Democratic civilisation is another important thesis of European civilisation which has to be experienced in the context of enlightenment and a new beginning. Intellectual renewal, which is an important part of it, actually keeps a safe distance from society and state and involves only a small number of determined and talented individuals. The democratic civilisation thesis, on the contrary, essentially refers to state and society, i.e. it obliges people to come to terms with them.

Unsuccessful real socialism both complicated the situation and required new options to be found. Europe forms the right wing of democratic civilisation and is at the same time holding it back. Further progress seems impossible, owing to the strength of capitalism. The right, according to capitalist logic, remains the most rational position. The experimental wing was left impotent by real socialism. It is not likely that the so-called “underdeveloped countries” will be able to fill this void – at best some are included as extensions on the peripheryb of the system.

In performing the democratic process, both on the social and the political level, the Middle East can become an antithesis. The democratisation of society, either by reform or by revolution, is the crucial issue. As with all revolutionary mass movements, women and young people form the avant-garde of this process and represent its strongest democratic elements. Women must take a special position in the democratic awakening of the Middle East. Despite their eminent and creative part in the neolithic community, women have been degraded and deprived of their rights ever since class societies were established. Their untapped strength might become the mostvivid and active part of the struggle. Without it, democratic society will hardly prevail.

Women of the oppressed nations can position themselves as real initiators and mothers of the democratic offensive on the left of the rising democratic
civilisation, thus establishing the necessary antithesis. They are the strongest pillar of a free and equal society. If in the Middle East the democratisation of society becomes an antithesis, it will primarily be due to women, and secondarily thanks to young people. The avant-garde role of women in the democratisation of Middle Eastern societies already bears the marks of an antithesis for the worldwide process.

Similarly, young people understand the contemporary world of the Middle-East as something that renders them helpless and offers them no perspective. (Sacrificing one’s life in the name of some nationalist or religious leader as a supposed martyr, thereby killing or injuring a great number of people, is definitely no perspective.) Today’s communications and information technology allow young people to grow up and develop a consciousness very early. Because of this, democracy might grow roots in the Middle East in a very short time. Geographic and cultural similarities throughout the region, and shared economic needs and water resources, might form the basis for a democratic federation of the entire region.

The only obstacle before us is the despotic state, the octopus at the centre of all political institutions. However, the more capitalist civilisation advances in its globalisation, the less chance there is of continuing the old ways. Globalisation from outside and the rising opposition of the people, stimulated by technology, seem to be dissolving despotism as a political means. This process has already started, and the antithetic existence is strengthened by an understanding of these conditions.

These are the crucial developments that lead me to believe that an intellectual revolution, hand in hand with democratic reformation, will open up the opportunity for the Middle East to become an antithesis.

 

PRISON WRITINGS- THE ROOTS OF THE CIVILISATION 1

PART 5 THE DEMOKRATIC CIVILISATION PROJECT

LEADER ABDULLAH OCALAN