The government of Iran has banned showing chicken dishes on TV, www.tert.am reports referring to www.vz.ru. The chief of police of that country explained that not all citizens of Iran can afford chicken and negative emotions may arise, while seeing it on TV, which may become a reason for public protest. If our folks are guided by the same logic, many things will be banned from broadcasting on our TV too. Guess not everyone in Armenia can buy a Bentley – for that, one needs to have rich kin. Therefore, when some “tough guy” gets into a Bentley in TV series, it can also cause public protest. Here is one of the criteria – all TV series characters, regardless of whether they are Mafiosi or violin teachers, must drive a VAZ 2107. As we know, there are people in Armenia who want to have the same situation in our country as it is in Iran. They don’t like the TV production and apply to the head of state, in order that he fixes the problem to rescue the nation from degradation. (They could apply to the Chief of Police, by the way, in order to make the parallel more accurate.)
Firstly, I think that the talk about degradation is a gripe of old people. We were in that same “degraded” condition 40 years ago too – Zeynar Khanlarova would pack 72 thousand-seat Hrazdan for a few days in a row. It is not like our whole nation used to live for highly intellectual, cultural and national values and suddenly cunning imperialists came to our country after the independence and took us out of the condition we cherished, forcing us to accept values that were strange for us. People who are in the mental darkness listened to cheap music both at the time and now, watched tasteless movies both at the time and now. One should struggle against it with public activity, articles, discussions, devising mechanisms of self-control. But not by banning, calling the legislative and executive powers as a “big brother” and trying to absolutize one’s own perceptions and taste. Otherwise, if the state interferes, the society will be forced to accept the tastes of functionaries and powers that be. And is there any guarantee that they will be impeccable?
However, it is possible that political forces will also join nation-saving initiatives and say, collect signatures to establish a National Assembly interim commission on examining TV series. Who doesn’t sign, s/he is for destroying the identity and moral degradation of the Armenian people. It is also an occupation, isn’t it – one can spend a few weeks of the summer months on just talking about that.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
