Former Soviet people do not tend to believe in anything. If, let’s say, the Ministry of Health warns that smoking is harmful to your health, we assume that something is hidden under this allegation. For example, a SNGO adjacent to this Ministry “attracts a grant” and now, with such groundless allegations, it wants to make money at the expense of people’s health. Or, when the police call to follow the traffic rules, we immediately “understand” whose pockets they want to fill in with such weird calls.
At least over a couple of decades, a certain way of thinking is shaped, according to which the state is a body outside of us, to which we should profane making it identical with the government, and of possible, to deceive “because everyone does so.” If someone today says that having a statehood “has been the age-old dream of the Armenian people,” he is as honest as the speakers standing close to the tribune some 40 years ago, who claimed that the Armenian people is yoked by the implementation of decisions of the CPSU congress.
Being brought up by the firm belief that “you all cheat and deceive,” we, a/ are sure that everything in “this state” is based on lies, and, as a rule, we seek to take advantage of this situation, b/ do not believe anyone’s honesty. We do not believe the opposition too, which regularly promises “fiery autumns”, “fiery springs” and revolution, which, however, do not become a reality. In such cases, the people sigh deeply, “Eh, they too were not able to do anything.” In other words, if the state in its entirety is a phenomenon outside of us, then so is the opposition, it seems to us that these politicians are obliged to eliminate bad rulers from the government and bring kind and honest people who would care for us.
In these conditions, the government is unable to implement its ideas, even in the cases when they are true to their core (leaving the drawback of the implementation aside): pension reforms, reduction of turnover tax, consolidation of communities. In such a situation, it is moreover impossible to give reasons for the electricity price rise, even if there are some arguments in favor of it. The claim first published by the “Electricity Networks” obviously smells a criminal. Unless the law enforcement agencies disclose this crime and bring the perpetrators before the court, speaking about the price rise has no sense.
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Aram ABRAHAMYAN
