istanbul still not constantinople

Istanbul (Still Not Constantinople)

If you haven't seen part one of my trip to Istanbul, it is here.

The Imperial Palace - known as Topkapi - was an interesting mix of

centuries. Some of it was quite old; much of it was constructed during

the 19th century. I don't consider anything built after the creation

of the United States as old, so at times I did not really feel I was

staring at anything other than the remains of a dictatorship. In many

ways the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century was backwards. Suits of

chainmail and ruby encrusted swords were on display, created during a

time when war was fought with guns and trenches. The Ottomans of the

19th century concerned themselves with gems and fancy dishes while the

rest of the modern world had moved into the Industrial Age. It's no

wonder the empire fell.

I found it curious that the Sultans were glorified, not just by the

Turks, but also by the tourists who visited the palace. People

marveled at the precious treasures of the Sultans instead of thinking

about how these things were stolen or plundered during warfare.

Indeed, one woman exclaimed, "Oh. My. God. Nuh-uh. That is not real."

as she looked upon an 84 karat diamond with a sort of drooling, gaping

mouth. It's a freaking rock! It's a shiny piece of the Earth that

people died for. The whole lot of those gems were nothing more than

rocks found in the ground. Think about it - isn't it amazing that

people have fought wars to obtain shiny rocks that serve no practical

purpose? And Sultans are glorified for their collections of shiny

rocks? Sultans are nothing more than dictators with a fancy name. They

taxed their citizens heavily - especially those who weren't Muslim -

and enslaved whomever they wanted. They forced women to become their

concubines if they fancied them. While much of their empire was poor,

they ate great feasts every night. No cost was too great for their

hedonism, not even the cost of human life. Yet they are still

glorified. Us common folk look at their palaces and riches in awe

despite the fact that had we lived back then, we would have been their

slaves, our precious items to be taken on a whim if a Sultan or a high

official desired them.

Look at this massive kitchen. Another row of smokestacks sits beside

the visible one. I cannot fathom the heat generated in this place,

especially in the sweltering summers when humidity from the sea

wreaked its havoc upon the city. Imagine the hundreds of people who

had to work in these conditions, probably for 16 hours a day. I sweat

at the thought of it! I'd rather sit in a cubicle staring at a

computer screen for eight hours a day, five days a week, looking for

the weekend. The Sultans were a bunch of lardasses whose gluttony

rivaled that of a Texan rancher or Rosy O'Donnell. All they did was

sit around on a lot of ornate pillows in their gaudy jewelry and their

hideous robes eating, drinking, and fornicating with the concubines in

their harems. At taxpayers expense, of course.

They did this while pretending to be good Muslims. It's kind of like

all of those American evangelicals who are getting caught for child

pornography or soliciting sex in airport bathrooms. Is it that they

who scream "God!" the loudest are actually the most immoral of all?

I've often wondered that. Seems to me that "God" should be a very

private thing. You kind of think about these things when you are

surrounded by a religion other than the one predominant where you grew

up. It's easier to look at things from the outside, and well, now that

I've had several experiences in the Muslim world, I can see that

religions have more than just God in common. They also have hypocrisy.

There was some interesting architecture around the palace. Lots of

domes and arches. There wasn't much that struck me as amazing,

however, as I think European architecture created during the Ottoman

times is much more interesting. Not even the tiled rooms really

impressed me. They seemed kind of tacky to me - it was like having a

room full of plates on your walls. Indeed, the Ottoman tiles were

inspired by those blue and white Chinese porcelain plates that the

Turks were so fond of. There is a whole collection of them in part of

the kitchen. The funny thing is that these plates, once thought to be

so precious, are now mass produced in China.

Just to clarify - I didn't hate everything about the palace. I just

thought about things in a different way than the myriads of tourists

around me. The thing is that we haven't really done away with empires

- we just go about them in a different way. The United States is

definitely a sort of empire. Our citizens are dominated by

corporations with ties to government, and our taxes (aside from the

real taxes we pay) are the things we keep buying to keep the

corporations in power. We still send our soldiers to war for riches

from the ground - now in the form of oil instead of gems. History is

not a linear thing - it is a circle, and we keep making the same

mistakes over and over again. When you think of it this way, you have

to wonder if we'll ever get it right, and if we can't, maybe the fact

that we're destroying the planet is a good thing?

No, no, of course it isn't. We have to keep trying. We have made

progress. I look at the European Union as perhaps the greatest human

advancement in history. I mean, here is a continent that has known

nothing but war throughout its existence, but a few incredible men who

were sick of war came up with a plan that would ensure that if one

country went to war with another, that warring country would also be

destroyed. This is done by linking economies together, no small feat.

I give credit to the European people for accepting such an

arrangement. If they would only accept Turkey, then perhaps it would

be a start to ending religious war, too? One can dream, right? Right?