“There is a sufficiency in the world for man’s need but not for man’s greed.” These words by Mahatma Gandhi, I think, underlies not only moral, but also any rational approach. The man cannot sleep in the same bed simultaneously, drive several cars simultaneously, eat food with more calories. But irrational passions inhabit in him, among which gluttony, drug addiction, gambling, and alcoholism are the most simplistic ones. The rest of the passions that rages in the souls of the people and especially the rulers of the world are far more dangerous.
Can the President of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, survive without his 21-meter gold-plated statue? Apparently, he can. The statue does not add anything to his health, nor even to his wealth or power. However, the irrational passions instigate him getting tangible signs of “people’s love”, and maybe he thinks that thus his power is strengthening, or that this statue will stand forever. He does not even know that such statues after the “changing of the situation” prone to be overthrown not only from 21 meter but 100 meters.
After meeting any irrational instinct: greed, vanity, envy, and jealousy, it is followed by disappointment: individual and group, during life or posthumous. The alcoholic dreams of a bottle of vodka, he thinks that after drinking, he would reach the heights of pleasure, but actually he appears in exactly the opposite position, which is accompanied by numerous physical and spiritual pain. A “leader” passes away or he is dismissed from the power, the next “leader” comes and is amazed, “Who was he that you erected his statue, my statue should be here?”
Any such “soul delusion” (if such a phrase is applicable here) has its price. In the case of alcoholism, it is the “delirium tremens,” in the case of the cult of personality, as a rule, the next generation pays, the price for avid officials’ and oligarchs’ pleasures is the impoverishment of the remaining citizens, the result of unsparing use of the nature is the reduction of all natural and, consequently, human resources. There is no boundary, you cause damage to someone else or to yourself, it is the same, humanity is a common organism.
Often, people (nation, states) followed by destructive passion strive for things that they do not need them. Moreover, at a reasonable level, everyone knows what is useful and what is harmful to him or her. Let’s assume, we know that walking in the fresh air every day is good to us while sitting on Facebook for hours is not good. But doing something useful requires certain efforts, while the harmful clings to us by itself, and it seems to us that we cannot live without it.
… Russia, for example, can very well survive and evolve without being an empire.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
