20th-21st Term Kırıkkale MP Kemal Albayrak: Thinking Without Thinking?

THINKING BEFORE THE FALL?

Reading Stefan Zweig’s essay An Evening in Vienna led me to realize that the writings of Osman Aydoğan Pasha—whose work I have long admired—continue to illuminate the present through the lessons of the past. It also prompted a question in my mind: Can unquestioning belief extinguish the ability to understand?

Iron bars on a window cannot stop sunlight from entering. Across the world, different events often reveal striking similarities—but only to those willing to see them. When people evaluate future disasters, they tend to focus on the outcome while ignoring the causes. That is where the distinction between understanding and believing becomes evident. I often wonder how many tragedies could have been avoided if humanity had learned to think before it stumbled. Pain never arrives all at once. Japanese philosophy teaches the importance of valuing time, effort, and everything we possess.

Those who lose the meaning of life often understand it more deeply than those who merely experience it. Once a person’s ability to distinguish right from wrong becomes paralyzed, saying “if only” can no longer repair the damage. Masks often conceal the true author of an action. Systems create pressure, security breeds fear, national unity can become obedience, and loyalty may replace conscience. The applause of crowds silences individual judgment. Collapse advances so gradually that most people fail to recognize it. Freedom disappears not in a single moment, but through countless small concessions. Thought itself reveals truths that otherwise remain hidden.

When organized ignorance gains power, it transforms conscience into unquestioning loyalty. Regret offers no remedy, and tyrants should never be mistaken for the innocent. When we admire someone, we excuse their faults; when we dislike them, we deny even their virtues. If you destroy the bridges you once crossed, you too will eventually face the waters beneath them. A truly enlightened person understands that morality is never something to be negotiated.

David Hume argued in An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding that human beings exist through the use of reason. It is through rational thought that genuine understanding emerges. Those who abandon reason and place blind faith in despots become the architects of decline. Traditional and mystical forms of learning should never obstruct analytical reasoning.

In The Road to Serfdom, Friedrich Hayek explains that when an individual’s livelihood depends entirely upon the state or economic interests aligned with political power, opposing authority ceases to be merely an intellectual choice—it becomes an existential risk. Every societal fracture begins within the human mind. Eventually, truth itself mutates.

Looking at recent events in our own country, many who failed to understand yesterday’s realities now cry out under today’s hardships. Their gathering is not accidental but driven by the desire to escape the consequences they once ignored. Silence creates an empty space in which oppression flourishes. People awaken only after disaster reaches their own doorstep. They ignored the suffering of others and sometimes even celebrated it simply because it belonged to a different neighborhood or political camp.

They questioned neither changes in the regime nor the normalization of harmful developments. Official narratives became accepted as unquestionable truth. One cannot help but wonder: When power changes hands, how will TRT’s production Century’s Night be rewritten, and who will adopt new narratives?

Societies that become supporting actors in someone else’s story can never discover the truth for themselves. Viewing the same fire through different windows does not reveal its true cause. Investigation and understanding are essential. Enlightenment must always follow a rational path, free from ideological bias.

Human beings often create their own hell. Throughout history, people have repeatedly demonstrated how easily they can become blind to truth. Those who hide their inner motives behind outward appearances inevitably live with the fear that everything concealed will one day be exposed. Every individual’s story becomes understandable only when the secrets they carry finally emerge.

Robert Musil’s novel The Man Without Qualities portrays the intellectual collapse of an era. Those responsible for the crimes of one regime eventually face judgment when that regime comes to an end.

To be truly human is to think and to remain compassionate. We must live by understanding the past. Reason, science, law, and morality all demand this. Everyone who reflects deeply should walk alongside the truth. Truth belongs to no individual. It can be lost, and it can be rediscovered.

Blind faith is the companion of ignorance; thoughtful understanding is the mark of wisdom. We cannot reshape reality according to our desires. History protects not those who merely remember it, but those who genuinely learn from it.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk once said, “History is merciless toward those who fail to foresee what lies ahead.”

It is equally merciless toward those who refuse to understand.

3 August 2026 🇹🇷
Kemal Albayrak