In 1915, Lenin wrote an article called “The Defeat of One’s Own Government in the Imperialist War.” The article begins with the following sentence: “During a reactionary war a revolutionary class cannot but desire the defeat of its government..” In the article, he was debating on other social-democrats, who would not desire that Russia is defeated in the First World War and called them “social-chauvinists.” The author rightly points out that the defeat in the war contributed to the rise of revolutionary wave, and, brings as an example the the Paris commune in 1871. As always, for this figure too, though the article is great, but it is a product of a distorted and unhealthy mind. It turns out that to get rid of own and unfair dismissal regime it is necessary that the enemy bring your country to knees.
This way of thinking is met in Armenia on every step, in political and non-political circles. Currently, the defects of the existing political and economic system, and, of course, first and foremost, the crying authorities make a man or groups of people to be “offended,” and that “offensiveness” applies not only to the above-mentioned subjects, but also to their own state and country. Any step in this thinking that is taken against Armenia, is adopted with the obvious enthusiasm. If you remember, on December 2-3, 1996, the OSCE summit was held in Lisbon, of which about 2.5 months before the disputed presidential election took place, in our typical “post-election processes.” It was clear that the conference did not expect anything good from us. And so, our opponents were enjoining in advance the resolutions of the conference, which were hitting not Ter-Petrossyan but Armenia. And indeed, the Lisbon Declaration should contain unacceptable for us points about Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, as well as the self-determination of Artsakh in the structure of that country, but as far as the decisions at the OSCE summit are reached by consensus, Armenia put a veto on those items, and only the statement of acting OSCE Chairman-in-Office was spread as a document, which contained the same items. (So far, the opponents of the first President are spreading tales about this conference, but, in the era of Internet, checking the reality is a matter of 5 minutes). After Lisbon, the enthusiasm of opposition was still greater than the Azerbaijani side, “Lisbon disgrace”, “red card to dictatorship regime” and so on.
Now, (by the way, pay attention to the fact that after the concurrent presidential elections) the opposition forecasts some “pleasure”, ay, you see how Russia punishes us, it will punish even more, ay, “Smerch” is now going to destroy the whole of Armenia and Artsakh. It looks like it will take place (unless, of course, it happens, which I have serious doubts about it) only with Serzh Sargsyan, and not with all of us.
Of course, on the individual level too, each of us has to suppress ‘the offended’ in it. Because, if we give way to our offensiveness, to our negative emotions boiling in us, this eventually will blind us, making us weak and unfortunate.
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You can be an opposition or pro, you can be away from politics in general, you can be a nationalist, liberal or socialist, a Christian, atheist or adherents of other faiths. A person may
be a revolutionary or counter-revolution, which, in my opinion, in essence, is the same. But the most undesirable option is to be “the offended.”
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
Caricature from New Yorker
