What is overlooked in tabloid politics

If a country has sufficient human and material resources and a bad economy, there is a big problem with its politicians. In developed countries, the function and limits of the politician are determined by the law; in underdeveloped countries, politics always tends to expand its functions and limits to the detriment of society. Daron Acemoğlu's book "Why Nations Fail" was translated into Turkish as "The Fall of Nations". The book basically explains how the institutional structures that develop depending on the functioning of politics in a country affect the success of the country in terms of inclusiveness and exclusiveness. The difference in income and development between settlements separated by a border line in the same geography is the most concrete indicator of this. 

When institutional structures and rules start to change according to individuals in a country, exclusionism begins. Exceptions always tend to expand for certain groups. Politicians start to use the power to govern the state for their own interests through dirty dealings. For them, concepts such as public interest and national interests no longer exist. After a while, they begin to seek to protect the corrupt order they have created and they do even dirtier things. Because they know that the only thing they will lose when they leave power is not the power to be in power. For this reason, they create a large mass of criminals who are loyal to them. Thus, more people will fight for them. The established order becomes indispensable even for opposition politicians. This is how the "dictatorship of politicians", typical of all underdeveloped countries, is formed. Over time, the laws limiting them disappear, and they begin to defend their interests more and more fiercely against criticism.

In such a society, the only right of the people to have a say is to go to the polls at election times, and that only happens in an environment where the government allows it and the opposition tells the people "we will protect your interests, sit down". However, the concept of democracy, which has been expanded over thousands of years with all the historical accumulation of humanity and the set of values formed by this accumulation, does not suit anyone. Even the people, who willingly hand over control of the chains attached to the rings around their necks to politicians, are not in favor of it. Hegel explains this situation very well with the "master-slave dialectic". In such structures, the people treat politicians as "the image of God on earth".

The worst part of corrupt orders is that almost everyone accepts voluntary servitude because they cannot be sure of the new order that will be established if the corrupt order is destroyed. Knowing this, politicians become more brazen and more thieving. Such systems are often described by the term "kleptocracy". In these countries, politicians (more often those in power) do not consider themselves limited by the law and they get richer while the people get poorer. Again, in such structures, a specialized religious class is formed that works to persuade the people to accept their fate. Civil society is never allowed to develop and demand participation. For this reason, civil society organizations are required to exist as visible and dependent structures. 

When the dictatorship of politicians becomes entrenched (institutionalized), society enters a spiral in which values become obscured, education begins to deteriorate, production declines, and gambling and rent economy reproduces itself. The intellectual segments of society are somehow silenced, preventing the public from perceiving what is happening. The media, whose main task is to ensure that the public is fed from alternative sources of information, turns into a dog tied to the garden by the political establishment, attacking anyone who comes near it with drooling saliva. In this environment, an army of purchased "trolls" on social media is on duty to hide real problems from the public agenda. The system is dirty enough that it is almost impossible to know where these people are funded. 

In order to detach the public from economic reality, both the government and the opposition appear before the public with tabloid agendas. A TV series, a sporting event or a success story can occupy the public for days. Politicians come out and spew nonsense on the public as if it were the biggest problem of the people. The people become unable to question the source of the poverty imposed on them by the corrupt system. If they try to question it, politics immediately generates a new antagonism. Either a terrorist who is an enemy of society is created, or an identity politics that antagonizes society comes into play.  Sometimes this situation also plays into the hands of the public.

For example, in an institutional structure that determines milk prices, government agents who have nothing to do with the issue are included. While input costs rise, the price of the product is prevented from rising. While the public is caught up in the unbearable lightness of buying cheap milk, they are not interested in the fact that the producer is withdrawing from production due to losses. The same can happen in many areas of the agricultural sector. A parasitic system is created where the producer cannot make a profit, but the trade makes exorbitant profits in the meantime. When the corrupt system becomes so widespread, it becomes more difficult for anyone to risk its collapse. When producers withdraw from production, capital groups, in cahoots with politics, deal a fatal blow to production by importing from abroad and on the other hand pocket the incentives they receive from the state.

The withdrawal of the producer from production eliminates the independence of production. The producer who cannot sell his lemons cuts down the trees and builds a housing estate in their place by giving the politician his share and achieves short-term economic prosperity. When a dairy farmer slaughters his dairy cow, meat prices remain stable in the short term and then rise astronomically. Re-entering production in these areas becomes much more costly than before. Because time is also a cost factor. As the current account deficit increases with the import card, economic independence is also jeopardized over time.

In corrupt systems, politicians act as if there is an unnamed company. The political organization called the state turns into someone's father's farm. The politician who is in over his head does not provide services to the people who do not vote for him, and does not even care about their worst sufferings. Because he sees all state institutions as his property. This is the last point that political dictatorship can reach. From this point on, security problems start to increase and security problems that are too complex to be prevented put a very heavy bill in front of the country. It would be wrong to say that this bill is paid by the whole society. As Orwell said in his book "Animal Farm", "All animals are equal, but some are more equal".  

Social security is shelved. Pension rates for pensioners are changed retroactively by circumventing the law. But politicians are untouchable. They can happily live their lives as a parasitic class feeding off the taxes paid by the public. The people continue to cover the deficits of these parasites by paying more taxes. But the people are also content. Religious symbols and rituals can be practiced freely. In such an environment, there is no need to become a terrorist by asking for more.  Besides, who would bother with the realities of the economy, with the real problems of the people, when they can create television series based on extremely sad lives and have fun with them?

What I have written above is purely theoretical and has nothing to do with practice. Otherwise, is it possible for the country to be in such a state of disarray with all its institutions and for the entire population to be distracted by tabloids? Is it possible for irresponsible politicians to worry about the "house and home" of soap opera characters? Is it possible that the conditions deemed favorable to the producers are not reflected on the traders? Is it possible for clergy to enter schools and provide religious education? Is it possible for the state to turn a blind eye when state officials providing public services are attacked? Is it possible for a country's honorable army to be framed, for its high-ranking commanders to rot in prison and for that army to be gradually drawn into the disgusting swamp of politics? Is it possible for the ruler of a country who is responsible for everything to say "if they don't vote for me, let them die"? Of course it is not possible. At least someone should at least come out and say, "No, this is not enough. Enough!", right? After all, humanity is not dead yet, it is just dying...