The events taking place in the end of the 20th century finally proved all reasonable people that democracy and liberalism have no alternative. To those who still did not understand the truth, and think that the reverse movement in this or that form is possible, today feel a deep psychological drama and worthy of true compassion. The psychological barriers that prevent them calmly and impartially evaluate the processes taking place in the whole world are materialistic and quite understandable.
To understood these processes and, more importantly, to participate in them, it needs to have freedom of mind and a certain level of private initiative, a thing, which is completely devoid of a man called ‘homo sovieticus’. The advocacy of counter ideas of “socialism,” “socialist justice” and “nationalism”, in their case, fall onto greatly prepared ground (we have intentionally quoted these concepts, because in reality they are too vague and conventional, and in some displays they do not contradict liberalism). Such advocacy is based on primitive human instincts. For example, “All the rich are mafiosi”. Their cars, homes, clothes, and food cause ‘homo sovieticus’ such a counteraction, about which we know from Pavlov’s famous experiments. The action plan becomes also clear to attack the rich, take away their possessions and divide equally among the poor. Thus, we will get “social justice.”
To listen to “socialist” and “nationalist” advocacy, one should be deprived of its personal characteristics, glimpses of thinking independently, and become a particle of homogenous “mass”. And the “mass” needs a leader, an iron discipline and a system of strict sanctions for “traitors”.
It would be great if these trends were countered first by the layer, which is called to create a public opinion, the intellectuals. Unfortunately, it does not happened in Armenia. We have such an atmosphere, where the society is expecting from the political figures and media an aggressive, ribaldry assessments and slogans vividly expressed with social or national deviation. If, for example, any commentator tries to seriously analyzing (without Mr. Bleyan’s eccentric displays, but also without “nationalistic” ribaldry) current phase of the Armenian-Turkish relations, in the next few months “patriotic” forces will put him in the pillory.
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A contradictory situation is created in our media. The newspaper that has taken the expression of a motto “Power gives birth to the right” (a slogan that was quite acceptable at the beginning of the century for the national liberation struggle) can criticize violence acts of the police in its pages that were given birth from the same motto. Or the newspaper that crushes down the western liberalism in its articles proving that it is a theory compelled from outside and is extremely dangerous for Armenia can express dissatisfaction as to why the authorities have shut down several periodicals, in other words, why they have violated the principles of the same liberalism. The aforesaid examples show that even the greatest enemies of democracy and liberalism begin to understand the necessity of applying these concepts. A need, which ultimately does not depend on the will of authorities or political forces, but the only way to social development.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
30.03.1995
