Or should we submit to the views of the “wise people”?
I recently read a Facebook post by prominent Ukrainian philosopher Andrii Baumeister, where he mentioned receiving yet another wave of hate after expressing an “untrendy” opinion in an interview. “Malice and hatred are normal for them. They don’t want to analyze and understand… Your hysteria and your malice will not scare me or silence me. On the contrary, they show that I am on the right track. When you have moments of enlightenment, ask yourself, what can you do to bring people together? To make our country better, more educated, more united.”
Armenian, Russian, Ukrainian (and similar) societies are not particularly different from each other. The representatives of the majority, or, as it is sometimes customary to say, “the people,” who, as a rule, have read at best a book and a half, are ready, without a second’s doubt, to teach intelligence and give lessons to people like Baumeister, and they do it in the most rude and blasphemous way. Because they are “activists,” “fighting types,” and “out of the lap of the people.”
What should intellectuals do in that case?
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There is a famous “elitist” verse in the Bible: ” Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces. ” (Matt. 7:6).
So what, should we shut up? But the Lord Himself was not silent; He spoke, preached, reprimanded, and fought. When does it make sense, and when does it not? And if it makes sense (casting pearls before swine), how should it be done?
Let me give a specific example. A friend of mine relayed a conversation with a taxi driver. The “judgment” of the driver was approximately as follows: Stepanakert was better and cleaner than Yerevan because we sent money to “them” (that is, the “Karabakh people”), and we had no money left to improve Yerevan.
Should it be objected to, or would that be “casting pearls before swine?”
I know the “intermediate” version that justifies the “pig”: “Oh, you have to understand these people. These people have been repressed so much that their slightly heightened feelings are quite appropriate. Our wise people understand everything correctly by instinct.”
These theses of official propaganda are well known. If we follow them, we should answer similar judgments of this driver and tens of thousands of other representatives of the “wise people”: “Yes, my brother, you are right, we should have gotten rid of that Karabakh a long time ago. Long live Nikol, the people were finally able to breathe.”
The majority’s view, in short, is clear. But my questions are aimed at the minority. What are we, the people who understand the absurdity of such judgments, to do?
It seems to me that there is no point in arguing with every fellow citizen who is brainwashed (in Russian, “оболваненный”). On the other hand, staying silent is also wrong. Because in that case, the government will sooner or later convince the “wise people” that “just living well” within Turkey is also a possible and acceptable option. To prevent this entirely predictable scenario, we should try to communicate with the audience, whether it is large or small, focusing on specific individuals, I repeat, without wasting time.
It may not produce any “immediate results.” But if the speech is sincere and disinterested, I believe it will leave a mark somewhere in the universe.
The word of the Lord did not cause any positive change in Israeli society at the time. Famous works of literature also do not usually cause shocks at the time of their creation. For example, Solzhenitsyn’s “The Gulag Archipelago” (the first version was ready for publication in 1968) did not collapse the Soviet Union at that time. Can it be said that all such works were written in vain?
And vice versa, the immediate result for the “pearl thrower” is often sad. In totalitarian systems, it is a threat to the speaker’s life and freedom. The weapons of modern authoritarian regimes are more “humanistic” – malice, hatred, curses, as in the case of Andrii Baumeister.
People face the danger of becoming a marginal minority, a “black sheep.” Most people can’t stand it. The silence of many is due to this. Some of them, knowing the reality very well, not only do not remain silent, but also join the compliments addressed to the “wise people.”
It’s probably more convenient that way.
Aram Abrahamyan
