Pandemi Sonrası Dünyada Kapitalist Medeniyetin Eleştirel Muhasebesi

Abstract

There is a need for serious cultural and civilizational assessment in the postpandemic world for “nothing to be as they used to be”. Sorokin, a historian of culture in mid-20th century, who thought of human history as the rhythmic succession of three cultural mentalities, voiced the fact that the materialistic sensate mentality led the humanity into a cul de sac, from which exit can be possible only via embracing a new, idealistic mentality. The ideas of a traditional Muslim scholar of the same period, Said Nursi, seem confirming Sorokin. Macrosociologist Immanuel Wallerstein, who critically evaluated the major problems of the humanity in terms of a Christian metaphor of “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” (War, Civil War, Famine, and Epidemics), assessed the capitalist civilization favourably on some accounts. However, his final assessment is negative, arguing that capitalism could not solve the major issues, and even worsened them. The ideas of some critical social scientists like Mills, Myrdal and Galbraith confirm his position. In the final section, passing from science to art, I tried to outline what two sages, Bob Dylan and Yunus Emre, offer as a possible way out of our dilemmas.