Resistanbul: Confronting the Arrogance of Power
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Following is a discussion on the page titled: Resistanbul: Confronting the Arrogance of Power.
Below is the discussion so far. Feel free to add your own comments!Email letter received:Dear EditorsI thought your article Resistanbul in the July Socialist Standard was one of the best, most informative and helpful I have read in a very long time.But did you really have to spoil it on the front cover with a trite and infantile reference to turkeys and stuffing?Your article was extremely respectful and sensitive to the issues and challenges facing Turkish society and the Turkish people.Your cover was cheap and childish.Yours for socialismAndrewAndrew Northall
Must have been the first Socialist Standard he's picked up because the covers have been cheap and childish spoiled with trite and infantile headlines for at least the last few years.
Hi Andrew, as the author of the piece thank you for your kind words. On the issue of the SS cover I am, to some extent, inclined to agree with you. That said, trite or eye-grabbing headlines have often drawn attention from those who might not otherwise bother to read through the issue. Having lived in Turkey for many years I can assure you that hospitable and, in the case of the protesters, courageous Turks get pretty fed up with cheap gibes. As the protests continue amid an almost total media blackout we can only hope and offer support in any way we can to those working, fighting and bleeding for a more free, open and inclusive society. These protests have had an amazing and unifying effect as political and social opposites realise that they have more in common than they once thought.YFS, Alan
I don't think that the wording on the cover was "cheap and childish". Yes, it was a pun but this seems to be widely practised these days by sub-editors. Here's a few examples from the Business section of the Times over the last week:FINANCE DEALS HELP FUEL NEW-CAR SALESTERRA FIRMA PULLS FLOAT PLANS AMID SHAKY GERMAN MARKETSCUSSONS TUCKS INTO FOOD MANUFACTURERSOIL ISN'T OVER A BARREL THIS TIMEMy doubt when I first saw the cover was a possible ambiguity over who was stuffing democracy in Turkey: the government or (as the government claims) the demonstrators? Obviously a regular reader would know that the government was meant, but what about others?
The difference is the the public perception of the business section of the times is that it has a lot of credibility, the public perception of revolutionary socialism is that it has none.
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