Why do people get anxious when they can’t label someone as “own” or “stranger”?
Dividing society and humanity in general into “blacks” and “whites,” “owns” and “foreigners” is not a purely Armenian and purely 21st-century phenomenon. That division is a permanent and fundamental flaw in human thinking.
However, it is necessary to understand at which stage it occurs. If someone says “we,” then they necessarily mean that there is a “them”; if there is a “here,” then there must be a “there.” There is nothing wrong or dangerous about these divisions in themselves.
For example, if I say “we journalists,” I identify with a group engaged in a particular work. That doesn’t mean other professions deserve less respect: The same with political beliefs, religion, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, skin color, etc.
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Stranger, non-own, “black” appear when you think that some group of people is a threat to your world, preventing you from realizing your goals. But it still does not mean dividing the world into “blacks” and “whites.” Division only occurs when people worry about seeing individuals and groups that are difficult to label as ‘own’ or “strangers.”
In limited minds, it creates uncertainty and confusion. Those types of people make constant efforts to keep the world they have built of “black” and “white” in its “pristine” form. I have dealt many times in my practice with those who sacredly maintain that “black-white” division. “Open ANM members are not as dangerous as those who carry out ANM propaganda “underneath,” it was said after 1998. “Open Republicans aren’t as scary as those who pretend to be ‘neutral’ and ‘objective,'” was the judgment after 2008. “It is better for a person to be an open CC than a latent, hidden Nicol fan,” it is said now.
The accusation was directed at people who think like me in all three cases. I do not consider anyone an enemy within Armenia. I always see my mission as lowering the “temperature” of hatred in the domestic political life within the limits of my power. I understand that this does not fit into the “black and white” worldview, but do we not see what mutual hatred and hostility have brought our country to?
As a direct result of such thinking, people who consider themselves “white” start looking for “blacks” in their environment. For example, what is called “inner Turk” in national parlance? Have you noticed that certain political parties, idolatrous sects, and religious fundamentalists treat their dissidents, heretics, and “renegades” more severely than they do with those they declare enemies from the start? For this, there are special “inquisitors” (whatever they are called) who check whether the group member has not deviated from the declared dogmas.
Fortunately, those “apostates” are no longer burned at the physical fire. Now, that “fire” is being replaced by social media bullying. One of Umberto Eco’s characters says: “Satan is not the triumph of carnality. Satan is the arrogance of the spirit. It is faith without smiling. It is a truth that can never be questioned.”
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
“Aravot” daily, 22.08.2023
