Each government has its own social, political and ideological supports. Accordingly, the states are subject to typological division from the point of view of the management system. Still in BC In the 4th century, the famous ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, guided by the essential content of the government system, stated that the models of government acceptable to him are the aristocratic, monarchical and democratic forms. It is noteworthy that the author, while developing his thoughts on governance models, put forward the point of view according to which none of the above-mentioned systems are immune from degradation and stagnation, in which case aristocracy turns into oligarchy, monarchy into dictatorship, and democracy into tyranny. In other words, a chaotic environment.
According to Aristotle, in the case of monarchical, aristocratic, and real democracy, it is possible to ensure the normal development of society, which can only be violated in the case of the above-mentioned degradation. When talking about Aristotle, we should mention that he considered aristocracy to be the best example of governance, and democracy to be the most dangerous and risky, arguing that in the case of the latter, the dividing line between chaos and democracy is very delicate and sensitive, which is not always possible to maintain. From our side, we should also add that “crazy” and “lumpenized” crowds can really pose a deadly threat to the development of society and, in particular, to ensuring the effective functioning of state institutions.
With this article, we will try to describe the internal Armenian political environment that emerged in 2018. after the spring events, as well as to highlight the dangers and possible risks arising from it for the existence of state institutions and, in general, statehood.
The famous Italian thinker Antonio Gramsci believed that the basis of power is the securing of hegemonic positions in all spheres of life, the ruling power must always take care of securing its dominant positions in economic, cultural, financial and all other spheres. However, according to Gramsci, the most important guarantee of maintaining power is securing hegemonic positions in the ideological field. He would like to say that the ruling elite must in every way justify the advantages and positive aspects of their government to other representatives of the society, convince the citizens that the options offered by the authorities for solving the problems they face are the best among the existing ones, that the standards of the latter’s perception of the world correspond to the public’s perceptions as much as possible. With this, the ruling elite must in every possible way achieve that ordinary citizens consider their power as a necessary means to a more prosperous and secure future.
The number one “weapon” of the authorities in solving this problem in the 21st century is the media field. The representatives of the elite have the opportunity to drum up the fact of the effectiveness of their government and public support through the mass media, particularly through social networks. At the same time, it should be noted that the peculiarity of the media field is that, as a tactical “tool” for reaching and maintaining power, it provides the same opportunity to non-governmental forces as well. Speaking about the media field as the main means of propaganda in the 21st century, it is necessary to notice its most negative aspect: unfortunately, the main determinant here is finance, as a result of which the entire media field is often deprived of an ideological and constructive component, being instead filled with cheap and contentless material.
Coming to the life of Inner Armenia, let’s note that our reality has not been spared from the above-mentioned fact. After the victory of the Artsakh movement and the restoration of independent statehood, the elite that came to power, unfortunately, took the path of stagnation, degradation and stagnation. From independence to the present day, the ruling elite has always been engaged in the process of justifying and legitimizing its power. All this time, the media field served as a tool. The military clan that came to power after the Artsakh war tried to justify the legitimacy of its power, constantly emphasizing its contribution to victory and the vital importance of their leadership. However, over time, this propaganda trick exhausted itself, because it was not able to solve the challenges facing the citizens and the state. The result was in 1990. the coup d’état and the transition of the supreme power to the oligarchy.
The third ruling elite, as time showed, also lacked the ability to respond to nationwide challenges, therefore, it had to adopt other tactics to at least extend its power. That new tactic was mostly based on the process of degradation of society’s civilized values, intellectual potential, and moral and psychological situation. What has been said is best reflected in the famous expression of the former President Serzh Sargsyan: “We will hit as much as we need to”. The entire oligarchic system spared no means to ensure public sentiments according to which “there is no game against them”. For this purpose, political figures were “bought”, “pocket” oppositions were created, socio-political events (demonstrations, marches, protests) were organized. However, the circumstance of being organized from one center predestined the conclusion of the expression of dissatisfaction of “ignorant” citizens. Ultimately, all this led to the emergence of an apathetic environment in the political field and a sense of public hopelessness and incompetence. In other words, we can record that everything was done by the criminal-oligarchic elite to degrade and manipulate the society and, thus, to secure their power. But all that could not be done only in the political arena. the most important component of the complete degradation of society was the cultural and moral-psychological aspect, and the criminal oligarchy, represented by its leader Serzh Sargsyan, was well aware of this. On the way to cope with the cultural and intellectual degradation of the public, the first and main blow was directed at the educational system. The corruption of the educational system and, in general, the concept of “education” reached the point that “buying a diploma” became a widespread phenomenon. After dismantling the educational system, the next blow was aimed at the cultural environment. the ruling oligarchic elite began to publicize and propagate its false, “pseudo” value system through representatives of a new branch of culture that emerged in the 21st century, the so-called show business. In the conditions of the destruction of the educational system and the absence of a pro-state ideology in the field, a large part of the youth began to quickly absorb the moral “pseudo” value system presented by the criminal-oligarchic elite through show business and, in general, the low-quality media field. With all this the picture became complete. The tactics of the criminal oligarchy to manipulate and control the main part of the population, fed by a false value system, apparently achieved its goal. However, in the case of a deep, detailed and professional analysis of the situation, the real picture became obvious. the ruling “pseudo”-elite, being unable to provide timely and appropriate solutions to the challenges of nationwide significance and thus degrading the broad masses of society with a selfish tendency to maintain its power, not only failed in its goal, but also endangered the interests of the state, the state and the entire nation. In the conditions of globalization characteristic of the 21st century, in the face of many internal and external challenges, the way of doing things typical of the Middle Ages to degrade the society, to rule over them through darkness, was doomed from the beginning to an inglorious end. The result was the irreversible damage done to the state and the well-known cases of the spring of 2018, when the oligarchy, as a model of economic and political management, finally exhausted itself and gave way to a new model of management.
In order to maintain their positions, the new authorities had to find a new social, political and ideological support, and the election of the latter was based on the model of mob rule “hidden” under the guise of democracy. According to us, the analysis of the internal Armenian situation of the last year proves the fact that the new ruling elite, mainly composed of representatives of the former criminal-oligarchic system, is not able to solve the most serious civilizational challenges. The basis of the activity of the entire ruling elite is the populist way of working, destructive political agendas, as well as ways that have nothing to do with the national worldview and value system. In such a situation, without a doubt, the social and ideological support of the government can be exclusively the desperate and degraded crowd. It is also noteworthy that the new authorities are trying to combine the model of mob rule with some elements of the monarchical model.
The best proof of what has been said is the role and importance of the leader of the current political electorate, Nikol Pashinyan, in the direct survival of the existing political system. In fact, the former political “pseudo”-elite that came to power in Armenia after the spring of 2018, or maybe transformed, having exhausted all the possibilities of the oligarchic model of governance, is now trying to find an ideological and social support for its power, at the hands of the degraded and misled crowd. But, like the previous times, this time too, the “pseudo-elite” devoid of state thinking, national ideology, a vision of self-renewal, professional and intellectual personnel resources, a clearly developed and measurable economic plan in time and space, and a strategic concept of state security will fail. The result, unfortunately, will be unnecessary loss of time and new challenges added to the old ones and waiting for their solutions.
Hayk Paityan