Can you imagine that Vaclav Havel’s, Andrei Sakharov’s or, let’s say, Mahatma Gandhi’s fan club is opened in some country. Even if there are such clubs, surely neither the above-mentioned people, nor else their heirs would have welcomed such initiatives. Because idolizing any man means that one turns a blind eye to his mistakes and drawbacks, makes an idol of him, which contradicts moral values, as well as commonsense and those ideas, for which the above-mentioned people struggled. Besides, there are elements of hypocrisy and compulsoriness in idolization. E.g. millions of Northern Koreans cried because of Kim Jong-il’s death. Honestly? Hardly, because those who cried little during that burial have been fired. Some people brought their mourn reference to avoid further troubles. I am talking about first and foremost about social, political and state figures, because if I, for example, admire Tumanyan’s or Hamo Sahyan’s works, it seems to me it is an absolutely normal thing. As you see, idolization is required by figures of authoritarian nature, because they are not satisfied merely by supporters or comrades-in-arms, they need absolute admiration toward their any word or move. It is the demarcation line between “black” and “white” – either you “are with the people” or you “are an enemy of the people.” It is not casual that the latter notion was adopted by Stalin, since he was convinced that he is both the embodiment and the “father” of the people at the same time.
Unfortunately, many modern Armenian politicians don’t avoid the temptation of “being idolized” and so-called fan clubs either. The first and second presidents of the Republicof Armenia, Geghamyan, Hayrikyan and many others are such people. Being extremely different personalities, they originate from the same era, although some of them severely confronted the Soviet system.
However, all this is not so awful, as establishing a fan club of a foreign state figure. As you have understood, I am talking about Putin Club intended to be established inYerevan. It smells not only like Sovietism, but also colonialism and provincial adulation, since the initiators want to bow yet another time to the Big Brother by that.
…I think fan clubs of Real Madrid C.F. and FC Barcelona are normal. I just cannot understand the hostility between them. It seems both clubs play good football, do they not?
Read also
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
