Understanding Our Inner Devils: The Core of Human Problems

The greatest mistake of humankind is inventing devils—and then forgetting why they invented them in the first place. They believe so deeply in these devils that they no longer try to understand them. Instead, they force them into predefined molds and push them away.

Humans are weak. They fear confronting themselves. They fear rationality, reality, and cause and effect. Rather than creating solutions, they create excuses. They label their devils and believe that by ignoring them completely, they will defeat them—that they can overcome them without ever understanding them.

In truth, all they are doing is strengthening the devils they have created. The same weakness exists in the devil too: the more it is pushed away, the more it becomes aggressive, stronger, and larger. Those who impose molds on it also convince the devil itself that it is great and powerful. Even if it does not feel so powerful at first, eventually the devil starts to believe in its own role.

This, in fact, is the root of all problems—both on a personal and societal level: not talking, not listening, not trying to understand.

The so-called “surprising” results of the recent German elections, the outcome of the U.S. elections, the rise of populism all over the world, and the “revenge democracy” in Turkey all stem from this same dynamic. Reactions like “How can this be happening?” or “Who is voting for these people?” only perpetuate the original mistake.

It is no different than a man who avoids or ignores issues with his partner—only to be shocked when she finally explodes over something small, unable to understand why the relationship ended.

Addition:
The advantage of developed countries is that they are in a better position to absorb and blunt such extreme views and differences. Even if the public repeats the same mistakes, at the level of governance, there are enough individuals who can learn from errors. They don’t have to wait a hundred or two hundred years for a visionary, solution-focused, intelligent leader to emerge.

For this reason, I actually see the rise of populism in Europe not as a threat, but as an opportunity—a chance to break the grip of traditional nationalism and transition into a global high-tech era. The alternative would not just be a problem for specific countries or regions, but a problem that could ultimately lead to the downfall of the entire world.