Over the past week, aside from those who curse Pashinyan or Kocharyan, I have started to come across more people on the street who do not want to vote for either of these two, and that certainly is a positive thing. The victory of either of these figures in the elections will deepen the division and instability in society. But there is also bad news- people think that the other 24 parties and blocs belong to either Pashinyan or Kocharyan.
People generally tend to make inaccurate generalizations; “all journalists are sold out,” “all wealthy people are thieves,” “all professors take bribes,” in other words, “everyone lies and lies” (Gabriel Sundukyan accurately described this feature of civic thinking).
I have seen extreme displays of nihilism throughout my conscious life, including during the communist era. It was not until 1988-1990 that Armenians seemed to emerge from this state of disbelief, but then they became frustrated again, and began to generalize the characteristics of certain groups they had seen, with the sad conclusion that “this country will never become a country.” In 2018, Pashinyan managed to come to power based on a wave of hatred towards the “former regime,” but the atmosphere of that time has nothing to do with the “positive” enthusiasm of 1988.
Now, there is a large portion of the electorate that does not believe anyone. You might say, “Well, they have a basis for that, our people have been lied to so much.” That is also, after all, a civil “sigh.” If there are no masses that tend to be deceived, no liar and no cheat will be able to succeed. For the sake of justice, of course, it can be stated that Pashinyan has at least two political forces supporting him- the Republic party and the Shirinyan-Babajanyan bloc- but the figures included in the lists of those forces do not hide their preferences.
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The following can be said for the rest: a rather telling “test” of not playing anyone’s game can be the statement of this or that force that they will never, under any circumstances, form an alliance with either Pashinyan or Kocharyan. Again, you may be wondering, “What if they lie?” Theoretically, this cannot be ruled out, but that would be the end of that party’s political journey.
Another criterion is when the representatives of a political force do not speak about their own plans and visions, but solely about the faults and failures of others. For example, they specialize in revealing Kocharyan’s many sins. Of course, these sins are innumerable- one can write volumes- but when the propaganda is limited not to our current deplorable state, but to the “retrospection” of the past 30 years, it is already doubtful.
It turns out that there are many tricks to avoid being deceived. As long as there’s a desire.
Aram Abrahamyan
