Recently I got acquainted with a wonderful young man, Arsen Vardanyan. He lives in Gyumri, participates in numerous bright youth initiatives, tries to unite the young people of his town to create a better, more cheerful, creative and interesting life.
In general, journalist’s profession allows you to communicate with different strata of our society. I can say for sure that the most boring people are politicians, and in this “dull” mass, those who are above 50 are the most tiresome.
You know in advance what they will say, what demagogy and populism they will get engaged in, how they will glorify themselves, and tell tales about their own infallibility. Would not you agree that the younger generation, Arpine Hovhannisyan, Gevorg Gorgisyan, Ararat Mirzoyan, regardless of their views, differ from their older fellows? For justice, I must say that there are those who inherited the shortcomings of the older generation.
But the political field in all cases implies certain templates, stereotypes, party members sometimes are obliged to say, “Jawohl, mein Fuhrer”. And those young people I meet outside the political field are free from those templates. If I try to single out the most important feature that I like about many of these free young people, it is (do not be surprised) pragmatism.
For decades, our entire public discourse has been based on national romanticism. Starting from the kindergarten education is based on the “poor”, “suffering” but “proud” and “avenging” Armenian model. This model has played a positive role in the 60-70s of the previous century, but it is absolutely unnecessary today when we have a good or bad state, with its army and all other attributes. We can no longer state: “well, yeah, he takes bribes and robs the state, but he is a patriot devoted to his nation instead”. Education is something that needs to be upgraded, in a broader sense, the public mindset.
And the new generation, or at least a part of it, has avoided that old-fashioned education. It is clear that it is the result of open borders and globalization, the development of the Internet and technology in general. The sooner we understand the advantages of this, the better.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
