In his book “Conservative Revolution” published in 2007, Artsrun Pepanyan makes a number of recommendations, which, in any case, deserve attention. The easiest thing, of course, is to criticize without reading, guided by the interpretation of the comments of the comments. In the Internet age, that’s usually what most users do. Moreover, not only in the case of books, texts, but also any news. They find their convenient interpretation, usually paraphrased ten times, and build their authoritative assessment on it, which, as a rule, has nothing to do with the original source.
Meanwhile, it is worth reading the original source, in this case, Pepanyan’s book. I agree with the basic pathos of that text. It is necessary to change society, not the authorities. Work with the people by offering them “seductive” mobilization ideas, including in the form of mythology.
The “conservative revolution” itself is a rather motley current that arose in Germany in the 1920s and was mainly directed against the foundations of liberalism and democracy, i.e. the Weimar Republic. That trend, however, had nothing to do with National Socialism. On the contrary, after 1933, when Hitler came to power, many of the ideologues of the conservative revolution were imprisoned.
But the Armenian author, of course, first of all means our reality. He suggests that Armenian society should move towards “some heroic, emulating stage of the past.” It is also worth thinking about how and in what colors that stage is presented to society.
It seems suspicious to me: “composition of the Armenian gospel with the implementation of the necessary religious changes.” I think that the Armenian Apostolic faith fully corresponds to the goals mentioned in the book. It is not possible to make any invention that will be able to replace the values existing in 1700 years of spiritual life.
And another proposal of the author has already been implemented. “The creation of an internal (if necessary) and external enemy image to activate or alert the public.”
The external enemy has been around for a long time, the Turks, and the current opposition, led by the Alliance, continues to work to keep the image of that enemy alive. After 2018, the image of the “internal enemy” also crystallized. It is the former who “robbed the country for thirty years.”
With that image, the current government has been holding our public’s attention for four years. We all know how playing the image of the internal and external enemy contributes to the progress of our state and society.
Aram Abrahamyan
