TürkçeAn End Time Description
Mehmet Fatih Birgül*
I.
The millennium has come to an end. Now we're keeping track of time using a two-thousand-number dating system. Additionally, we have crossed the threshold of the first quarter of two thousand. We are unmistakably at the end of time, at the 'end of time.' However, I am referring to the appearance of the Dajjal, the Mahdi, or the Prophet. Eschatological beliefs such as Hz. sa's descent from heaven do not entail the 'end times.' Our time period is witnessing the end of our completely hopeless existence. That is why, for us at least, it is 'end time' in the sense of'miniature apocalypse,' which unambiguously refers to the time of death.
Today, persons born in the mid-nineteenth century are regarded as elderly, while those born in the late nineteenth century are seen as middle-aged. Those born in the early 2000s are currently in their prime years. Thus, if the elderly and middle-aged make their views on the landscapes of the first quarter of the two millennia, they can significantly influence the views of the young. Because eyes that have seen multiple eras have something to say to those who have only witnessed the present.
According to Aristotle, in order to properly comprehend anything, one must first understand why it exists. Without an understanding, this principle also applies to comprehending and evaluating the events that occur in the time period in which we live. However, because the 'end time' refers to 'human' actions and behaviors, it is vital to consider the preferences of the 'human,' who is the only being with free will. Therefore, when evaluating the current state of the world and humanity, it is important to remember that we are looking at a landscape formed by entwined fundamental and radical preferences and orientations, rather than an irresistibly moving and developing medium, as when dominoes fell.
After all, today is tied to yesterday, and yesterday to the day before, via an unseen metaphysical bond we refer to as 'time,' but which manifests in everything. This is why, in the first quarter of the twenty-first century, we can only understand sense of the world we live in by recalling the fundamental preferences and orientations that emerged a few steps earlier.
The day before, at the end of the nineteenth century, the Western civilization's intellectual environment, dizzy with scientific and technological advances, witnessed assertive statements in the twentieth century that science and technology would transform the earth into a paradise, and that humanity would even make a cure for death and attain an eternal earthly life. Scientific discoveries, which advanced at a breakneck pace through deep-rooted institutions, particularly universities, were rapidly transformed into technology in a very short period of time and with extreme dexterity. The discovery of numerous previously unknown or even unfathomable mysteries was, in Max Weber's pithy words, "shattering nature's spell."
Naturally, 'culture,' in the broadest sense of all productions that make people human, was instantly impacted by and developed in lockstep with all of these advances. A new Earth was constructed from the ruins of a shattered and collapsing Earth. The realms of mind and emotion began to be shaped by new words and concepts. Human rights, democracy, and freedom became the defining values of this era, permeating all facets of creative output. In any event, the fundamental tenet of this all-encompassing new worldview, which we refer to as'modernity,' was that humanity is perpetually progressing. For the first time in history, a literary genre known as'science fiction' developed, and numerous masters imagined humanity's future triumphs through science and technology. The pleasant atmosphere that prevailed during this time period produced Western types and heroes who always performed sensibly and were always 'civilized' and 'good' for whatever reason. After all, humanity advanced.
However, it was neglected that there were several profound inconsistencies in the basis of the contemporary Western civilization's construction process. After abolishing slavery, the West saw no reason not to enslave the entire world. The two primary goals of technology's uplifting services were to infinitely increase material power and money, and so to present the 'powerful' and 'rich' with a limitless number of options. Following the industrial revolution, the Western leading and directing systems systematically exploited not just the non-Western world, but also the individuals within their own societies.
Then came two world wars, the final one culminating in the unleashing of the atomic bomb. It has been demonstrated that science and technology are gradually turning the earth into a hell rather than a paradise. Science, which had discovered a cure for the human population's oldest adversaries, tuberculosis, plague, and cholera, had also created weapons capable of murdering hundreds of thousands of people in a matter of minutes. In such an environment, it was unavoidable that modernity, which had already displaced religion from the center of human life, would undergo a 'ideological' phase. Throughout the Cold War, the world was divided between two opposing poles on an extremely divergent and contradictory spectrum. Yesterday, in the last quarter of the twentieth century, the cold war witnessed to an end, as did the subsequent local wars. Numerous terrible confrontations and reckonings, major and little, witnessed place throughout the Balkans, Caucasus, Asia, and Africa. Because the liberal capitalist West had begun to alter the world's political, economic, and, of course, intellectual landscape.
The state of the world today and the problems it faces are clearly the result of the preferences of the political, economic, and intellectual entities that wield dominance. As a result, without an understanding of these 'formative' preferences, it will be impossible to produce healthy solution suggestions or to have a thorough understanding of the problems.
II.
Nietzsche, who exposed the Western world's tremendous hypocrisy in the nineteenth century, died in 1900. His tagline, "God is Dead," was the most dramatic representation of the'modern' West's metaphysics' fatigue. Dostoevsky's cry, "If there is no God, everything is permitted," on the other hand, had little effect on the overall tendency.
The absence of'metaphysics' is without a doubt the most fundamental aspect of today's world. This refers to the essential question that is at the heart of all inquiries, namely, "Why does existence exist?" The question is befuddling because of the thought's remarkable weakness, or even absence. "What is the purpose of the entity?" When we consider the question, we are compelled to inquire into its beginnings. Even though the answer cannot be found in this world, asking the source of existence, which is continually flowing and bouncing between existence and non-existence, gives an intuition that distinguishes human beings from animals. This intuition seems to be whispering something about life's meaning. The construction of modern Western civilisation, on the other hand, has limited existence to matter, thus closing the door to man's search for meaning beyond matter. "Every honor is a sham, every happiness is a sham; the beginning and the end of everything is completely nothing!" Tevfik Fikret summarized the conclusion.
The full appearance of the 'nihilism' predicted by Nietzsce in the previous century witnessed in the first quarter of the twenty-first century. The West will not be able to resist the nihilism that renowned thinkers foresaw. The West, on the other hand, is spreading it throughout the humanity. Upper concepts such as humanism, freedom, and democracy, which once whispered the meaning of life to humanity, are now completely meaningless and ineffective in the age of ideology. The filthy interest wars, particularly in the Muslim world, serve no other purpose than to enrich the wealthy and strengthen the powerful. Modernity, which claims to be liberating humanity from every enslavement, even that of God, and to make it more and more free, is enslaving humanity on a size and depth never seen before in human history.
Mankind is become a prisoner of his desires today, first and foremost. The most basic weapon of this bondage is economics, which is defined as "the science of meeting boundless human desires with restricted resources." Because the concept of 'infinite/infinite,' which is primarily abstract and so metaphysical, has been stripped of its metaphysical content and completely associated with man's material existence. In this view,'man' is viewed from the beginning as an endlessly consuming creature. But, at this point, the true question is: for what?
The secret to liberal capitalism's inevitable success is that it generates the 'human' type that will ensure its vitality and dominance on the earth. The person who believes that his wants are limitless feels compelled to produce and exhaust himself indefinitely.
A person who expends effort to obtain a large number of things that he does not require is likewise prone to overspending on the things that he does require. The fashion and model of household items, telephones, and automobiles owned by today's people become outdated with time and must be replaced. The eyes and ears have been invaded by stimuli, commercials, and campaigns that lead to perpetual spending. The'spending' dictatorship's techniques and instruments, which are directed at everyone, are destroying man's spiritual constitution. This is because it groups people together who have similar likes and sensitivities. As a result, despite the promise of ultimate freedom, the modern-day human being is passive and volitional to an unprecedented degree, thanks to suggestion and motivation.
The last role that modernity has given to humanity whose will has been castrated is understood through talks of post-humanism and trans-humanism. 'Human' is sought to be completely eradicated by the centers that hold material riches and power in its original and essential sense. Modernity wants to create and upload programs that will govern all human behavior, seeing humans as a collection of algorithms acting under the influence of recommendations appealing to their impulses. The goal of such a vision is clear: to transform the entire world into a developed factory, with people serving as the factory's machines.
It turns out that the methods that have been applied in the name of 'civilization' and extended to all humanity for a long time, step by step and very cautiously, are actually steps that lead to this final aim. Human beings who have completely forgotten about the hereafter accept the pleasures they acquire solely through their hormones as the primary purpose of their existence as hedonism spreads. With the blows it has been receiving for a long time, the 'family,' which is the essential unit of not only a person's material but also spiritual life, is going closer and closer to extinction. Sexuality, which was once thought to be the most convenient way of consuming, has long since left its native habitat. Nature's destruction and human nature's destruction are both manifestations of the same mentality.
III.
Matter reigns supreme in today's world. The basic characteristic of matter is that it can be sensed and counted. These two attributes, namely sensibility and quantity, also have a stronghold on human people. The goal of modern man's life is to see and be seen, to hear and be heard, and to touch and be touched. This is why the'modern man,' who is attempting to be replicated and fictionalized after his condition has deteriorated, cannot rely on the reality around him. Reality is rapidly being replaced by a virtual world created and broadcast by technology.
The current era's scenario is eerily similar to the virtual world that the internet has created and propagated. For the past century, the crippled human soul has been drawn to a completely fictional second reality in which man can be anything except himself. In this virtual world, you can experience all forms of violence, sadism, and sexuality in a fictional setting. As a result, the spiral that will eventually destroy man emerges: man is unhappy in his current reality. Because he was taught that it is made up of animals and a complicated creature that has formed entirely by chance, that it has no basic differences, and that it will die. In the ever-changing reality, a person who believes that his existence has no other dimensions than the worldly one is unhappy. The person who seeks happiness away from the reality that surrounds him in three-dimensional sights and stereo sounds is condemned to experience double unhappiness when he returns to the material reality after turning off the computer.
Humanity has devolved into a liquid that takes on the form of the container it is turned in. As a result, he appears to have discovered a means to ignore the spiritual agony that resides deep within his own creation, namely, that he does not genuinely belong in this world. The sciences gather an enormous amount of data in front of human beings, but all of this data is about things other than man's essence. As a result, the pre-modern ancient world's wisdom was lost. The motto "Science is to Know Yourself" has extinguished the need to know, which makes man a divine being, and has turned scientists to machines that produce knowledge in exchange for material gain.
Humanity has faced numerous crises throughout its history, spanning many periods and geographies. Some of these he was able to overcome, while others dispersed and decimated the living. The divine message of the Qur'an encourages humanity to use'reason' on a daily basis. The divine discourse, which was addressed to people in ignorance fourteen centuries ago, states that the use of'reason' will be the first step in overcoming the dilemma. This'reason,' however, is not the mind that the modern day has reduced to 'ratio.' Perhaps we should first ask people to think. But to think with'reason,' which will call people to the divine and unite them to it...
*Professor, Uludağ University