In the past two days, I came across very harsh assessments on the Internet regarding the audience at Tata Simonyan’s concert. I don’t share these assessments; people have the right to satisfy their aesthetic needs according to their taste or even their mood of the day. Another issue is that I myself would not have gone to that concert, knowing I would be in the same area as the main person responsible for today’s dire situation in Armenia.
It is clear that the songs performed by Tata are for “having fun.” But if we start to draw arbitrary lines between “high” and “not high” art, we will go too far. One might say that a Beatles songs or a Johann Strauss waltzes are not high art either.
Of course, those musical works, books, plays, paintings, recordings, and videos that move people’s minds and take them out of their everyday reality are preferable. Moreover, I think they are more important today than ever.
We are at war with Azerbaijan, and the leader of that country constantly reminds us of this. The government of Armenia, talking about some “peace” known only to itself, is actually acting on the side of the enemy. You may ask, what art is there in this state?
Read also
But let’s approach the question from another side: why do the majority of Armenians endure national humiliation, why do they tolerate the government that brought this disaster? Perhaps one of the reasons is ignorance, cynicism, disdain for real values. Would the Armenian society of 1988 have behaved like this? Obviously not, because the educational level of that society was significantly higher. Therefore, educating people is one of the most important issues today.
…In one of my videos, I talked about the prophet Elijah. One of the users responded: “Enough praising the Jews, talk about Armenian history.” You may not agree with me, but let me repeat: there is a direct connection between our current situation and the educational level of the majority of our citizens.
Aram Abrahamyan
