Labor Pains

I don't know exactly when it started. I'm not even sure if we'd be right to turn our cameras to 2020 and say the Covid-19 pandemic will have a special place in history. But there's a sense of unease in the air. It's as if everyone around me feels trapped. A sense of meaninglessness in everything they do, an inability to find the meaning they seek, questioning the things they normally enjoy, the bitter taste left in the mouth by all the activities they strive to do. Stories of violence that catch our eye more often in the media. Now you might say that people know their counterparts. This is obviously what you see from your window on the world. I often monitor myself with the same suggestion, but this time the situation is a little different: Interviews conducted by Gallup in late 2021 and early 2022 with approximately 127,000 adults in 122 countries revealed this painful period our world is going through with data. In fact, negative emotions such as stress, sadness, anger, and anxiety, which have been on the rise for the past 10 years, reached a new record high in 2021.^[1]

Undoubtedly, the responses of each country and each individual in the sample are based on their own subjective reasons. When we leave the in-depth research to the experts in the field, we see that our country occupies a position in this equation that requires careful consideration. It is sad, no matter how you look at it, that we rank third from the bottom in the world, after Afghanistan and Lebanon, in the area that Gallup calls the Positive Experience Index, which consists of components such as feeling listened to, being treated with respect, laughing, having fun, and learning something new. The same study ranks Turkey second in the world in terms of daily anger levels and third in terms of experiencing daily sadness.

Humans are emotional beings, and I don't think it would be too wrong to say that emotions rule the world. Even those who claim to be the most rational weave their arguments around their emotions, and their decisions and actions are also guided by emotion. Our thoughts and actions are under the sway of our emotions. I don't know whether it's the chicken or the egg—whether emotions drag us down or trigger our actions—but there's a depressing atmosphere hanging over us, like the ever-present Monday blues. 

My intention is not to drag anyone further into pessimism. Especially since the ancient teaching that says, "It's fate, don't mention it," has taught us that the way to draw only the positive possibilities into our lives is through positive speech, I have no intention of stirring up the issue further. On the other hand, the brave and questioning student inside me, constantly raising their hand from the back row, tells me that I must not confuse optimism with Pollyannaism. The illness must be diagnosed completely and correctly so that the right treatment can be found. One should not shy away from outlining the current situation and ignoring the facts just to be optimistic. On the contrary, optimism should give us the courage to understand the current situation with all its variables, to outline it completely, and to get to the root causes of the problems. It should give us the strength to move forward after fully understanding the current situation.

This applies to this situation as well. Why is a society experiencing such emotional extremes? 

Can it be explained solely by economic background? 

The pot boiling on the stove is undoubtedly of paramount importance. On the other hand, could this also be a reflection of the fatigue and weariness that today's world, which prioritizes purely economic interests and shapes all life habits around those interests, placing economic relations at the center of all human structures, leaves in people? 

Does the picture also show the effect of carelessly filling time at work without taking ownership of the job, rather than simply being unemployed? 

Since shifting from being producers to consumers, from giving to taking, and from contentment to greed, has society lost its anchor? 

Could it be that their search for honesty, merit, trust, and sincerity is becoming increasingly unsatisfactory? 

All of this is possible, and more. Let's leave the social analysis to the experts, but such negative feelings are not sustainable. It's time to do something new and different, to transform. All this suffering should not be in vain; it should be the labor pains of a birth. A birth that will improve and transform society...  

^[1] https://news.gallup.com/interactives/248240/global-emotions.aspx

Emine Ebru Arslan