gunduz-aktan-kitap-soyledikleri-ve-yazdiklari

WHAT HE SAID AND WHAT HE WROTE
Evidently, cultural relativism is racism with religions overtones.
As we will see, the mechanism underlying racism and cultural
relativism is one and the same.
Dear Guests,
Keeping in mind the assumptions that I have made, I now turn
to the core issue of the conference. I am of the view that racism is
nothing more than a specific psychological mechanism. Real life
issues such as economic crisis, unemployment, increase in the
number of foreigners or historical traumas such as wars, defeats
and invasions, or evolution in belief and ideology systems such as
religious bigotry, humanism, the Enlightenment, romanticism,
secularism, recent emphasis on respect for human rights and
freedom etc. have their own effects on racism. But, they cannot
change this psychological mechanism.
This mechanism is also called scapegoating. It is as old as
humanity. Human beings project their sins, guilty feelings and
other unwanted parts of their character onto a person or a group,
chosen for their different features. Then they punish the victim or
victims for their own sins. They redeem themselves at the expense
of the victim. Since projection is an unconscious process, we are
not cognitively aware of it.
This statement raises a set of guestions. Why are the people in
the Protestant areas of western Europe more prone to projections
What are the characteristics of the victim What is special with
racist projection, since projection is a universal mechanism
Before I embark on elaborating responses to questions, I wish to
make one point clear. I am neither atheist nor agnostic. But I belive
that we, the ordinary mortals, can feel God only imperfectly due to
our still somewhat primitive psychic organisation. Those who were
able to overcome their existential limits and perceived God in His
wholeness are prophets whom my analysis does not concern.
I am sure, you have already guessed the purpose of this
disclaimer. I will try to focus my analysis on religions as the main
component, indeed the very basis and the source, of culture, and
see as to whether a misuse of religion leads to antisemitism and
racism. What I mean is that, because of our deficient psychic
organisation, we transform, or degenerate religion in such a way
that racism, this demon of history, arises as a by-product.
122
Gündüz Aktan