“The Age of Idiocy”
Haik Aramyan
09:15 05/01/2013
Story from Lragir.am News:
Having survived the Stone, Bronze, Iron Ages, feudalism, communism,
capitalism, our ancient country is destined to go through a unique
period which can be referred to as the Age of Idiocy.
This period has not ended yet but there are all the premises for that.
Is it possible to avoid it or will the Armenian people have to go
through it? It is impossible to answer this question confidently
considering both historical and modern circumstances.
One can start answering this question by the absence of state and
political traditions and the culture of independent organization of
public life when individual perceptions become dominant in the public,
promoting different saviors, chieftains and adventurers who form the
elite and enjoy the right to manage the entire resource of the
country.
For its part, the `elite’ is interested in the perpetuation of this
state of things because otherwise it cannot survive. It does not make
investments in modern education and science, hinders the introduction
of modern technology and industries which are able to change the
thinking and worldview of people.
For this purpose the elite forms political parties, makes a deal with
the church, buys the press and intellectuals who are tasked to subject
the public to information and psychological terror and keep the elite
from the rightful demands of the public.
Public consciousness and behaviors undergoes continuous degradation
which aggravates vicious phenomena and thinking, making people humble
and conformist under the weight of the myths of the elite.
Since independence Armenia has witnessed this conduct which culminated
in 2012. It was the peak of the period of idiocy. On the one hand, it
was funny to watch the behavior of the `elite’ and its servant
parties. But on the other hand, it was a tragedy, not for the elite
but for the people who seem literate, educated and smart enough to
understand that the mechanisms offered in the internal fight can serve
only the perpetuation of the anti-state system.
This is a tragedy because literate people intend to drag the public
out of the marsh of perceptions and myths and interpret the meaning of
constitutional state, the mechanisms of organization of a dignified
public life to them. Instead, these people tried to reduce the
problems of state and public life and identify them with the personal
problems of the `elite’ which have become a problem for Armenia.
Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s government was absolutely authoritarian, it was
based on the individual perceptions of a handful of people. The law
was not enforced, public institutions brought into being the
individual perceptions of life of a few people.
Robert Kocharyan crashed this `system’ and established the rule of
criminal law in the country. It could be described as more
`progressive’ – the perceptions of some people were replaced by a
system of perceptions. Tough rules were established, the resources
were divided to quotas and distributed to the participants of the
system which had to control the `area’ assigned to them and ensure the
proper functioning of the system. A stiff hierarchy was set up where
not even the slightest deviation was forgiven.
Serzh Sargsyan’s government is difficult to describe because in the
long run he has been unable to form a government. There are some
elements of previous governments. It has `objective’ reasons because
there are no more `authorities’ and `saviors’ whereas he cannot be
perceived as a `judge’ in the criminal system who can set the rules of
the game and make sure they are observed, and it is already cracking.
On the other hand, the transformation to a Constitutional state failed
although all the premises were in place. The Constitutional state is
the end of the system formed in the past 20 years.
The end was inevitable despite the efforts to prolong the existence of
this system on the eve of the parliamentary and presidential
elections. One the one hand, some civic groups have emerged which
achieve victories through well-designed mechanisms and activities,
which cannot pass unheeded. On the other hand, the systems based on
`saviors’ and `authorities’ cannot survive even the first visible
expression of the new reality.
The Armenian revolution is slowly clearing its path. The
anti-revolutionary forces – the criminal oligarchy and the political
parties – are passing to the margin of history. Perhaps, the `Age of
Idiocy’ was a historical must for the victory of the Armenian
revolution.
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