It is the foundation of any political demagogy
Simone de Beauvoir’s novel “Les Belles Images” published in 1966 perfectly depicts the wrong forecasts of the Western society about the world. In their judgments about the future, the representatives of the bourgeoisie and their newspapers were saying that everything, in general, is going to better, to progress. True, the “Black Africa” still has problems and the growth of the population in China and generally in Asia is concerning. But thanks to the synthesis of proteins, contraceptives, automation and atomic energy, we can confidently say that in 1990 there will be a leisure civilization, people will work less but will eat full, and will forget about sufferings and diseases.
Such tales were circulating about the future. Perhaps, the emergence of computers, in particular, served as a basis for such super optimistic forecasts. Indeed, the computers are not jealous of each other, they do not start a war with each other, they will work, create goods, while we, the people, will slightly follow their work, and the rest of the time we will spend on “having fun”. Similar forecasts were also made in the Soviet Union. The Communist Party’s program written in 1961 stated that the communism will be built in 1980. And “communism” was understood approximately the same thing: the era of abundance and free work.
The Western culture (including Russian notions about the Communism) is based on the expectations of “bright future”. The entire problem is that these notions perceive the human nature wrongly. One side says that the man is a mechanism, by and large, a “computer”, the improvement of which will bring overall happiness and well-being, the other side says that the man is guided by purely material regularities (because the material aspect is primary, while the conscious is secondary, and, therefore, social being determine the consciousness), and it is sufficient to correct this material, production relations, and everything will fall into its place. Incidentally, the two ideologies had their extremist, cannibal practices. If the man is a mechanism, hence, the “bad mechanisms” should be eliminated at the concentration camps, or if the person, eventually, is a material, then the “harmful materials” again should be eliminated in the same places.
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But by ordinary, non-extremist versions, anyway, the phantom of the “bright future” still dominates, for which allegedly it’s worth to live and fight.
All sorts of political demagogues are infected and are constantly trying to infect with such hollow ideas. “We will build such a country where …” and it is followed by listing some goods. This is spoken not only in Armenia but also in America, Europe and Russia. New Armenia, New France, New Chukotka. All this demagogy is based on the delusion that we need to live “for the future”, and every your move is conditioned by the fact of what wonderful things are going to happen tomorrow, one month or ten years later. But if today is only a “preparation” for tomorrow, and tomorrow is a “preparation” for the day after tomorrow, then life would consist of only “preludes” and the basic “song” will never be voiced.
Of course, I’m not saying that a man should not have goals or dreams, it is hard to live without such “contributory factors”. But to count on some “progress”, on some “bright future”, when there will be no pain, no suffering, no torture, it is just childish.
My fellow-citizens often ask me, “And when is it going to be good? If Poghos sits on the throne, will it be good?” I always answer, “It is already good for me, and this “good” depends only on me.”
Aram ABRAHAMYAN,
Aravot Daily
