Expectations for the future always form the content of dreams. For communities, who fail to unite around the “common dream”, “disintegration” is an inevitable end. The “Ottoman dream”, which surrounded three continents, continued for 300 years. The unionists were chasing a “New Ottoman” dream; however, that dream turned into a nightmare. This dream, which sparkled in 1908, had been lost between the moans of the “Balkans Defeat”.
The Russian revolution in 1917 was a common dream; however, in a short time it turned into a “prison of nationalities”. An “Iron Curtain” had been cast between the Soviet Bloc and the rest of the world. With the “Berlin Wall” and “nuclear fences”, both worlds had been separated. The revolution, which had been actualized with a common dream, had been put on hold by means of Stalin, and, by means of “force”. When the Berlin Wall had been demolished, it had been understood that the 1917 Dream was already dead, and, that the revolution was presented alive within the armored cadaver.
Back in those days, the “American Dream” was being talked about, but nowadays it’s not. The US is only pursuing “sovereignty”. The “European Union” was also a European dream; now the number of people, who interpret this unfavorably, is gradually increasing. In his book entitled the “European Dream”, which had been published in 2010, Jeremy Rifkin states that the immigration problem had put the European Dream to an endurance test. The developments in Europe have shown us that Europe could not endure the test quite well.
A new racism that is wrapped around hostility towards Islam is developing in Europe. This wave is trying to push the immigrants, who helped Europe recover from the great destruction they faced in World War II, outside the boundaries. Europe, who lost millions of youngsters in the war, managed to recover with the “immigrant” labor force. If we are to talk about the “European Dream”, then we should also be talking about the immigrant who played an important role towards that.
While remarking that Europe had been trapped between two fires due to the low migration and birth rates, Jeremy Rifkin says, “The sad truth is; if there is no increase in the migration, from outside the EU, in the next decades, most possibly Europe will literally and metaphorically grow old and die.” This amounts to the death of the “Europe project”.
In the past, civilizations used to be full of the liveliness and dynamism of their youth, who would guide them in the future and create new and strong winds. The French and American revolutions had been carried out by young women and men. The immigrants, who came to the US, were prepared to make sacrifices in order for their children to have a better life. Wanting to raise children meant that they believed in the future. Thus, Rifkin asks, “Will there be a European dream before the population, who will be benefiting from it, believes in reproducing again?”
Despite various incentives, Europe still possesses a lower fertility rate compared to the other regions of the world. Rifkin, who remarks about the lack of new social glue that will unite 450 million Europeans on one objective, says; “If the European dream is to become real, that glue should be way stronger and adhesive than the present social glue, which connects people to the land and nation-states.” Without a doubt, we urgently need such glue.
The “Arab Spring”, which had been choked by the authoritative regional regimes’ cooperation and the West’s covered support, was a common dream. The youth potential of the Arabic world was suitable for a new common dream. Following the oppression of the Arab Spring, young masses are being scattered to extreme ends. As for the poor people of Africa, they are drowning in the waves of the Mediterranean Sea. “New Turkey" is the name of a dream. If we fail to actualize the envisagement of a common dream, which will embrace the community as a whole, it will always stay as a “fantasy”. As for the communities deprived of common dreams, neither a “constitution” nor “force” can keep them on their feet.
