As opposed to representatives of political forces (the majority of them) who are in their cars almost all the time and appear everywhere under careful supervision of bodyguards, I mainly walk in Yerevan, I don’t have security and people with whom I talk don’t feel shy to talk to me, because they know that I am not a member of a certain party and haven’t come to convince them of anything. That is the very reason why it is interesting to know what people say in the streets. The first question I am asked is “What will be the end of these people (nation, country, state)?” It is clear that it is a rhetorical question, in order to just start a conversation, the people who ask the question don’t really want to hear the answer from me. On the other hand, it is characteristic that people define that question from the perspective of “the end,” they have in their subconscious the alarming perception of “the end.”
Certainly, people usually complain. It is clear that people who are pleased with their lives don’t walk down the street as a rule and don’t apply to journalists with their complaints. However, I heard such complaints both in Soviet times and certainly more in the period of independence. The annoyance and anger that are usually expressed by my interlocutors are the following, “Why should the people live so badly and these should live so wealthy?” By saying “the people,” people mean themselves and by saying “these” they meant secretaries of the district committee, prosecutors, storekeepers in the past and now they mean oligarchs and officials.
Certainly, the Communists would say that there was no such discontent in their times, the Pan-Armenian National Movement (PANM) members would say that that discontent was less during their rule. If there is another government tomorrow, they will say the same thing about the Republicans. However, perhaps it is worth to think why, for what reason our citizens compare their lives with the lives of ones who have expensive “jeeps” and mansions and complain about cruel and unfair destiny, because of which they don’t have all that. The main reason is that no one has any doubts that the tiny minority has gotten its wealth at the expense of the overwhelming majority’s impoverishment. Admittedly, that conviction has its grounds. However, I am under the impression that spending all of one’s energy on envying the rich and counting their revenues is not that useful. Instead, one can direct a part of that energy to “peaceful purposes,” trying to make one’s own, even much more modest, achievements.
The basis of the opposition propaganda has been that discontent for 20 years, the addressee has been the complaining masses. However, let the respectable representatives of the ruling or opposition parties not take an offense, but I have to assert that none of my interlocutors pins his hopes on any political force.
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ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
