Why Do Turks Act Weird?: An Essay on the Nature of Alienation and Cultural Difference

Description

Why do we find others weird? Why do we tend to discriminate other human beings, when all it takes for a person to be different is, actually, to be born? These questions may be valid, but how do they help with our daily problems such as; the refugees, the distribution of wealth, political correctness, cruelty and so on? And what about the Turks...? A weird group of people; they look stiff but indifferent at the same time, serious but laughing at unfunny things, not much of enthusiasts but they are always curious... They are not the root cause of our problems, but our perspective on them, our perspective on the other, the alien, is. Life is a distorted form of existence that makes us stick to our basic programming: "Discriminate the other, embrace the similar; run or fight!", meanwhile the only thing we don't discriminate is our primitive instincts. As weird gets weirder and the Turks become a symbol of utter confusion between hate and understanding for some people, the only solution to the pain and sorrow caused by our biased opinion is self-awareness. I hope this essay in the search for the sources of alienization -and normalization of the alien- help the reader discover the common ground with their own weird Turks.