“I have never written about education because I think that education results in one thing that you must live good, which means moving yourself, be educated, this is the only way people influence on others, and educate them.” This extremely simple and as fair idea belongs to the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy. In this event, I recalled an incident that happened about 35 years ago. In the Conservatoire Academic Board (I was the President of Students’ Scientific Society and a member), the issue of students’ health, including fighting against smoking, was discussed. The professors, mainly the deans and heads of the chairs, were coming up with a variety of suggestions on how, where and when to ban smoking. And at that time, the rector, Ghazaros Saryan, referred to the professors with a simple question: “And don’t you smoke in the Conservatoire?” There was a dead silence for half a minute. Almost all of our professors were smoking. “As soon as we quit smoking, the students will not smoke either,” the rector summed up the theme. The only person whom I have to educate every day, until deep old age, until my last breath, is I. In doing this, I will convey positive pulses to my surroundings, and it is quite enough. Moreover, it is much and more. If my wife and I do not speak loudly at home, can it happen that the children would shout at each other? If we are mostly busy at home by reading and writing, is it possible that they would not respect the book, in a broad sense, as a product of the mind? The same rules operate in public relations. You should not try educating or directing anyone except you, moreover, to punish (of course, if the state does impose such an obligation on you). Simply show with your behavior what in your opinion is beautiful, decent and proper, let the rest think about themselves. I am talking about unwritten laws and culture, without which no written law will be effective. One of our lawyers brought a wonderful example. The Criminal Code of the West is getting thinner on the account of the very culture and traditions. In Armenia, be is getting thicker, because the authors are trying to close up all possible and impossible loopholes, “and what if the investigator does this, and the suspect does this, and the judge will make up this.” In the event of “what if”, no hope is relied on the human intellect. The late Vladimir Nazaryan’s presumption of madness operates. Perhaps, my hope on consciousness and resistance seems romantic. But we truly know that even in the Nazi concentration camps and the “Gulag”, people with strong spirit were resisting.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
