The foundation of the state is solidarity and mutual good objectives
The 13-14th-century German mystic philosopher Meister Eckhar presents the history of the truth-seeking man in his conversations, which alas I cannot present in literary translation but the meaning is as follows: “On his way to church, a scholar was surprised to see a man in tattered clothes and barefoot. Nevertheless, as a good Christian, he greeted the poor man: “May God give you a good morning!” The poor man replied cheerfully, “I have never yet had a bad morning.” “Then may God give you good luck!” “I have never yet had bad luck.” “Well, may God give you happiness!” “I have never yet been unhappy.”
Finally, he explains, “You wish me a good morning, yet I have never had a bad morning. For when I am hungry, I praise God; when I feel cold, or when it is raining or snowing, I praise God; and that is why I have never had a bad morning. I have never had bad luck. This is because I live with God and always feel what he does for me is the best. Whatever God sends me, be it pleasant or unpleasant, I accept with a grateful heart. That is why I have never had bad luck. I have never been unhappy. For all I desire is to follow God’s will.” And the traveler asks, “And if God had decided to send you to hell, what would you say?” The poor first expresses doubt that such a thing is possible and then adds, “Even in that case, I would have two hands with which I would hold Him. One is the true meekness and the other is love and with these two I would embrace him.” And in the end, he said, “Better with God in hell than without him in the kingdom of heaven.” (Incidentally, the church leadership has accused Eckhar of heresy for this last and similar other allegations)
Indeed, we are in constant tension by comparing our state of affairs, our estate, our strength and agility with another person, who in our opinion has more of that. If we live in such a world of comparisons, then the mental sufferings are inevitable for indeed there will be people in the world who have exceeded you in this-or-that matter. Market relations, willy-nilly, implies such comparisons. There had never been non-market relationships in the history of humanity, starting from the prehistoric era and will never be; the communist utopias and the “experiments based on them” in the 20th century ended with failure.
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Hence, what should be done in these market relations not to appear in hell, not to get in a mess and not to be compared with others? It is necessary to have the absolute next to the relative. When an unbeliever, “atheist” nation “officially” switches to the market relations, which took place in Armenia in 1990, immediately the “sludge” inevitably rises to the surface of the society because there are no protective mechanisms and values, with which this society is guided. Under these conditions, people will continue to ask, why the counterman Gvidon became a millionaire in 25 years but not I. The brain of the society is busy with such petty problems.
Market relations and competition (fair or as in our case, unfair) objectively separate people. There should be something to unite them. You would say that it is the state with its power, compel and rules of the game. Of course, it is true. But why no such a state is created in our country over 25 years. It seems to me that it is so because there is no faith, there isn’t the Absolute, which frees people in higher spiritual level of competition from competition, envy and selfishness.
I do not know, maybe there are other ways. But Armenia’s way, I think, is solidarity, cooperation, genuine, sincere and unselfish good deeds. As Meister Eckhar used to say, “One who does a good work, but does not do it exclusively for the sake of God but has also other intentions except God, he belittles the value of God. For all the good works are God’s works.”
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
