THE ENCOUNTER WITH THE PHILOSOPHER I.Ortabakar - M.Z. Demir May, 2013, Istanbul
I.O: Shall we begin with talking about yourself a bit? MZD: Please allow me now to refuse to talk about myself who is as wasted and expendable as yourself in the nihilistic state of existence created by global capitalist trinity. Page | 1
I.O: What? Excuse me. What are you talking about? MZD: By global capitalist trinity I mean the fundamental institutions of capitalism which is as globalized as latex condoms in the age which is not ours at all. These institutions are private property, profitability and the market. So if I am allowed to mess with the very fundamental and holy concepts of Islam and of Christianity I reach the formula of all formulas: Private property: Mecca of the Father Profitability: The Jihad of the Son The Market: The Holy Ghost of Allah In such conditions, it would be ridiculous to talk about a self, an individual who would be able to express a history of his own. You, me and the others who would witness to this encounter are all victims of the condom-less rape which is called the good life of a good citizen who is the perfect slave of a cannibalistic nation-state. I.O: Ok. I understand but are you talking about Turkey? Have you been in other countries as well? I mean are you able to compare different nation-states so that your interpretations would make any sense? MZD: Yes, I have been in Denmark for five years. So I have been able to compare different nation-states which are at the different stages of capitalist life. Mind you that I did not say capitalist economy but the capitalist life. For capitalism with its unquenchable and unbearable libido very well known as Page | 2
money is the only existential ground on which the ghost individual would exist only thanks to his absolute groundlessness. No money, no honey. No money, no fucking. No money no fucking-shitting-pissing life. In Denmark, there are 8 million or so pigs compare to 6 million or so human beings. In Turkey, there are at least a hundred million of sheep compare to the reactionary bourgeois class of pigs which is no more than a few thousands. In Denmark, you can easily make 50 Turkish Lira per hour. In Turkey, you are damn lucky if you can make the same amount per day. The difference between these two nation-states is hidden in an interpretative strategy which does not avoid the cruel realism of class structure of respective nation-states. There are of course common diseases such as the glorification of mediocrity and the deification of money-making. I.O: Well, what can be done then? Let’s say we accept your arguments about the kind of society we live in but these are not the kind of things we hear from the professors who are hired by the universities. They say that Turkey has become a global actor in the arena of international politics, that it has multiplied its NGP, that democracy for all is in the process of making, and that everything is all right despite some minor problems posed by Syria and the PKK. What kind of reality you live in? Or is there a reality at all? MZD: There are of course certain realities. Take the reality of business world. To struggle on the slippery ground of a business career, you must experience a process of self-prostitution and of self-nullification. So the business reality is in a sense a whorish and nihilistic non-reality. Yet, the reality of business Page | 3
is the only reality which is imposed on every single human being who is forced into that prostitution and nullification daily. No dignity if you are paid for something. No employment if you are a being with any sense of dignity. So what matters is not what your definition of a reality is but what kind of reality you live in. In other words, who is paying your credit card? That is the fundamental question which has not to be forgotten in questioning of any reality. Since the political romantic Turkish professors are paid by Republic of Turkey, their reality is only a product of their struggle to be able to pay their credit cards. Turkish nation-state is not a hundred years old yet. There is a very idiotic illusion in Turkey that current shareholders of the political power in Turkey have an antagonistic relationship with the founder and his vision of the Turkish nation-state. I cannot express how I disagree with this illusion. Kemal did not want to destroy Islam, though he hurt some Muslims along with some Kurds, Armenians, Greeks etc. He wanted to create a kind of Islam which is compatible with capitalist institutions and to conjure up a Muslim individual who gets along with ideology of the capitalist trinity. So the present stockholders of political power in Turkey is exactly what Kemal had wanted them to be. This means that Turkish nation-state has just found its true ground. But this also means that it is the final and ultimate vision of this very nation-state which is therefore doomed to a shameful destruction. I.O: Well, the PKK has just started to withdraw its guerrillas from North Kurdistan. This means that there will be no terror in Turkey. So, who is going to destroy the Turkish nation-state? Page | 4
MZD: I disagree. That the PKK guerrillas are withdrawing from the North Kurdistan does not mean that there will be no terror within the artificial borders of Turkish Republic. Rather, it means that there will only be the terror of Turkish state. North Kurdistan must be freed from the bloody hands of Turkish post-colonialism which feeds the vampire capitalist class of Turks as well as Kurds. No country for the old man. Even if the PKK declares its defeat in the face of Turkish state, even if the PKK integrates itself into the cannibalistic capitalist system under the supervision of Turkish postcolonialism; there will be some radical aristocrats who will liberate North Kurdistan and will establish a new land of money-less civilization where not a nihilistic state of existence but a state of existence of insurrection will come through. I.O: Is there any hope in that? Do you really believe that? MZD: I believe in nothing and I have no hope. For hope is for the mediocre slaves; not for the philosopher who has no hope and no fear. I.O: Have any of your works been published in Turkish? MZD: You should have asked whether any of my works has been published in any language. The answer is no. The philosopher is not a pet; he is a strayed dog. In everywhere in the world, only the pets are being published. My M.A thesis, Global Capitalism and Nihilism(2009) was going to be published but the cowardice of my supervisor was an obstacle for that. I translated and expanded the last chapter of this thesis in October 2012 and it has become Page | 5
‘Global Kapitalist Nihilizm’ which has been refused to be published by any kind of publisher in Turkey including Anarchists, Marxists and Socialists. So the only way for me was to publish my works on the internet. I just published
“Political Ontology of Destruction: Humoresque Variations-Anti-CanonsQuasi-Epigrams’’ on the internet. I.O: Why do you think it is so? MZD: You know that publication business only produces profitable works. Only sick music makes money today, as Nietzsche says; so only sick philosophy gets published today. I.O: What do you mean by sick philosophy? Do you think popular culture is sick? MZD: Not only is it sick but also degenerate and degrading. There are very few strong and independent individuals in Turkey as well as in the world today who would construct a culture which is not tainted by money so that a generation of intelligent and noble radical aristocrats would constitute a new reality in the present Turkey and in the globalized world. I deeply suspect that there will be any independent philosopher in the coming generation at all. A culture which is produced by, for and with money is bound to be a product of a sick philosophy. So popular culture is the only production which a sick philosophy would ever produce. I.O: Any messages to university students of the globalized world which is not ours? Page | 6
MZD: To those who are willing to sell themselves out for fat salaries and bonuses at the expense of a constant self-prostitution and a self-nullification, I wish peace and prosperity; though they will unlikely find any peace in their daily existence. What they will find is a miserable vicious circle which incessantly sharpens the instinct of self-preservation by the lust for selfgratification which always already ends up with a self-laceration. I.O: What about those who are not willing to sell themselves out for money but willing to destroy conventional capitalist moralities which are already rotten and decomposed? What about those who dare to challenge the state of affairs which is run by the capitalist vampires? MZD: I wish them the sharpest intelligence possible like poison, a courage like Kalashnikov and a will like the finger behind the trigger and like the bullet itself. I.O: Mr. Demir, thanks for your time. It has been great pleasure to talk to you. MZD: The pleasure is absolutely mine. In the capitalist jungle where cannibals and zombies rule, some must be tiger-tamers, cannibal-hunters and zombie-eaters.
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