Let’s start from far away. There are millions of people in the world who don’t follow any religious path and who don’t believe in any force outside this world. That’s normal, it’s their business. But the majority of those millions of people aren’t limited simply to their ‘disbelief’ and in some way, they fight against believers. That could be a fight with ‘fire and sword,’ just as the Bolsheviks did, for example, or they could choose verbal criticism, asking difficult questions, or ridicule. Argumentative atheists’ beliefs are a special religion that they encourage with a lot of energy.
There are also tens of millions of people who have religious beliefs. The majority of those tens of millions of people, however, aren’t satisfied with simply believing and fight against non-believers, atheists, and other religions in some way or another. That fight sometimes is through ‘fire and sword,’ just as Catholics did in the Middle Ages or some modern Muslims do, it could be through unending arguments, aggressive preaching, or through rejection.
Thus, a question arises: why don’t people just limit themselves to their beliefs or non-beliefs and instead they fight against people who believe in something else? I think it’s because it makes their lives more interesting and vivid. That “fight” is what gives them the opportunity to feel at least somewhat like “warriors” and “disciples,” and what’s most important is that’s how they’re perceived by the majority. Let’s say that there are some Christians for whom it’s not enough to simply try and follow the commandments of God, so they also have to fight against other religions. It’s also interesting to follow that fight.
And now let’s turn sharply in another direction and look at the Yerevan City Council election campaigns, which will take place on Monday. The 2nd place candidate on the “Heritage” political party ballot, Armen Martirosyan, recently voiced his opinion that “there will be an interesting election campaign this time around- for the first time it won’t be anti-anything, but instead in favor of the struggle.” I think that the “Heritage” representative is extremely optimistic. The fight will once again be “anti,” but this time it will be against Taron Margaryan and the Republican Party. It seems illogical at first that they won’t be participating in the elections, and, presumably, there is no need to convince voters that they shouldn’t vote for that faction. But tell me, which is easier: offer up solutions to the capital’s many difficult problems, or make flaming speeches about how Taron Margaryan destroyed and defaced our beloved city (no matter whether that’s entirely right or wrong)? And in which case will the candidates become more accepted and lovable?
Aram Abrahamyan
