From time to time our intellectuals, most probably, being idle and longing to express their civic position on some safe issue, decide to deal with the TV series. Complaining about the TV series is really a harmless thing – the target of criticism is indefinite, vague, it is neither an official nor an oligarch nor a bodyguard and cannot harm one physically.
As far as I know, intellectuals haven’t sent an open letter to the president regarding the election or say the violent beating up at Harsnakar and in regard to the TV series, it has been done lots of times. Probably they expect that the president will slam his fist down on the table and will demand to forbid all the TV series and in that case the social morality and the new generation will be rescued from all temptations. In reality, it would be very undesirable, if the head of the country intervened in the given matter in such a way – it would mean that we live under a totalitarian regime. Once the state or its representatives take on the task of protecting the social morality, the next step is the establishment of the Ministry of Truth, which protects any value in the way the government and its functionaries perceive it.
Intellectuals who are regularly concerned about the TV series claim that they lead the youth in a wrong direction and the moral degradation of our society is to a large extent conditional on the content of that TV genre. First I don’t think that today’s youth is worse than we were – it is an ordinary grumble of adults. Second I don’t think that we are facing degradation in this very period of time. The Armenian society is as degraded today as it was in 1970s when the minority lived for spiritual values and the majority dreamt of a GAZ-24, a dacha, an office and “making money.” What TV series made people steal spare parts from factories 40 years ago –The Forsyte Saga, an English TV series, or Seventeen Moments of Spring, a Soviet TV series?
The above-mentioned doesn’t mean at all that I am a fan of TV series genre. On the contrary, TV series are mass consumption goods, a tasteless gum, as a rule, which is thrown into people’s mouth, since cooking a good meal is too expensive and requires more effort. But does anyone seriously think that if one day TV channels suddenly decide to show exceptionally the masterpieces of Fellini or Tarkovsky, the majority of our youth will not long for resembling our oligarchs with their attitude, outlook and language and our housewives will feel happier because of that? One certainly should fight vulgarity and tastelessness, but “on one’s own,” without applying to the president.
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ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
