Banning a thought only makes it flourish
According to Twitter’s latest Transparency Report, in the last six months of 2014 Turkey requested the removal of content from 2,642 accounts. Some 62 accounts and 1,820 tweets were withheld. Out of the 85 withheld accounts in the world, 62 are from Turkey. We have become the country that withholds the highest number of tweets.
This must be because the number of coup-lovers and terrorists in our country is so many times higher than in other countries.
With the domestic security package that just passed in parliament after fistfights and brawls, the number of coup-lovers and terrorists in the country will apparently increase.
Taking to the streets to voice a complaint will be considered a terrorist act; whoever dares do this will be considered a terrorist. The scarf you hold to your face when you are exposed to tear gas will be the reason for your arrest.
The extraordinary powers given to the police will abolish the right to life, personal security, and freedom of expression.
Expressing our views, feelings and thoughts will be abruptly blocked by the state. We will face oppressive treatment because of our views, feelings and thoughts. We will directly or indirectly be condemned or accused.
We will not be able to express our thoughts wherever we wish; we will not be able to debate them.
In a place where there is no freedom to criticize, there is no freedom of expression. When there is no freedom to criticize, then there is no valid opposition. When this does not exist, then we do not have the opportunity to attain what is good for us.
There will not be a democracy. There will never be an advanced democracy.
In a place where everybody can think as they wish, speak as they wish, write as they wish and express themselves as they wish, governments do not silence the voice of citizens who think differently from them. They cannot.
In those places, ultimately whatever the people want happens. Not what half of the people or the other half of the people want. People’s wishes might clash, but common ground is found.
Common ground cannot be found without crying loudly, without discussing our feelings and thoughts with our faces open or masked, with our heads covered or not, on the street, on the phone and on the computer.
Besides the domestic security package, any move that restricts freedom of expression is an attack on an individual’s personality, honor and reputation.
But in fact, what will be will be.
If you put a stopper in people’s mouths, if you pound their chests for no reason, then it will only increase strains. You will trigger much stronger explosions.
In a way, the history of humanity is actually like this.
By banning, you make a though live more vigorously, let alone destroying it.
That thought will find its way and overflow its banks. Unfortunately, it will end up hurting more.
It’s not me saying this. It is history saying it. There are many examples of this happening.
You also know this very well.
Let us assume that you have saved the day for now. What about tomorrow? Are you ready to carry the burden of the disasters that will erupt tomorrow, and their pain on your conscience?
