As is well known, Civil Contract members are not exactly paragons of good manners: they may use words describing sexual acts in a Facebook post, they may, without any reason, attack journalists in the corridors of parliament, they may hurl the vilest insults at women. You might say: what’s new about that, haven’t we seen such things in the past? Of course we have. But back then, such behavior had no justification—whereas now, it does.
And what is that justification? Why was it unacceptable for Shmays or Tokhmakh Mher, yet acceptable for Civil Contract members? Because, according to their logic, they were “elected by the people.” I don’t know if this “justification” is always explicitly voiced, but whenever Civil Contract members do something blatantly wrong, that’s the line they put forward. In other words, they want to show their genitals, curse, insult, or spit on a citizen not as individuals, but as “representatives of the people.”
One could even say that, in some sense, it is the “people” themselves who are doing it. Not the people about whom the world’s most eminent figures have spoken with admiration (as Levon Ter-Petrosyan recently reminded us), but the “real people of Armenia.” And since this is supposedly “the people,” we must always love Civil Contract members, glorify them, and never utter a single harsh word against them. Otherwise, it turns out we are “against the people.”
Recently, I wrote that I take the argument “the people elected us” with reservations: the “people” (or, to put it more accurately, the majority of citizens) can be intimidated, bribed, or deceived. But let’s leave that aside.
Read also
If the majority of citizens urinate in apartment entrances and elect a government that reflects those aesthetic and ethical standards, then I reserve the right to disagree both with those citizens and with that government.
Naturally, my mission must be to promote my own vision.
Aram Abrahamyan
