I understand that politicians are selling what “consumers” (citizens) are buying. This “product” in Armenian is known as “dear people, this government is robbing you, wreck the country, you are poor while they are rich, they suck people’s blood, well, but if we come, we will put everything into order because we are honest and the government must be returned to the people.” Opportunely, this is also said by those who were accused of “sucking blood” and “seizing the power” over 10 or 20 years.
However, let’s see that in the United States where GDP per capita income is 18 times higher than in Armenia, it is the same. Look at what newly elected US President and billionaire Donald Trump says, “We are transferring power from Washington, D.C., and giving it back to you — the people. For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth. The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our great country. Their victories have not been your victories.
Their triumphs have not been your triumphs, and while they celebrated in our nation’s capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land. That all changes, starting right here and right now.” There too it turns out that the “poor” suffer although the income of those “poor” is incomparable with the income of the poor here. There too the country depleted, the economy had fallen into disrepair and decay, the army was weakening. In short, the “criminal administration” was destroying the country but here comes Trump “sharing the pain and sorrow of the people” who certainly will solve all the problems of the state, will seize the wealth from the rich (except for him) and will give out to the poor.
Here comes the conclusion: populism “is eaten” not only when citizens are poor and are unable to pay, for example, the utility bills. The “digestibility” of populism is conditioned not with the stomach but the emptiness of the head and a limited number of brain folds. And there is no shortage of empty headed people in any country, and such people easily swallow the bait of populist, “Oh, people, you are suffering, and I have come to free you from these sufferings.” In reality, if someone is suffering from any reason, it is only due to his brain.
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Populism can be not only social but also nationalistic, racist: “These drug-addicted Mexicans have come and settled in our country”; sexist “These women are necessary for only one thing” and so on. Now, we are living in the era of populism. The situation is approximately the same in the UK, Poland (where the leadership does not like Russians at all but applies Putin’s propaganda formulas), Austria, Hungary, Greece, and France.
Its “antidote” is having an intellectual elite which will say, “People, do not believe these tales.” And it should be said with no fear.
