Recently, a taxi driver told me that he is a fellow-student of Eduard Sharmazanov. Naturally, the topic of his the conversation was, “How did it happen that he became a …, and I became nobody?” Personally, I have a different notion about “become” or “not become”. It seems to me that it is possible to sweep the streets and “become” something, or better to say, “be”, and it is possible to know the world and “be” nobody. But I understand that the consciousness of an ordinary human is oriented by the standards of “having success” in the life.
I am talking about something else. The probability that you will come across, let’s say, Sergey Naryshkin’s fellow-student on the streets is 100 times less, but if it will take place in Barnaul or Chelyabinsk, it is almost zero. Thus, the discontent in Russia that one “became” but I “did not” is much less. It is different in small countries. We all are neighbors here, friends of the friends, former colleagues and so on. If not directly, then we are neighbors of neighbors, acquaintances of acquaintances, friends of friends. Not going far, I must say that I have worked directly with my three colleagues, who are now Deputies of the National Assembly. Therefore, theoretically it is possible that I would blow up from envy that they “became” and I did not, and thus feel offended of it.
In the case of poor management and the suspect of becoming rich dishonestly, such matters sound more sharply in the small republics. “This is not fair, I am worthy of more,” people think. And mostly, they are right. There are no precise, clear and transparent standards that leave no doubt that this person’s “moving ahead” is entirely justified, and his public position is not disputed. No one is deeply touched when football player Henrikh Mkhitaryan is buying a new and luxurious car. Because no one doubts the merits of this young man.
It is different for the rich and officials. People for whom “achieving success” is in the first place in the list of life goals, they see that not only, in their opinion, the unworthy have reached these goals, but afterwards, with their conduct and impertinence, they try to establish their own merits.
Read also
Although my proposed solution perhaps is a half-step and has nothing to do with the “establishment of global justice”, however, I would recommend those who have achieved a particular financial and official position to be more restrained and decent. Eventually, it generates from their own interest too.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
