One of the human traits I respect the most is some mocking attitude toward oneself. When a man treats himself too seriously, it is hard for me to talk to such a person, also interview him, because he will stress his cosmic significance in time and space in every answer. Politicians should be like that for understandable reasons – well why should one enter politics (particularly in such a small and underdeveloped country as ours), if not for rescuing the nation. The “dear people” do not expect any smaller and unimportant mission from him. That is the very reason why the majority of politicians are fattened up like turkeys. One can expect, at least theoretically, some humor in self-perception from people of other professions.
However, that lack of humor is probably characteristic of all small nations. One can make such a conclusion even judging from the discussions that take place on the internet “fronts” between Armenians and Azerbaijanis. For example, if someone writes, “it has rained in Yerevan today,” there will certainly be someone who will necessarily comment, “not in Yerevan, in Revan, which is called so after Revan VII Azerbaijani khan.” And there starts a meaningless and fruitless skirmish. There is no one to say, “We have descended from the Moon and conquered your historical lands – good for us. If you try to attack, we will make it hot for you.” The same thing applies to internal political debate, where the proponents of “stability” and “legitimacy” cannot convince each other in any way. Everything is caused by the inability to look at one’s own personality, political group or nation from a certain distance.
The law-enforcement bodies of Armenia also lack some self-mockery. Otherwise, they would have had imagination that is more fertile. Or else it turns out that all our former foreign ministers have a bad inclination for money laundering. Perhaps, it is their hobby or it is an epidemic. However it is the reality that both Alexander Arzumanyan and Vartan Oskanian, once they entered into active politics (by the way, in the opposition camp), switched on their “washing-machines” immediately, in order to launder the money received from foreign “dark forces.” For some reason, I have remembered the movie Autumn Marathon. The leading character in that movie makes up stories to conceal his affair from his wife. And when he says that he has taken a foreign professor out of a detoxication center, the wife responds “you have already lied about the detoxication center.”
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
