAL FUTURE

The Iraq experience makes it difficult for us to give an optimistic answer to this question. Because changing the institutions of a state is one thing, creating the social basis on which those institutions will live is another.

You can bring a sapling from another climate and plant it in the ground. You can water it and protect its environment. But you cannot make its roots meet that soil by command. This is exactly what I mean by “inorganic future”; We can also call this artificial future.

The future coming from outside cannot take root in the life of society. The main thing is to be able to produce the new by leaning on one's own past, to come to terms with the past when necessary, and to transform what comes from outside in one's own life. Because the future is not a commodity to be imported. The future cannot be established without roots!...

Maybe this is the question we should ask ourselves today: Are we really building our future, or are we settling into the futures prepared by others?

ABDULLAH DÖRTLERMEZ E. MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL OF STATE, HISTORIAN, LAWYER