I cannot imagine a human development and progress without a critical attitude towards its own deed. Recently, I heard a story about Khoren Abrahamyan. In his youth years, he had a huge success in the popular film “The Song of the First Love”. But some time later, he realized that if he continues enjoying the fruits of the success, if he does not say to himself that what he has done until the moment as an actor was superficial and simplistic, then he would not become an actor in its true and modern sense. And Khoren Abrahamyan continued working on himself by overcoming all the stock phrases and stereotypes that have brought him success. Indeed, here we are dealing with a happy combination of talent and intellect. How many cases do we know when talented people have made progress by repeating themselves. Because they lacked in brains.
The same, of course, implies to all of us. If I am thrilled with my writings over 20 or 10 years, then something in my “professional promotion” is wrong and it should be reviewed. When a political figure actually claims that what he said or did, let’s say, over 20 years, although with some minor “errors” (“well, we are also human, that’s ok, it happens”), this figure is no more topical, it belongs to the history. Living in time means to publicly acknowledge major, fundamental and big mistakes.
The nation as a whole also has a need for it. But there is an important reservation here. If I hit my hands on my knees and say, “oh, what they’ve done,” it is not a wrong overcome, it’s a common accusation, which most likely reflects my nowadays interests or resentment. It’s another matter when I say, “what we have done”, or “what we are doing.” Substituting the third face with the first face, I change the intonation and show that my goal is not to prove that my “gang” is correct and the other “gangs” wrong, but actually revitalizing our passed way.
When evaluating anything in everyday life, political life or history, we often are driven not by genuine concerns, but “out of resentment.” Each of us is “burnt” by someone, be it a person, group of people or a political force. The problem, however, is that we do not cherish this “burnt” and do not look at the life through its prism. And again, not to offend anyone, I’ll begin with me. It is known that the second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan was doing everything to restrict the freedom of expression and the media. This petty and vindictive posture is really reprehensible, and it is clear that first of all we – the journalists, should suffer from it. But making this resentment absolute and remembering it on every suitable-unsuitable occasions means immobilizing your own mind and take a heavy burden on the shoulders. I must liberate myself from this resentment and forgive the former president.
Chekhov was saying that we should squeeze the slave out of us drop by drop. He was right. But it also implies to the jealousy, laziness and the “resentful”.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
