As I walked through the Hanging Gardens, I found a peaceful path for myself.
Around a dark green temple, there were meticulously planted foliage and a celebration of colorful flowers in shades of yellow, purple, and blue sprouting from the columns. Sweet corn dangled from branches that drew infinity.
The temple was a three-story building, and from the open door of the second-floor veranda, a curtain resembling a pure white wedding gown swayed back and forth. The humid scent of the wind and the faint buzzing in the ears were as sweet and refreshing as a cold lemonade on a summer day. Today, a celebration was to take place among the arches of the temple garden.
Once, there were suspension bridges around this structure in the heart of İzmir, from which leading members of society, presidents, politicians, and popular diplomats and artists emerged. It seemed that those who came out almost touched the sky.
Beneath the bridges, in the sunlight, various people would pay enough to empty their wallets just to see the faces of these important individuals. On the days of special conferences, the streets were filled with official cars, overflowing, making it as if the city could not contain them, and citizens could not move freely due to police checks.
On a Tuesday, the people staged a rebellion in the area where the Hanging Gardens were diagonally located. Although there was no distinguishing reason for this rebellion, people always referred to it as "the last drop that overflowed the glass."
Even if there is no difference between the first nerve and the last nerve's effect, you surely have no doubt that the last anger is far from being a warning and is much more destructive.
In this last rage, silhouettes that could not be distinguished in the evening darkness set the Hanging Gardens on fire. As you can understand, what exists now is a new and somewhat counterfeit version of the once carefully constructed temple.
Have you ever seen a counterfeit mentioned with respect in history? After that night in İzmir, a statue of a lighter was erected in the city square.
That night, a farmer from İzmir went to the public square and shouted a few words: "The foundations of our current perception of value must be destroyed. Because it obeys those despicable base desires. Recently, a child who died of hunger in the town, ostracized for being poor and whose possessions were confiscated by the state, was insignificant to you, yet you are willing to pay a fortune to see the faces of those responsible for all this, to worship their radiant faces. But where is the real value? Politicians, celebrities, and the rich! I call upon you. What are you without all these promoted values? If I took your money, dismantled your positions, and set your glory on fire, what would remain? I call upon you!"
He continued to shout amidst the momentary silence. "If there were no money, fame, and status in the world, what would your true value be? Who among you would deserve respect, O citizens?"
As you might expect, these words did not have more effect than a fairy tale. They imprisoned this man, labeling him insane, for the rest of his life. A long time passed, and the lighter became a symbol of hatred and treachery in people's minds.
All diplomats, gossip magazines, celebrities, officeholders, and especially the rich labeled this man a traitor. But time possessed the power to rot all labels. As the desire to bow down in human nature grew stronger, the rising instinct to rebel rose up through societal norms, surpassing the heights of great mountains, and the Hanging Gardens had now become a set of values that established a positive integrity with the symbol of the lighter.
People embraced the scene I described to you as quite impressive, with a depth appealing to the eyes.
In the first year of the revolution, the concept of money was crossed out, and within thirty days after the New Year, the labels of positions were abolished. Only people with fame remained in society. Among them were undoubtedly writers, directors, political figures, and supporters of popular culture who had gained unjust fame, but their luck against time was as little as anyone else's.
Thus, the perceived values won against the entire society showed an infinite and absolute surrender to fate within less than two years, and entirely three steel black pillars were demolished, replaced with the following:
1) Money was never invented.
2) Fame was never discovered.
3) Positions were never constructed.
These three laws of the state were projected onto the giant screen between the pillars of the Hanging Gardens under the name of the Revolutionary Three Laws. The Hanging Gardens earned the title of the Lighter Temple Gardens, and the old name vanished from the people's lips before reaching seventy years.
Today, the Lighter Temple Gardens welcomes people with a very peaceful temperament. People can visit these speakers they see among the public in temples, concerts, mosques, dance presentations, and conferences without spending a dime.
Again, you might guess that a farmer and a company owner can sit side by side on a bench. Or the child of a diplomat can attend the same class as the child of a tradesman. As you can appreciate, the more packed a hall is during a dance show, the more customers the small businesses engaged in crafts can attract.
Society cannot separate you from your bag or clothing because the "brand" concept, which used to be cherished, is examined as a fault of the past.
The number of likes on social media applications has been excluded by our country, and numerical elements have been closed. You would prefer that the control algorithm system decided to present shares equally in the intention of creating equal motivation.
Houses are designed in an equal architecture, but differences and uniqueness are preserved. You can plant any flowers you want in your garden, and you can buy any furniture you desire for your home. However, everyone will have countless opinions about this furniture.
A sofa set that you bought with great enthusiasm may appear lower quality next to a set you liked less.
If your grades are between 50 and 100, your relatives will not see any difference between them and may question why you didn't score either 50 or 100 from both. Or someone who has received 80 twice might aspire to get a 50 on the next exam by envying the score of 50. However, grades maintain their mystery. Once, there may have been a meaning in an algorithm called a grading system, but right now, they are as identical as yellow and green pears.
Furthermore, when your teacher asks about your parents' professions in class, you can easily say, "They collect scrap," "cleaning staff," or "they're unemployed." This will not affect your ability to make friends in this school.
Moreover, you can convince many of your friends to collect scrap or trash. At the same time, professions like medicine, engineering, carpentry, tailoring, sales, craft selling, driving, and mining will naturally retain their appeal.
However, the country's governance may astonish you.
Who protects this order?
Who operates the laws?
When a mishap occurs, who intervenes?
Firstly, there is no order, but strangely, aside from some minor thefts, no crime has been committed in the country for fifty years. So who protects the order, or as you put it, who maintains this strange system?
Answer: nobody.
This may not be a satisfying answer. However, I find you completely justified in being curious about it.
To me, there is only one answer to the question: "There is no need for someone to protect the system."
There is no need to comply with the rules because they are harmless.
So what happens when a mishap occurs?
If you tell a close friend that you stole money, they will immediately take an interest, but when they get robbed, they will conclude that it was not a good idea. It may seem interesting, but the state likely cannot do anything about this crime. Because the state does not possess a superior power. In other words, it does not have a freedom-restricting sanction over individuals, nor do individuals need sanctions.
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