“Vasya, do you respect me?” This was how the drunkards in the Soviet jokes were convincing each other to continue to “feast”. Respect certainly is not a bad thing, it is even encouraging but the country where the state and political problems are solved on the basis of respect or apathy, the social relations in these countries are distorted.
A school teacher “is enrolled to the Republicans” not because he/she loves this political party, on the contrary, in a narrow personal environment, he/she tells all “mandatory sweet words” addressed to the ruling party. He/she gets a party ticket because he/she is dependent on the school principal, and in addition, in many cases, also sincerely respects his/her school principal. The school principal is “enrolled to the Republicans” again not because he/she shares the program provisions of the Republican Party. He/she, in turn, is dependent on the municipality, and without being a party affiliated, he/she will not be able to ensure the normal operation of the school. And in addition, he/she, very likely, also has respect for the relevant official.
Given this “approach”, let us try to predict the course of the upcoming LGU and parliamentary elections. I think that the candidates of the ruling class and the representatives of their teams (while their number if we take the whole “hierarchy” are several tens of thousands) when campaigning, distributing bribes and exercising administrative pressures, will not say, “Do you know what a good party is the Republican Party?” No, the representatives of this team will formulate the question differently. He might repeat the same “sweet words” about RPA, but later he will say, “All this does not matter. What matters are our human relations. I will ask you and you will answer me honestly, “Do you respect me?” After receiving a positive response, he will continue, “What you are doing, you are not doing for the Republican Party, you are doing it for me.”
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After all, it is very likely that the citizen will not attach importance to his attitude toward the ruling party, or maybe will convince himself that this attitude subordinates human and personal relations, as well as the perspectives that are opened as a result of these relations.
It is accepted to think that this psychological scheme functions more during the LGU elections where the “reputable person” becomes more important than the political parties, ideas, convictions and so on. But due to the so-called “rating system” introduced to the parliamentary elections, they will be slightly different from the village mayoral elections. Again, the individual will rise to the platform to ask, “Do you respect me?”
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
