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The real problem is deep down

Just as calling the recent developments throughout the Arab world spring is not accurate, it is

also incorrect to label what started in Taksim a Turkish spring. What we are witnessing aresocial eruptions, and keeping the nature of the semantics of these eruptions in mind, I think wecan compare them to the process of dehiscence, the bursting open of seedpods.

These sudden social explosions can happen anywhere in the world, just as they did in Egypt's

Tahrir Square. Think for a moment about how some of the 400,000 Israelis pouring into Tel Aviv

city squares for recent protests were holding signs that said March like the Egyptians!

And so now we find ourselves facing a deep-rooted socio-political event that can be viewed and

thought about from a number of different perspectives. Although the immediate rupture at deeper

levels as a result of built-up stress and a number of triggering factors is the same no matterwhere in the world you might go, the surface structures differ from place to place. For example,

the social eruptions in Egypt led the way to making certain expectations possible for the

Egyptians, while in Syria, they led the way to a bloody civil war. In fact, the reasons were the

same, but the outcomes were very different.

It is not possible to analyze all at once the various factors that have played a role in these recent

events. It is possible to highlight the basic sociological, political and economic dimensions that

played roles in these events, but this is still not enough to bring us to the real, deeper problem. In

fact, when we think of the visible, outward factors as the reasons for all this, we are misled.

On first glance, our assessment is this: These social eruptions first occur in modern cities, and

afterwards, like stones that are thrown into still waters, they begin to create ripples that spread

outward, which means that the true quality of these ripples is a sociological one. The fact that

these social eruptions take place first not in villages, provincial towns, or smaller cities, but rather

in large city centers, indicates their modern and post-modern characteristics.

It should also be noted that city-based social life is filled with tension. The stress of extremely

high levels of population has and increases the potential for clashes. Laboratory tests done on

rats show that when you increase the number of animals in a small space, tension and clashes

also increase. The behavior of two rats is far different from what it becomes when you increase

the numbers to three, five, 10 and beyond. The more rats, the more stress and fighting. In a city

of just 5 million, it is difficult that people live naturally as a society. We are talking about crowding

of a level that everyone is tired of, and this population that we seem to approach as a must

actually harbors within it high levels of violence. When normal people put on the uniform shirts of

the football teams they support on the weekend and head out to yell and scream on the roads on

the way to the stadium, this is an outward manifestation of the stress and anger that have built up

on the inside. The widespread violations of rights and rules in traffic, and the transformation of the

smallest arguments into big fights in traffic, are also another manifestation of this situation.

Crowding also plays an important role in the increase in crime rates, and even domestic violence.

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While the triggering factors might be different in every country, the unfolding of the events is

influenced very little by organizations with clear plans or programs. In these new social eruptions,

there is no charismatic leader, the events start without organizations backing or guiding them,

and not under the full supervision of any particular political view or party. Local extensions of

foreign countries (like certain civil society organizations, associations, groups) may try to exert

their own influence over the process. And then, many segments of society that would normally

never come together suddenly find themselves all yelling the same slogans as one in the same

city square (like Tahrir or Taksim). The police then use excessive force, and as the politicians and

leaders affected by these events start to speak out in imperious ways, the crowds only grow like

avalanches. The real problem lies in the depths of politics.