Oppositions like, to put it mildly, to lay “blasphemy”, he who thinks or acts so, again to put it mildly, is this-and-that. He, who is against Sargsyan’s resignation, is… I leave the continuation to the imagination of the reader. Let it be so, but it seems to me that a question associated with any person is of the third, if not, the quaternary significance.
Of course, the opposition parties do not agree with me; to be concentrated at personality of the President is a tradition of political struggle developed in Armenia in the past 20 years. I remember when in 1997 the “Aravot” reporter addressed the NDP member David Vardanyan with a question, the latter got angry, “Why do you ask the source, rather than the dragon sitting at the source.” The dragon, of course, was the first President of Armenia. People, who are upset from our homeland and make up the majority of leaving the country, would also disagree with me. These people, in and outside of Armenia, are guided by quite understandable emotions.
But, you may ask, if the abovementioned question is secondary, then what is primary. It is clear that I do not have prescriptions, but let me provide a short story. Until mid of 1980s, New York was the world’s most dangerous city of the crime, every year thousands of felonies were committed. One of the most dangerous places was the subway, where cases of stab murdering, piratical attacks, rape, endless use of drugs, etc. were taking place almost every day.
During that time, David Gann was appointed as the director of the subway, who began his campaign by erasing the graffiti from the wagons. He was chided, “People are slaughtering each other, and you are changing the design.” Gann was opposing to it, “Graffiti is the symbol of the failure of the system.” In other word, the crime trends to be developed in a dirty, unkempt, arbitrary, unorganized, we would say, homeless atmosphere.
William Bratton joined the campaign, who was appointed as traffic police chief of the city, and who was sharing Gann’s theory. He started from catching the fare-beaters, something that the police had not been involved before, focusing only on felonies. Due to persistent campaign, criminality in subway, eventually, dropped drastically. Afterwards, this principle was spread across the city. In 1994, Mayor Rudolph Julian appointed Bratton as police chief, who was again very strict with those who were displaying improper behavior in public places.
Conclusion No. 1. Personal features of character, inclinations, and genetics are less important than the atmosphere, environment, and situation.
Conclusion No. 2. Do not try to solve global problems, but sustain some “ecology” in the ‘place’ entrusted to us. That is why, in particular, I agree with the following aphorism: “Debate style is more important than its object.”
Aram Abrahamyan
