Today, the “European Neighborhood Policy” conference launched in Vilnius. As per initial arrangements, Russia has achieved some success before the meeting disallowing Armenia and Ukraine to sign the relevant documents. In my opinion, this is a serious mishap for the said countries, and vice versa, success for Georgia and Moldova, as these countries were able to demonstrate their “resistance capability.”
However, I will allow myself to slightly deviate from the already too hackneyed theme and generally talk about success, a thing that we formally and sincerely often wish each other. There are hundreds of books, articles and interviews in the world, where the millionaires are explaining of how they have achieved success. Henry Ford, for instances, tells how to improve the production of automobiles, Bill Gates – how to ensure revolution in the sphere of high-tech. If a Russian oligarch writes such a book, it (to be honest) will be called “How I appeared beside the oil pipe at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union.” And, an Armenian oligarch will entitle his book “How I was bringing sugar from Ukraine.”
Millions of people read these written or unwritten books, are inspired by these examples and are filled with jealousy and shaking their heads they say, “Oops, I wish I had a better luck.” On this simplest level of consciousness, success is equal to becoming rich, or, anyway, a well-off person, the majority of humanity is oriented thereby. This, of course, is an illusion, because a) meeting the demand causes new, higher demand (which was written about still in the 19th century by a French political thinker Alexis de Tocqueville), b) more human material capabilities, more he hold dear for his property, which makes him utterly unhappy, c) there are a lot of people in the world (starting from me) that are quite satisfied with their life, but too far from the wealth by any standard.
Moreover, should the primary goal of a person be achieving success at any cost (any success, not only tangible)? Aren’t there more interesting objectives in this life? And, wasn’t Rudyard Kipling correct saying that the cost of success and misfortune, in fact, is the same?
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… Turning to present times, I must say that under current situation it would be a great success for Armenia, if it can, at least to some extent, maintain its independent statehood. But, God forbid, if not, life is still to be continued.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
