Where is the
LEFT in Armenia
and in the reality of the Armenian people? Does this question surprise some
people? Is it mocked? Or does it sound meaningless? That is exactly where our true pain lays: in our political and
civic ignorance. Our people suffer from political and civic ignorance and is
being reduced to a MOB, a grouping of people with consuming mercenary desires,
inclined to serf-mindedness and serf-becoming hegemony. A MOB, managed and
“led” by opportunist and self-interested materialist bureaucrats/rulers and
mediocre official intellectuals and artists. A MOB, managed and stupefied and
not guided, governed, or educated.
Yes, once
upon a time we were a powerful nation,
and from time to time we emerge in our former glory. Nowadays
we ARE NOT. We should accept this fact, however it may hurt us. We should
understand it and face the bitter reality with a sound critical mind and
consciousness. We should try to understand the causes of it and analyze it from
the standpoint of the veracious, just, humane, and developing Armenian people
guided by spiritual and reawakening culture; and as a SUBJECT, a People who
consciously directs and creates its present and future. We should not live as a
servile MOB, worshipping money and material riches. We must resist the mob
mentality, denouncing liberated and full-fledged individuality and which living and spreading ourselves in a new social
system, where CULTURE is not ennobling and liberating, but serial and
standardized production. Bureaucrats/rulers are capable of
easily directing and reproducing those who are driven by instinct, suppressing
them with a materialist anti-culture and the unjust social system, by using
venal artists and intellectuals staging their mob-pleasing mediocrity and
stupefying the people (and in particular, the children). In this anti-culture
and social system the individual becomes
a tool, subjugated both in his/her own country and to the
anti-values and rules of a globally legitimized new social system, which is capitalism growing with neo-liberalist
worldviews. This social system is unequal, unjust, atomizing, competitive, and
shortsighted degenerating the regulatory role of the state, privatizing the
public services and making them uncontrollable, weakening the state and the
society, impoverishing the majority and serving only the material prosperity of
the ruling minority, degenerating the critical mind and education, and
preparing a purely technocratic elite. It has been 25-30 years
that this social system has further been ingrained in “developed” countries,
led by the United States of America (USA) and followed by Europe.
It has been spreading virally with a growing and lacerating pace in developing
countries, including our country, Armenia, since its independence,
for the past 16 years.
* * *
Armenian
people, I lament your deep wound
There is a
saying that, “The wise person learns from
the mistakes of others,” and “The
fool repeats the mistakes of others.” For the past 16 years, we as
a nation have been adopting the status and behavior of the latter. And this has
happened when, after centuries, we have finally been granted the historic and
critical opportunity to independently build our own sovereign state, and be the
creator of our independent development and welfare, human and national,
individual and collective.
Now, at this
critical juncture, we ignorantly repeat and reproduce the mistakes of others as
well as those of our own past. If it has been more than 200 years since Europe
commenced the progress of modern humanist mind and culture, capitalism,
industry, and democratization, and now, in the 21st century, its avant-garde
intellectuals believe that they are in a period of regression and that in the
neo-liberal capitalist social system there is a tendency to go back to the
beginning of the 19th century and to the “king-prince-president,”
“neo-feudalism,” and “neo-semi-fascism.” Then what can we say about ourselves:
where are we? What period do we live in or revisit as Armenian people and the
Armenian statehood?
Isn’t it true
that, as a free nation and sovereign state, we did not pass through the stages
of origination and development of capitalism, nation-state, and the renaissance
of modern humanist culture, and that we have a giant gap in our national,
cultural, and statehood history, for centuries being cut off as a nation,
people, and state from the renaissance, progress, and the developments of
modern humanist culture?
Presently, France, Germany,
Russia,
and other countries perhaps can afford to reproduce the dark and bright aspects
of their history since the 19th century, because they have had continuous
sovereign and independent statehood for centuries. They have a population of 60
million and a more rich and creative political, civic, economic, social culture,
as well as a rich legacy and capital of social movements. Owing to all these,
today they are trying to reflect, raise questions, explore, and cultivate
alternatives to neo-liberal capitalism. They offer resistance to mass
impoverishment, the distortion of culture, loss of employment, unprecedented
inflation, and loss of purchasing power at the same time by means of social
mobilization and movements for the protection of their human and national
rights, for the protection of their individual, social, and state wealth,
capital, and achievements.
In November
we witnessed immense social movements and strikes in two powerful European
countries, France and Germany. In Germany, the
movement was headed by railway motormen, who demanded a 31% salary raise. In Europe, the inflation reached its record percentage, 3%
yearly (something that has not happened since 2001). Another record was
registered in Italy,
where over the past five years the purchasing power has decreased by 1900 Euros
and the decline in salaries caused the emergence of new poverty. In Spain and Belgium, an out-of-hand inflation
of prices of basic staples has been recorded, and the enormous decrease in
purchasing power makes food less affordable for the impoverished majority. In Spain, in one
year the price of eggs has increased by 11%, the price of potatoes by 7%, and
bread and milk prices by 18%. In Belgium, the price of potatoes has
increased by 76% and that of medical services, by 24%.
In Europe, the self-criticizing and analytical thinking, the
dialogue, and creative activities of Right liberal and Leftist intellectuals
are added to the capital and potential of social movements. They raise
questions about this system, the financial, global, and neo-liberalized market
capitalism, and do that from multilateral political, economic, social, and
cultural perspectives. Europe’s Right liberals, who are
discussing the ideas, analyses, and creations of Karl Marx and his followers,
however strange it may seem, consider them an inevitable necessity to
understand the flaws and damages of the current social system and are
attempting to develop alternatives. Yes, as odd as it may seem, today we find
the most fervent defenders of Marx on the Right liberal front of Europe.
* * *
And what
about US? Are we really learning from all this? Or are we blindly imitating and
repeating the flaws and the mistakes, the simple and the devastating? No!
We can not allow ourselves and do not have the right to foolishly think and act
by repeating and reproducing the mistakes of others, who themselves are
currently questioning their own acts and are thinking of and developing
alternative solutions.
Our sovereign
state is only 16 years old. Our population is 3 million (8 million, including
the Diaspora). Our demographic indicators are alarming, because we are not even
capable of biologically reproducing ourselves and guaranteeing the continuity
of generations in our country. We are poor economically, socially, but mostly
in political and civic culture, while our legacy of social movements is very
defective, and currently almost inexistent. The true path of our salvation and our development is
not the repetition and reproduction of our mistakes and those of others,
something which may be both critical and fatal for our whole nation. Cleverly
and fearlessly, with self-critical and inquisitive mind, action, and struggle
we should LEARN from the mistakes of others, in particular from the experience of the USA and
Europe, who have passed that path, and that of India, China, and other countries that are on that path, and from
the mistakes of our own history. We should skillfully analyze and construct the
just, the truthful, and the humane by assessing and evaluating our own
potential of ALL ARMENIANS (Armenia, Nagorno Karabakh, and Diaspora), the mind,
the intellect, the culture, and the human capital. This is the only true path
of the genuine empowerment, independence, and development of our people,
nation, and state, the path of achieving independent creative realization, freedom,
justice, equality, and welfare.
* * *
The fad of
pragmatism and its hazards
They say that
we are not the only ones, neither the first nor last, who face this danger and
the challenges of the modern neo-liberal capitalistic system. This is the world
and the reality and we should adapt by means of our pragmatism, that there is
no more Utopia and ideals. They are illusions, and we should adapt and survive.
They say this and believe what they
say, and try to prophesy uniformity, homogeneity, feebleness, and weakness,
thus trying to undermine the individual’s will to struggle, the spiritual power
to build his/her own destiny. It works on the subconscious, by
praising pragmatism synonymous to opportunism, and by declaring it the sole
secret and guarantee for success (material) in the competitive jungle world.
This is wrong
and destructive reasoning, propaganda, and policy. Suppression,
oppression, serfdom, subjugation, and compliance are self-justifying,
self-consoling and clever political tools. It is the weapon of neo-liberals to
weaken the people’s, societies’, nations’ and spirits without fighting and
resistance in order to take possession of their properties, freedom,
belongings, and territories, and all this, without shedding a single drop of
blood.
With
pragmatism, the end justifies any means (and the end is money and power). Opportunism,
competitiveness, immorality, technocracy and instrumentality are proudly
praised as absolute truth and the only way to the individual’s “happiness” and success
.
Absurdity
.
The potential
of humanity and of nations has always been found in LOVE, the STRUGGLE for
FAIRNESS, SOLIDARITY, the protection of the weak, and THE COMMON GOOD. There is
a small number of people and organizations who struggle for all of these
qualities and make them their lives’ work. They are the ones who have attained
spiritual as well as material happiness and success.
Equality,
justice, solidarity, and the common good: these are the
four unbreakable and inseparable harmonious fundamental values of the LEFT,
which cannot be sequenced, categorized, and conceded for anything, and
especially not for pragmatism and opportunism. The Ideal, in which people from
various nations and periods have believed, and in the name of which they have
created, struggled and continue to struggle. They have bequeathed us what we possess today as the most precious, the
humanist and national spirit, and culture in its all-inclusive, economic,
social, and political sense. Without it, the human being becomes the most
dangerous and destructive tool in the animal world. Those who consider money
and power the goal are the most dangerous instruments for the prosperous and
harmonious development of the human being, the nation, and nature.
The desires
and deeds of the human being to control and rule over himself/herself, others,
nature, and the world are self-destructive. It is self-destructive to consider
money and power as a target, an end in itself, and the ultimate goal of life. Money and power are the means and tool for the
realization of nobler goals, for the peaceful and harmonious development of the
human being, nature, and the universe, for the common good and prosperity, to
live and create as a full-fledged personality, respecting oneself, others,
nature, and the universe, attempting to find the terms of harmonious
coexistence, not hegemony and domination.
* * *
In Armenia,
Politics has been Reduced to Peddling. An absence of Political Culture and
Activity
“We cannot
speak of neo-liberalism in Armenia,
because we are not yet in this economic system,” said a young
Armenian economist three years ago at one of the meetings dedicated to the
Poverty Overcoming Strategy Paper (POSP). Unfortunately, the young economist,
who proudly expressed his ignorance, was trying to “bring home” or rather
propagandize something he had no idea of , because probably he subconsciously
knew he was backed by the interests of the dominating ideology and class. Neo-liberalism is a philosophical worldview, whereas
capitalism is an economic system. This man who lacks
fundamental knowledge of the Humanities and proudly shows off his ignorance
indicative of thousands, that show the low quality and degeneration of the
Armenian political and civic life. We are constantly confronted by them, and
are saturated with their absurdity and propaganda.
It has been
16 years since the theory of neo-liberalism has penetrated Armenia and it
prevails in the whole country and society. Moreover, whenever the World Bank
(WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) (the two basic institutions and
sources of influence of capitalistic and neo-liberal dominance) enter any
“developing” country , “neo-liberal capitalism” and its destructive activity
should be considered official in the given country. And the economists,
experts, ministers, rulers, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the media,
and others which serve the WB, IMF, and institutions influenced by them
consciously or unconsciously become the instruments of this system, propagandizing
the ideology and carrying out the destructive function of the system.
In Armenia, people
“discuss,” the vital problems of the society and the country, but they do so
without any substantial analysis, dialogue, and negotiation, or essential reflection.
They also do not authenticate neo-liberalist ideology and policies or analyze
the failures and damages suffered by others who already experienced the results
of this ideology and its policies. And for this, they are well paid as experts,
professionals, activists, NGOs, advisors, consultants, rulers, etc. The
resulting definitions, projects, and “reforms” are not the outcome of free
critical and profound intellectual work and experience. They are incessantly
used for saying nothing and doing nothing for the common good and interest. This
is an example of a technocratic “elite” social system, a low quality one, at
that. In reality, the policy of formal projects and “reforms” that say nothing
essential and profound, do not serve the majority of the people. The lives of
the actual beneficiaries of these projects and policies are not enriched, in
fact reform policies only reinforce that same emulating, writing, repeating,
discussing, and voting minority. There is another circle of NGOs and activists,
who comprehend, and perhaps even sympathize with the just and alternative views
and activity but they retreat, subjecting themselves to self-censorship and
compliance because of fear and servility. They do not want to lose their
commissions, grants, contracts, or prospects thereof. While it may be more
advantageous to adjust to the dominating ideology and its incentives in order
to promote their personal or group interests and status, it is unethical.
In our
country, issues and problems are not critically and substantially discussed or
acted upon but are evaded and concealed, where most intellectuals ,experts,
rulers, artists, and public figures do not intend to be educated politically
and civically, (they consider it is dangerous and not related to them). Countries
sharing our condition can attest that under these circumstances alternative
thinking, politics, and culture are not cultivated. Classes are not shaped and
mobilized. Problems are not solved through social movements and negotiations. The
wound gets deeper and people escape, emigrate or… adjust themselves.
Politics in Armenia is
devoid of meaning and disfigured. It has become technocratic and based on mafia
trading. There is no meaningful micro or macro POLITICS worthy of its name, there is
no politicized society and people, there is so political culture, all of which
are so necessary and liberating. In our country politics are
mistaken for immorality and small-trade, considered a domain of impunity, a
low-grade display of selfish and immature manipulations and maneuvers and,
perhaps, all of the above.
The attempts
to defame the POLITICAL and POLITICS are the result of the same worldview and
propaganda. It is considered “progressive” and “objective”
to claim that one is apolitical and colorless and something that adds to the
credit of an “expert.” They claim that there are no conflicting ideas, no
distinction between “The Right” and “The Left,” and that it doesn’t make sense
anymore to talk about and adhere to the left. According to them the left has
been driven into obscurity, and those “well-wishing” neo-liberal rulers have
included “the social” and “social justice” into their policies. By incessantly
using “social” and “social justice” here and there, their strategy is to
conquer and own the conceptions of the left (voided of its value system)
rhetorically. They will take these values, empty their substance, and apply
them in a distorted manner, trying to appear “humanitarian.”
These are
cunning tactics that trick the immature and all
those who call themselves leftist and are voluntarily deceived. By renouncing
their left ideas, they join the dominating front, satisfy their selfish and
ambitious desires with their posts, status, and power, and betray the values and
ideas of the left and their comrades.
These are sly
plans, indeed. Without
any great effort, the neo-liberals are able to renounce the ideas of the left
by taking owning and distorting them. On the other hand, by claiming to be
“open and democratic,” they succeed in splitting the Left and tempt them. They
bribe some of them morally and with material dividends. Members of the left
join the ranks neo-liberals of their own accord and occupy positions, ally with
the government, and justify their behavior by the excuses that the Left is weak
and that in this way, by joining the “opponent,” they fight for the ideas of
the left from inside. They are deceiving themselves, or they really are naïve
and consider the leftist to be naïve, too, because they do not have and can never have any strategic
and essential influence in the dominating worldviews and the apparatus. They
have been skillfully invited and involved by the very same people
to be compromised and to act as bait in the undermining of the leftist ideology
and the left powers. This is the
reasoning of the neo-liberal worldview: the rule and domination of uniformity
and homogeneity through money, stupefaction, and bribery.
As for Armenia and the
Armenian people, the domination of neo-liberalists is easier, because
the LEFT ideology and powers have not yet established themselves. In Armenia (as
well as in Nagorno Karabagh) the huge social polarization and mass
impoverishment are deepening. At the same time, there is a genuine social demand for the left humanist values
and policy (but not yet formed and organized in the
political and civic sense), which poses a danger to the stability of dominating unequal,
unjust, as well as illegitimate social system and structure. Therefore, the
Armenian neo-liberal ruling class and bureaucrats, following the advice of the
World Bank and its former and present experts and OTHERS, are attempting to
exclude the opponent from the very beginning and prevent it from being
politically shaped as a basic value system and efficient left politics, and be
realized as a power to propose and realize genuine social and political
reforms.
This also can
explain why in our failing, disgraced, and so called “political” class and
framework the bureaucrat/rulers have been repeating the words “social” and
“social justice,” especially during the past three years.
No! We shall
not be deceived. Our state and our social system are anything but “social” … It
means that the first paragraph of the Constitution of the Republic
of Armenia, which is not subject to
amendment and proclaims the Republic
of Armenia to be a
“sovereign and social” state, is ESSENTIALLY violated every single day. It is
the agreement of our nation and people, the
first vital right and social contract of our collective aspirations
and it is constantly breached.
Accordingly,
our annual state budgets, including that of the year 2008 (which has recently
been voted on), ARE ALSO NOT “SOCIAL.” Labeling them
“social” does not mean that essentially social policy and budget have been
elaborated and adopted. Otherwise, how can it be explained that a one third of
a population, or 29.8%, living in poverty in a social country that adopted
genuine national projects and budgets? The official poverty line is 20,289
drams. According to alternative research, however, if the poverty line were at
30,000 drams, the poverty indicator will reach 65% , or two thirds of the
population. The absurdity of all this is even more obvious when we consider the
annual inflation rate in Armenia,
and the plummeting purchasing power. This is a distressing and painful reality,
and so is mass impoverishment, immigration, democratic and economic breakdown,
increasing illiteracy, and the outflow of qualified human resources, the real
Armenian capital.
No!
Unfortunately, the above is not evidence of Armenia being a “social” state
marching on with a social national agenda and budget for 16 years. Evidence
shows that we do not even aspire to be so. We have taken the opposite path. We
are a non-social, unjust, excellently polarizing, impoverishing, and emptying
state.
When
presenting and defending the budget for the year 2008 at the National Assembly
the government, as in 2007, once again dared to declare that it had social
orientation. It mentioned with irony that if people were able to live with
20000 drams monthly, then the minimum monthly wage raised to 25,000 for 2008 is
enough to live in Armenia.
This perhaps means that the worker in Armenia should thank God, but perhaps
before God s/he should thank the “king-prince-bureaucrat/ruler” for such
generosity and for such a favor as to increase that absurd 20,000 drams to an
even more absurd 25,000 monthly from the “royal” treasure.
This is
another immoral and unethical reflection of the neo-liberal worldview. Daring
to mock the whole an impoverished population from the platform of National
Assembly, similar announcements with a parallel style are constantly being made
and no one is reacting. What a great reflection of our “civilization,”
“solidarity,” and “consensus!” We have an absence of substantial reaction and
opposition, and an abundance mob “approval.”
First, “state
budget” is not a “personal” or “royal” treasure, but the treasure of the
nation, state, and republic, to which small and medium taxpayers have
contributed.
Bureaucrat/rulers
should also understand that they are not in office to give favors, they are not
called to make great princely gifts, but they are the servants of the people. Let each
of them live on 25,000 drams monthly. Only then morality allows them to ASK for
sacrifices, and not enforce them on the people. If the treasure of the nation and the state is modest (which is
questionable, taking into consideration the two-digit economic growth registered
for years) then the leader should himself/herself make sacrifices, by cutting
his/her wage and incomes, then by collecting from the most rich, and only then
demanding such sacrifice from the people, and in particular, from the weakest
and impoverished majority of the people. Such is the behavior of an ethical and
moral leader. However, in our country the opposite dominates: the weakest is
taken and cut, making the rich and the powerful richer. This is
the real materialistic ideology and policy of “social injustice” in the
Republic of Armenia: to suppress, frighten, humiliate, and exploit the poor and
the weak, and to back the 1-10% of money-loving, greedy, and avaricious
dominators full of privileged immorality and the official mediocre intellectuals,
artists, experts, and other activists in their surroundings…
Not even a
sign of protest… In our country, people choose emigration, reservation, denial,
and suicide. Everything is permissible, acceptable, and invisible, because the
alternative Left is weak and not realized.
There is a
chain of colorless and apolitical activists, experts, artists, and
intellectuals, who sell their souls for their pockets and posts, and who
further distort and contaminate the surroundings. These people mock politics
and consider themselves exempt from them, and in the months preceding the
elections demagogically and publicly endorse the ruling party, much like serfs.
They do not comprehend that it is progressive to construct politics and
political culture, because without politics the human being, the society, the
state, and the humanity do not evolve and develop. Politics is the fundamental
and irreplaceable means for the relations of the individual-society and the
state. It stems from the individual’s worldview, and every person who is
capable of thinking and acting carries his/her own thoughts about the world and
acts accordingly. That is different
from adhering to political parties (partisanship). You may voluntarily
put in your energy for the realization of your ideas by being member of a
political party and fighting THROUGH
your party.
Sadly, our
so-called official intellectuals, artists, social and political activists
suffer from this immaturity and ignorance when they deny their mission and refuse to take civic position. However,
in the pre-election period they take
party positions and propagandize, pretentiously denying
their social and civic role, saying that it is not their role “to demand,” “to
shape social demand,” and that it sounds rude. They believe that one should not
demand from the authorities, at most they should gently ask. This behavior
reminds us of serfdom, when the serf makes an offering like a rooster to
his/her prince and receives protection in return.
* * *
Finally, let
us talk about the Armenian political class and today’s three main forces
- Armenian
Revolutionary Federation, ARF: An Armenian
left-wing and socialist political power with its roots and background. Its
founders, chief leaders, and adherents cooperated with leftist European
intellectuals in the 19th century and were respected by them. THE ARF was
educating and self-organizing the Armenian people and applied substantial
campaigns against two major empires for the protection and development of the
Armenian people and nation. They tried to precisely define their humanist and
national left-wing ideas in state service during difficult period, First
Republic of Armenia, by tying to establish a genuine social policy and agenda. The
leaders served modestly and were an example by staying true to the ideas they
believed in.
Today,
however, this 117 years old political party with leftist roots is degenerating
in the grips of pragmatism by supporting the Armenian President and his
political agenda since 1999 and by participating in the government from
2003-2007,. For almost nine years they have been party, ally or auxiliary to
the neo-liberal capitalist authorities in the Third Republic of Armenia. This
deviation from their leftist roots to serving neo-liberal capitalist ideas was,
and still is, critical not only for the development of the party, but also for
our people, nation and state because of the void created by the absence of a
truly left-wing alternative political power.
They deny,
avoid, and deviate from the socialist roots that are so indispensable for the
survival and development of our people, nation and state for the sake of
pragmatism, “real-politik,” the result of which is degeneration. They also
reinforce neo-liberalism in Armenia
(see the part on pragmatism above). If they revive themselves and boldly return
to their left-wing roots, the ARF will have the opportunity to be the
irretrievable, progressive, and efficient alternative political power of the
present and future years in Armenia.
Alas, it is not on that path currently.
-Armenian
National Movement, ANM: The founder of neo-liberal
capitalism in Armenia.
From 1991-1998, as the ruling party of the state, it laid the foundations of a
destructive, unjust, and savage social system and structure of neo-liberal
capitalism in Armenia.
-Republican
Party of Armenia,
RPA: Participated in the ANM activities that lay the
foundations of neo-liberal capitalism, and the ones who are pinning them in the
hearts of the Armenian people and the state. It has been officially in power
since 1999. They are the ones strengthening and dominating the neo-liberal
capitalist social system and structure in its even more forceful and vulgar
style. They are the successors of the ANM, which, perhaps, was the carrier of a
more clever and skilful style. But that does not change anything in the
situation.
These three
main political forces as well as others discussed in the political field are
mainly united by their similarity in applying the ideas, values, politics,
agendas, and “reforms” of neo-liberal capitalism. In this way their true
antisocial, denationalized, illegal, and unjust essence and conduct is
expressed with certain differences in nuances and styles, which have more of a
cosmetic significance.
It is not
enough to deliver beautiful speeches about the people, the nation, social
justice, and building a rule-of-law society and state, deceiving themselves
and others that in reality they truly aspire to that on all levels. The wise
and conscious People and nation, and not the mob, judges them, their
institutions and their leaders by their everyday behavior and actions,
because that truly reflects their essence, morality, truthfulness, and that of
the institutions they direct. The speech, the agenda, the platform, the
declaration are not so vital in revealing the true essence and to guide the
people, especially when they are shaped by formal and mechanical processes. But
the everyday truthful mind, action, conduct, and manners are what reveal
true colors.
It is the
neo-liberal capitalist values, ideas, agendas, and “reforms” that mainly
dominate the Armenian people, nation and political arena. There is an abundance
of disgraced and polluted immorality and absolute immaturity. There is a great
deficit of the truly left, alternative political powers, politics and reforms,
and this endangers the existence of our people and state, as well as the
development of humanist and national rule-of-law state.
Fortunately
there are, indeed, left-wing individuals and institutions among the Armenian
people and society. They can be found in Armenia, Nagorno Karabagh, and the
Diaspora, and although they are few, they exist. They are disciplined and
persevering as they boldly and cleverly craft,, create and educate. They work
as individuals and in institutions in the fields of art, journalism, NGOs,
science and education, and safety. Their work is done in the capital, the
regions, the villages, and outside the country.
* * *
Whom to Elect
in February 2008 as the President of the Republic of Armenia?
A topical
question deserving an answer.
This is an
easy question for a simple-minded serf who wants only the repair of a water
pipe, a new rooftop, and just wants to keep his/her job or post. S/he will
elect the one who gives him/her these material gifts. For the next 5-10 years
and for the following decades these people living without vision will be
saturated with shiny new water pipes and cosmetic solutions to such domestic problems.
They will be happy and distracted, but will be deprived of the opportunity to
live a noble life, as will their grandchildren in the following generations. This
is the routine of those who lack political and civic culture and who are not
aware of the true value of exercising their rights, power, and obligations. It
is a fatal mistake and a chain reaction, starting at the bottom with those who
are willing to be slaves to obedience, infecting the whole society.
For the past
10-12 years this has been the scenario. People have been trained and tutored,
but they have not been educated. If there were proper political and civic
education and culture, God forbid, a conscious and mighty society could emerge
and threaten those comfortably in office by exercising their political and
civic rights.
Unfortunately,
it will probably be the serf-minded who decide the outcome of the elections in
February 2008, because we still lack a politically and civically educated,
conscious, and mature society and people. As much as we’d like it, this will
never appear with the wave of a magic wand, especially when decay and deficit
are prevalent.
* * *
Are there
actually any real choices in this election for a critical thinker, a conscious
person, or for a left-wing Armenian? Is there even a glimmer of choice?
Are we even
talking about a true choice, if
there are no established alternative options, yet? There is not even a
lesser of two devils, and that is the problem.
To those who
comprehend all of this: well done. Let us
continue to be clever, perseverant, witty, and daring. Let us brainstorm,
develop, shape the alternatives, and self-organize. Let us educate and mobilize
and prepare for a daunting ideological and civic struggle.
As for those
who do not comprehend, and prefer to live in virtual serfdom, may
you have unlimited water pipes, repaired rooftops, and cushy jobs if it pleases
you. Since you are carried away with foolishness, perhaps the cry of Pokr Mher
(in the Armenian legend of David of Sassoun he is held captive and longs to be
free to take away the sins of his people) would awaken your extinguished souls.
As for the
bureaucrats/rulers, the official mediocre intellectuals and the “activists” who
validate them, may they have tons of money, 8-10 wheels
and huge winged cars, special licenses proving their male power and
certificates ranking them as “humanists” so that they can be happy (fools). Because
these people are busy with frivolous and dangerous tomfoolery, polluting
and destroying not only themselves, (and actually if they succeeded in
destroying themselves it would be liberating and healing for the society and
people) but also endangering the survival and development of the Armenian
individual, nation, and state. Therefore, the warning of David of Sassoon is
relevant and essential for their deafened souls (and since they are predisposed
to simplicity, we print David’s words especially for them on the cover of this
issue of the “Tesaket (Opinion)-IDHR.” We cannot advise them with more serious
or sophisticated literature because of their shallow attention spans; they are
pleased by empty an empty, dull, self-praising and mob-pleasing ballyhoo of
official journalists, architects, writers, academicians, intellectuals, and singers
suffering from “star” disease. All this from the modest treasure and wealth of
the People and nation and against them.
* * *
The current
IMPERATIVE of our nation and of our citizens is: The development of a civic
culture and the persistent pursuit of debate and rebellion, achieved through
political and civic education and the enhancement of an objecting awareness and
culture.
We believe in
this strategic goal and tirelessly work the realization, development, and
adoption of Leftist values, ideas, and politics as a vital alternative in the
Armenian reality and towards the rebirth of Armenian state and for its true
empowerment. We believe this in the
name of the major human and national goal of equality, justice, civic
solidarity, and the common good. Full-fledged individuality (of human beings
and as a nation) must be respected for the development and reinforcement of the
regulatory role of the state, as the guarantor of just redistribution and
quality public services, for the harmonious coexistence of the human beings
with the universe, for an all-encompassing human and Armenian culture. Dynamic
brainstorming and action are necessary to educate, organize and mobilize the
Armenian society and people around these values and ideas, always in tune with
the developments of the universal mind and soul. These ideas will be realized
through a growing and powerful struggle.
Without
alternative, a true alternative, the human being, the society, the people, the
nation, the state, and humanity are doomed to contamination, decay,
degeneration, and destruction. Currently the TRUE PATH for our people and state
is the development and fulfillment of left, humanist, and national alternative:
that is our oxygen, our guarantee, our deliverance.
