Anil Ozturk

Every person should strengthen their heart and their family's with confidence that justice and compassion guide us toward peace. May we trust we will find reconciliation and understanding, for all people are part of one human family.

O gün yalnızca altın değil, adalet de tartılmıştır. Ve kefeye hak değil, kılıç konmuştur. İşte tam da bu yüzden vardır hukukun üstünlüğü; kuvvetin sınırı olsun diyedir. Ve o yüzden zorunludur erkler ayrılığı, çünkü denetlenmeyen güç yalnızca teraziyi değil, hukuku da devirir.

Fakat kısa sürede anlaşılır ki, ağırlıklarla oynanmıştır; hile yapılmaktadır. Bu adaletsizliğe itiraz yükselir. Brennus ise hiçbir şey söylemeden ağır kılıcını çeker, terazinin kefesine fırlatır ve haykırır: “Vae victis!” — “Vay haline yeniklerin!”

Sami Selçuk, Kendini Tüketen Hukukun Dramı’nda anlatır: MÖ 390’da Roma düşer. Galyalılar, aylar süren direnişi kırarak şehre girer. Galyalı başbuğ Brennus, kuşatmayı kaldırmak için Romalılardan bir miktar altın ister. Romalılar çaresiz kabul eder, bir terazi kurulur, altınlar tartılmaya başlanır.

a man and woman are dancing in front of a sign that says sana söz ALT: a man and woman are dancing in front of a sign that says sana söz

İstanbul'un en çok nesini seversin diye sorsalar, Ankara'ya dönüşünü derim; Yahya Kemal bilememiş.

Khrushchev paused, surveyed the room and said, "Comrade, stand up and identify yourself." No one dared rise. With a knowing look, Khrushchev replied, "You see now why I kept quiet."

Some lessons from history need no explanation. The silences of today speak just as loudly. (2/2)

It is told that in a powerful moment at the party plenum, Khrushchev denounced Stalin's atrocities. From the crowd, someone challenged: "Why were you silent back then, comrade?" (1/2)

Some lessons from history need no explanation. The silences of today speak just as loudly. (3/3)

Hukuk, teorinin sınırlarına hapsolmuş bir hayalet gibi; varlığı sözde tanınıyor, ancak eyleme gelince kimse yerini gösteremiyor.

"Ne mümkün zulm ile bi-dâd ile imhâ-yı hürriyet
Çalış idrâki kaldır muktedirsen âdemiyetten"
— Namık Kemal, Hürriyet Kasidesi

Ben bunu hissettim, Dante haklı, tecrübeyle sabit. Gidip kurtulmak mı? Gidenler asla kurtulmuyor. Ben vatanıma aidim, vatanım bana ait.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ (3/3)

“Başkasının ekmeğinin ne denli tuzlu,
başkasının merdiveninden çıkmanın
ne denli zor olduğunu göreceksin."
— Dante, Cennet XVII (2/3)

Yurtdışına gitmeyi değil de yerleşmeyi her düşündüğümde, Dante'nin şu dizeleri aklıma düşer:

"En sevdiğin ne varsa hepsini bırakacaksın;
bunun gurbet yayının attığı
ilk ok olduğunu anlayacaksın.” (1/3)

"My thoughts are not for man to understand. My logic is my own." - the black box problem from the AI perspective

Internet person: Stop using th em dash (--) Me: Come and take it.

I will die on this hill.
#writing #writingcommunity #amwriting #satirist #comedy #humorist #emdash

Western democracies are just beginning this decline. In other places, we already see the end stages and the suffering they cause. This isn't theoretical anymore - it's reality.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

We're in a worldwide crisis where expertise means nothing, institutional wisdom is ignored, and the fundamental rights of marginalised people are sacrificed to appease angry crowds. The centre cannot hold when the crowd decides the truth.

Today, our courts and other constitutional safeguards have lost their courage—cowering before public anger. They've abandoned their duty to protect fundamental rights because they believe the dangerous myth that majority opinion can't be wrong or simply out of fear.

Strong democracies once upheld core values through brave courts and, when needed, decisive action by institutions defending constitutional order against mob rule. Sometimes, this meant uncomfortable, unorthodox interventions, but they preserved the system.

The most dangerous flaw in democracy is weak protection for minorities from what Tocqueville called the "tyranny of the majority." When 51% decide who deserves rights, the unpopular face real danger. We're seeing this play out right now in countless ways.

Without proper safeguards, democracies easily fall to populists and demagogues. Those who exploit anger and fear will always outperform those trying to explain nuanced, complicated solutions. This isn't new—it's human nature.

The results of treating the "voice of the people" as the "voice of God" are evident in today's politics. Emotion beats reason every time. Quick reactions win over careful thought. And we're all paying the price.

Democracy crumbles when people vote without thinking deeply. Burke warned centuries ago that mistaking the public's voice for divine wisdom is a dangerous error we're seeing everywhere now.

I don’t like that social media -the Internet- forces us to simplicity. It’s too distracting. Needing to be heard makes us lose sight of the ‘quality’ of the content itself. High-quality work is not so these days unless published in some high-quality medium.

Is this about living as well? It's strange how writing and living are so alike. Quoting Emerson, ‘It is not the length of life, but the depth of life.’

The question is, did we learn to humble ourselves on the way? I don’t know. But we at least learnt to be measured in our kindness (yes, unfortunately) and our cruelty, arrogance, and hurtfulness. Not all things got better, but many things did. There's still hope.

One of the most meaningful religious-mythical narratives I loved as a child was that of the Tower of Babel. I feel like these are the times as meaningful as those were. We are close to the opposite of when the Creator did not like humankind's arrogance and divided us into languages.

With writing, we do things that no animal can do. We trust in it. It is faith, it is law, it is business. With the Internet, we can exchange everything with almost anyone, and with AI’s enhanced auto-translation abilities, the language barrier is decreasing.
#Writing

I think the most powerful benefit of the Internet is bringing something to read to entire billions. ‘Writing’ is one of the most significant inventions of humankind. With it, we remember. With it, we exist.
#Writing

Today, I explored the creative power of DALL-E to craft images depicting peace. The outcomes were truly impressive. #AIart