“Contrary to common sense, the people always defend what is a source of trouble for them. This is what happens in the elections of the People’s Assembly. As soon as the tide of popularity ebbs, we begin to wonder how the ranks of the praetors are filled with the people whom we have just voted for.”
Roman philosopher, poet, and statesman Seneca warned us about such dangers 23 centuries ago. The “wave of populism” referred to by the philosopher has not entirely died down in Armenia, and unique phenomena are continuing. The crowd, according to Seneca, is the worst interpreter of the truth. According to him, the rich and the poor, the members of the Senate, and the ordinary citizens can enter the crowd. The crowd is, so to speak, “a state of spirit.”
The current government of Armenia, led by its leader, has nullified what we have lived for in recent decades, but this disaster has not found an appropriate response in people’s hearts. This allows me to suggest that when I say “we lived,” I am stretching that “we” too much, and in fact, the majority lived with entirely different concerns. Or, perhaps it would be correct to say, from the beginning, in 1988-94, the “status of the spirit” was relatively high, and then that spirit became “defrocked.”
A private but very typical manifestation of social degradation is the attitude towards Ruben Vardanyan. An Armenian man, an Armenian man of inestimable merit for Armenia and Artsakh, risking his well-being, material wealth, freedom, and, by and large, his life, settles in Artsakh, renounces his Russian citizenship to make it clear that he will not retreat, he will not run away and eventually finds himself in enemy captivity. But the philistine sitting on the sofa, the representative of the crowd, continues to repeat the nonsense of the official propaganda about “Putin sent” and “Russian spy.” It’s not Ruben’s problem; it’s society’s problem.
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“…Therefore, it is important for us,” continues Seneca, “not to be like sheep, which will always follow the flock, and not where it should be, but where everyone else is going.”
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
