On Saturday, Nikol Pashinyan held pre-election rallies in the Aragatsotn Province, where he particularly spoke about the military defeat and, as always, blamed the “former regime” (the rhetorical expression “The defeat is mine” is from the lyrical genre). The information the Prime Minister provided at the rallies about diplomatic contacts, armaments, and the actual war clearly contradicted his previous statements and facts he had repeatedly stated. This reality was discussed by the opposition, the “former regime,” and, in particular, the third president.
In and of itself, Serzh Sargsyan’s criticism is mostly right, but his claim that “No one believes you anymore” is wrong. That is not true; tens of thousands of people still believe in Nikol Pashinyan, and the main reason for that belief is that people don’t believe in Serzh Sargsyan, and we don’t need to discuss why. In these conditions, voters will ignore the most obvious facts, and they won’t want to listen to the most convincing arguments against the Prime Minister.
Populists can lie to the majority of the population by taking advantage of their ignorance, lack of knowledge, preferences, emotions, and fears. This is neither the first nor last case in history. And the problem does not lie within the liar (there will always be talented and eloquent propagandists), but among those who are willing to be deceived. So, we must understand why such things happen at different times to different people.
Ayurveda, the ancient Indian philosophical teaching, states, “Civilizations are collapsing not because of wars, but because people are starting to only think about themselves and only about what to take, but not what to give. And the main principle of harmony is the exchange of energies. It is this principle that opens people’s hearts to love.” Maybe the same principle can be applied to states, societies, and why not families as well? Without love, all these structures inevitably collapse, perish, and disappear.
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If people are not prepared to listen, understand, forgive, help one another, or agree with each other, then hatred and animosity start to form. People can gather somewhere and say “Heil!” to someone, but that does not say anything about unity in society because when those people go home, they can file cases against each other. Hatred is what united those people, not love. Hatred, fear of the internal and external enemy, and the “defensive position” conditioned by that fear actually divide society, weaken its resistance, and lead to destruction.
Therefore, the task at hand is not so much to uncover a particular lie, but to awaken love in the people. Love, particularly, towards our state.
Aram Abrahamyan
