What is today’s Armenian public order based on?
One of the classics of sociology, Max Weber, was convinced that the legitimacy of this or that internal and not external factor maintain social order. It is not enough for any emperor to crown any king. The majority of that king’s subjects must be convinced that the crown is in the right place. At least, it has been for the past few centuries.
According to Weber, the legitimacy of public order can be ensured in three ways: 1/ purely “affective” with emotional commitment, 2/ in a value-rational way, when people have an unshakable conviction that a given public order is the most effective and 3/ by religious belief that the common good and salvation is due to that social order.
Today’s Armenian public order is based on the first and third factors. In addition, traditional religion and God are replaced by revolution and Pashinyan; that is, the first is the revolution with its dogmas, according to which the primary goal of the state and society is to reject the previous ones, and the second is the leader who embodies these “eternal truths.” The rest is derivative: suspicion, periodic “discoveries” of “agent networks,” witch-hunts, etc.
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Moreover, in the case of warring countries, usually, the enemy instills such sentiments to cause mistrust and depression in the opposite camp. In Armenia, however, the government does this, convincing its citizens daily that spies, traitors, and defectors surround them. These strikes, unfortunately, are also directed against the army, the institution that, with all its flaws, has been established over the past thirty years and is the most basic guarantor of our security.
But all that, I repeat, is a consequence of “religious faith” anchored on emotions, which is temporary, but at the moment, I don’t see any turning to the rational field, any breakthrough. It is no coincidence that the leader of that “revolutionary religion” identifies himself with King David and Christ, who suffers to ensure the universal good and against whom evil forces conspire.
In one of his last interviews, Levon Zurabyan analyzed this psychological deviation in detail. Instead of political calculations, emotions, myths, and mysticism, it should be assumed that the CP members closest to the leader consider themselves apostles. That arrogance might seem ridiculous if these people didn’t decide our fate.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
“Aravot” daily, 18.04.2023
