Such is the inevitable logical chain of any revolution
In one of his lectures presenting the Age of Enlightenment, one of the prominent intellectuals of the 20th century, Yuri Lotman, notes that in the 1780s and 1790s, the progressive intellectuals of Europe perceived their 18th century as the last century of human suffering. According to these intellectuals, people who were burdened by superstition and prejudice, people whose hands were bloodied by the senseless wars of previous centuries, finally saw the light of reason.
Because they saw it, humanity would be transformed from that moment on, and millions would embrace the ecstasy of love. The dreams, however, were followed by the French Revolution, with its most brutal violence, and then by the war, which lasted from 1792 to 1815 and was unprecedented in its number of casualties compared to the wars of previous centuries.
Unprecedented expectations and hopes followed by equally unprecedented sacrifices and disappointments. Humanity, in general, and individual nations, in particular, have repeatedly passed through these stages. In the mid-19th century, Karl Marx predicted that capitalism would become the last social order in which social antagonism existed. According to the German philosopher, it should be followed by communism, where these contradictions should be reconsidered, and at that time, the true history of humanity should begin. In the 1990s, libertarians such as Francis Fukuyama and Steven Pinker believed that their ideology had “won” on a global scale and that all nations and states would sooner or later live by the rules of the libertarian game. Such delusions have a rather old history. Many Christians are convinced that the second coming of God and the terrible judgment should be believed in a literal sense, not a metaphorical one, and are seriously preparing for that event.
Karl Mannheim, a German philosopher of the first half of the 20th century, referring to the spiritual roots of ideologies and utopias, notes that the so-called “chilialist (or millenarian) worldview” plays a significant role here. Chilialist (or millenarian) worldview” plays a significant role here. Chiliasm (or millenarianism) is a religious doctrine that Christ’s thousand-year reign will precede the end of the world.
According to Mannheim, this feeling, specific to various political teachings and utopias, leads people not only to wait for future bliss but also to be always ready that such a leap can happen at any moment. Mannheim writes: “The value of the revolution for the chilialist teachting is not that the revolution is a means to some rational end, but that it is a breakthrough towards a long-dreamed-of world.” “The passion to destroy is a creative passion,” the German philosopher quotes the Russian anarchist Bakunin at the end of his judgments.
These judgments are also applicable to the Armenian Revolution of 2018. On the face of it, it was smooth and non-violent, but in terms of consequences, it was again bloody, and, unfortunately, the chain of casualties and deprivation is not yet over. And at the base was the expectation, the dream, the utopia of building some miraculous shining happiness. The conclusion is one: you don’t need to be overly optimistic to not fall into deep pessimism and disappointment later on.
Aram ABRAHAMYN
“Aravot” daily, 30.05.2023
