In Bertolt Brecht’s “The Life of Galileo”, there is a well-known episode when the Italian scientist is mistreated and his disciple Andrea shouts in anger, “Unhappy is the land that breeds no hero.” “’No” – replied the scientist, – Unhappy is the land that is in need of heroes.” In other words, the desired situation is that everything should be so regulated, the state mechanisms work so effectively that no emergency, force majeure and heroic efforts will be required. The demand for a strong and charismatic leader in the country is from the same series. When saying a “strong leader”, usually they mean a person who is shouting at his subordinates every minute and in the case of failure, he orders to “decapitate” them, as well as to destroy all who are displeased with his governance.
If the country needs a hero, then everything is so sordid that people do not expect anything positive for regular and non-heroic everyday life. People are waiting for a miracle, a mythical character who will use supernatural efforts to bring people abundance and justice. When such a hero, in the face of the new president or prime minister does not justify these fantastic expectations, people get disappointed and helplessly shout, “We are cheated again.”
I do not know what kind of Prime Minister will Karen Karapetyan be, and I have some doubts about his ties with “Gazprom” as the state interests of Armenia and this “bureau” are different and may also contradict. But his first speech as prime minister was a bit of hope that he did not try to “conceal” the situation and introduce himself as a superman who will fix the situation in a couple of months. I, for example, have no doubt that positive changes in our situation can be only thru non-popular and painful moves.
They will be more difficult in the pre-election time but any populism, conciliatoriness and tendency to “get along with” means a failure. On the other hand, every “people’s unpleasing” move must be explained, as the new prime minister said, by “paper and pen”, which means clearly and with pragmatic calculations. I see the mission of this government in injecting this sobriety and eliminating people from “heroic romanticism”.
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On the battlefield, when confronting the enemy, yes, we need to have heroes. But if there are mechanisms in the rear, especially in the state governance system that ensures success to modest, decent and industrious people, may by the external threats also become less.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
