Why Aren't Young People in Türkiye Happy?

We have circle rules; it's worth stating them in a practical way. No one interrupts anyone. There's no right or wrong. One topic is discussed in a set order, and there are no words like "I agree" or "I disagree." You'll understand as we go.

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They're not happy because they can't give meaning to their lives. They're in a great void. Everyone senses that something is going wrong, but there's no knowledge of what's right, of how one should live. Life goes on in darkness, and they're looking for a light, a meaning: Why are we here, what are we doing in this world, how do we live rightly? They're unhappy because they haven't found the answer yet.

Yes, there's a great void, a meaninglessness, and young people especially are searching. Nothing fills this void. Video games, films, series, and if we go further, drugs: everything that shuts off my mind and puts me in a different reality, that lets me escape from here, makes me happy for a moment, but in the end doesn't satisfy. That isn't real satisfaction.

It doesn't become real satisfaction because whatever pleasure we get, pleasure and desire cancel each other out. Under the conditions we're in, it's impossible to find lasting pleasure. So we need to think about what real happiness is. Real happiness is the happiness that comes from building a right connection between people according to the laws of nature and living in that connection. We need to think about what will make us happy.

Humans are naturally social beings and part of society; they belong to society, they're not separate from it. But they isolate themselves, and that's why they're unhappy. The more they take part in society and the more they understand that they can find happiness in their connection with it, the closer the solution.

The answer to "What will I get satisfaction from?" is definitely not material things. Today I have five, tomorrow I want ten; the next day a hundred, then a thousand. There's no end to it. One rich person buys a better car, another a marina, another a jet. There's no material end to this. Satisfaction may lie in a simple life. Even people who already have money now prefer a simpler life over bigger houses. So where is satisfaction? A peaceful life where I won't chase too much, where is it? I think the right word is "peace."

On top of this, why are people unhappy? Because of the effect of the environment. In Türkiye there's no environment that brings out a person's own talents. When a person can't do what they want, they become unhappy. If I think not about receiving but about where I can give, my real talent, what I truly love and enjoy doing, will come out. If a person loves what they do and does what they love, they'll be happy.

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Actually we need to think very simply. Let's look at our daily life: what makes us happy? We eat when we're hungry; once we're full, even if they brought our favorite food it wouldn't mean anything. But there are moments when being at a nice table with the people we love, our family, our friends, can taste even better than the food itself. Maybe that's what we should focus on.

There's the "those were the days" story that adults always tell. My father tells it: "Back in our day we played marbles." Honestly, I can't make sense of it; it doesn't seem to have anything nice about it. But he remembers the bond there: childhood, neighborhood culture. There's less of that now, and as young people we can understand what they're longing for. Japan is a good example to examine; loneliness there is so extreme that there's even a profession where you buy friendship. You pay, and someone comes and acts like your best friend. That's the state of the world. So what the older generation feels when they say "how nicely we played football, played marbles," the satisfaction they got, isn't material; it's a process done together. There was a bond there.

Real happiness is felt in a good connection between people. Real happiness is reached when we build a good connection between people.

Indeed, looking at the past or the present, a person enjoys everything when they're with people they've built a good connection with. Even if they're tired, they don't feel their tiredness.

Yes, they reach a point where they don't feel themselves. If they're with people they truly love, their happiness is no longer about themselves. We can see this in very simple examples. When football fans come together there's a bond among them; maybe they're very tired, but they reach a happiness, a joy, from standing there together with their team for the same goal.

Because something collective is felt there. This is actually something very biological, a real need of ours. The body has basic needs, food and drink; but beyond these we have a need that's the opposite of loneliness: not being alone. That's why loneliness eats us up from the inside like a disease. On Kick, the platform we're broadcasting on right now, there are streamers who talk about how lonely they are; this is a serious problem. We sometimes see loneliness as freedom: "I'm alone, I do what I want how I want, I don't answer to anyone." But on the other side, loneliness is a great void. I think about it like this: we have everything in the world but we're one person alone. There's artificial intelligence too; type what you want and it immediately produces clothes for you, gives you food. You have a plane, go tour Italy from end to end, but you're alone. Seen this way, nothing has meaning anymore.

That's why a person needs friends, companions they've built a good connection with; call it what you like. Real happiness is felt in a right connection built between people; just as we're connecting right now by going around the circle together.

We also need to live in harmony with the laws of nature. Our nature is the desire to receive pleasure. When we eat something or fill one of our desires, pleasure and desire cancel each other out, so we can't reach lasting happiness. Lasting happiness is felt when we build a good connection with people.

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We know that pleasure and desire naturally cancel each other out; we can see this in every moment of our lives. Everything we want to reach loses its old taste, value and meaning once we reach it. But there are also situations where we see the opposite: if we can be happy about someone else's happiness. We've probably experienced this at least with people we love, perhaps in a family member's happiness. This isn't a pleasure we take directly into ourselves; it's like a pleasure that's more lasting, longer-term and not dependent on consuming. I think long-term happiness is like this.

The whole order says the exact opposite: the more you swindle, steal and grab, the more money you'll have and the better you'll feel. Every advertisement, all the envy is built on this: strong leadership, the powerful businessman, succeeding at school. Everything is entirely self-centered. They teach us to build a life far from altruism, on top of others; they've taught this constantly, and the world is in this state. Apart from this, something else was tried: communism. In the last century, under the influence of a few writers, people said "This is what altruism looks like, let's share what we have"; but that blew up too. There's no place where it works anymore either. Then the question is: how can we build an ideal order? Is it a utopia, or is it possible? Many people have come to believe that "the world isn't a decent place and doesn't look like it will get better." So should the world get better, or should we? I've opened more questions; maybe we can continue from these.

Human nature is the desire to receive, the egoistic desire to receive; it wants to take everything for itself. Without an education aimed at this nature, we can't force people to think of others. Why did communism collapse? Because they tried to force people to do something against human nature. An education aimed at human nature is needed. Lasting happiness also comes through understanding our nature. Humans live cut off from the laws of nature. In nature no tree produces its fruit for itself. A lion hunts a gazelle not for its own pleasure but only to survive; and when it hunts it chooses the sickest, weakest one. Humans aren't like that. If you removed humans from nature, nature would keep working in order, even better; but if you removed a rabbit, nature's balance would be disturbed. So, so as not to take blows in life, humans need to learn to live according to the laws of nature.

We already see every day that we take blows because we live against the laws of nature. If we follow the current situation in the world and examine the course of history so far, at the root of the struggle of countries and people against each other lies everyone wanting only to advance themselves and not thinking of all of humanity. So our only missing piece is to become people who think of all of humanity and live in accordance with nature.

Yes, to be part of nature; to be part of the system, not a cancer eating the system. Our current state is a bit like that. We use the whole world and think the more we use, the better off we'll be, but the opposite happens. How many degrees of heat hit Paris this year? Why? Because we pulled out whatever was underground without thinking. We do everything egoistically; we take the trees, nature, for our own interest without thinking. Our excuse is ready too: "If we don't do it they will, the enemy will; so we must exploit nature as aggressively as possible." Every nation is like this. Does development come out of competition? It does. But this development is finishing off the place we live. We're exactly like a cancer: we grow and we kill the place we grow in.

Also, when a person harms anything outside themselves, life or nature, they don't see that this harm eventually comes back to them, because they forget the harm they did. Yet we live inside a closed system. However you treat the system, it eventually comes back to you. For happiness, too, we need to know how to live according to the laws of nature. One of nature's laws is the effect of the environment: a person is influenced by whatever environment they're in and becomes a product of it. So unless we're in an environment aimed at understanding the laws of nature and human nature, it's hard to experience lasting happiness. An environment is needed.

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Finally, the importance of the environment was mentioned; the environment really is very important. Everyone who uses social media sees this: whatever sources you follow, you're directly influenced by them. If you watch things about entrepreneurship, the importance you give to money grows during the day; if you watch delicious food, your mind is on delicious food. You chase your own satisfaction. Here we're actually creating an alternative: how can we build the right environment? What we're heading for is living in accordance with the laws of nature and being happy together in the right way.

The importance of the environment is very clear. If we were in a forest we'd be something like monkeys. If the house I was born into were a family of musicians, they'd sit me at the piano, the guitar, and I'd be educated as that kind of person. If I'd been raised in a different profession, in a different country, I'd be someone accordingly. So everything is actually education. They say "the family you're born into is your destiny"; it's true. So are the country you're born in, the time and the conditions. Everything is the effect of the environment: mother, father, society. The effect of the environment really needs to be taken into account.

We said lasting happiness. Let's look at a mother: a mother is happy when her child eats. Why? Because she loves her child; there's a bond between them. If we as people built such a strong bond between us, if we connected and ate a plain simit together, the taste of that plain simit would last. But when I eat very luxurious meals by myself, for myself, without connecting with anyone, pleasure and desire cancel each other out. Lasting happiness is here.

We went around the circle very nicely and built a connection among us. We hope we've been a light, some benefit, to the people living in Türkiye.

One last answer: if we connect, even if we just play a simple game of marbles, years later I can say with a very nostalgic, good feeling, "this is how we used to play once."

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