In the last year of World War II, by declaring war against Germany we announced that we were standing by the free world. We were in the "free world" when the New World Order was decided at the Yalta Conference. This was followed by the San Francisco Conference, the Marshall Plan and the Truman Doctrine. This was the politics that our government preferred in response to the threats from the Soviets. And until the Arab Spring, it continued to differentiate.
Turkey did not only prefer a state-level American politics. It also tended to Americanism in the style of modernization. Our modernization would now run through America and we would, in a sense, be Americanized. Sociologists such as Behice Boran, Mübeccel Kıray and Niyazi Berkes were raised in America and later returned to Ankara. They tried to speed up the modernization (basically development) of Turkey with their sociological theories. All of these academics were leftists. But they studied in America and they were upholding the modernization theory developed by the American sociologist Parsons. Accordingly, the Turkish society had to be modernized with state interventions. For this, tradition, village, rurality and religion had to change.
The practical manifestations of this theoretical Americanization process of Turkey are even more striking. There was a millionaire and right-wing contractor with his fedora and Impala car in every neighborhood and a religious approach that advocated preferring the people of the book to the irreligious Soviets. Turkey was being Americanized and modernized at one point. After losing the dream that Turkey had seen in Osman Gazi and Söğüt, it was now seeing the American dream that enchanted all social segments. While the anti-imperialist youth in the METU and Bosporus University were shouting slogans like “Down with America,” they ended up in America when they graduated. American films and series were imposing this dream on society through a state TV channel. The people would almost learn the streets of American cities. Dallas determined the agenda of Turkey. Everyone was talking about J. R.
Turkey came to adopt the American way of life. Now our cities are decorated with skyscrapers. We have many Manhattans. The shopping malls that appeared in America are the indispensable parts of our life. An American brand such as McDonald's determines the culinary culture of our youngsters. At these shopping malls, we consume fast food and watch Hollywood movies. American popular culture is a part of our life. We are fighting for cultural power. But popular culture crushes all political or ruling circles. Clothes, food, music and movies... They are all a product of this. And all of them spew out of the American dream. We do not even see this side when we talk about urban transformation. As we vociferously add the epithet of "our civilization" to every title, we are strolling through the popular world of Americanization.
Americanization was an ideology and a politic during the Cold War. It was therefore hard. For this, our youngsters were divided into two, right and left, like an apple: those who opposed the Americanization and those who advocated it. For this they were pitilessly killing each other. Today, Americanization has changed. Now the harsh ideology has been replaced by popular culture. Americanization continues to exist through films, brands, shopping malls and skyscrapers. This is a very apolitical infiltration. That is why it is a dream that engulfs all segments. It does not produce separation between the right and the left. It surrounds all segments, including the right-wing, left-wing and Islamists. All the youngsters want to go to America. They live with the dream of studying for their masters and doctorates in America while cursing.
Today, America is against Turkey by nurturing the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), giving support to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and with its harsh politics. We are all angry with American politics. But paradoxically, we continue to live in the American dream. We admire the goods it produces. Unless we overcome this paradox, it will be difficult for us to wake up from the American dream and have our own dreams. We can get rid of Americanism only by waking up from this dream.
