Today, the atmosphere in more or less active public circles is not calm. the same questions are constantly being discussed: what is happening in Armenia, how long will it last, what is expected? These are questions that need to be answered. The range of estimates and forecasts is enormous: from boom to bust, from peace to inevitable war, from economic revolution to economic collapse, from immigration to a new wave of emigration, etc.
The currents of influence are very large. In the end, one should start assessing the situation as coldly as possible. There won’t be easy solutions, but a correct perception of reality will suggest correct solutions. Starting today, we will present a five-six-part series of articles, where the answers to the above-mentioned questions will be discussed from the perspectives of society, elites, reforms, security and others. This was said by a former member of the National Assembly, now a member of the Alternative Projects group Vahe Hovhannisyan in the article;
Society and Revolution
8-9 months after the revolution, two conflicting moods prevail in the public circles.
a/ Presence of something very new, good, freshness, new breath
B/ The demand for blood and punishment, the expectation.
And the two together create a ruling atmosphere of great uncertainty.
The problem is that these sentiments are not only extremely opposite, but also mutually exclusive.
One of them must win for the future course of the country. Either the positive idea of creating and developing will win, or the bile and hatred accumulated on all sides over the decades will win.
The stage of blood demand, somewhere, logically, should have ended already in June-July, but everything was done to make it the opposite. And now we have a situation where the masses want to hang former presidents, generals, ministers, businessmen, etc., according to their preference. And the intensity of the specific desire depends on the current propaganda vector.
When the demand for blood reigns in the society, then there is an acute lack of progressive, development-oriented moods. There is an irrational demand to punish.
The positive, developmental mood is equally irrational. It seemed that after the revolution, professional proposals, ideas, moods would pour in from all different sides to make their own sphere and the country better. This is the healthy post-revolutionary atmosphere. I don’t know why it doesn’t happen. With rare exceptions, almost all areas are stagnant and inertial developments so far. If we accept that in the past suggestions, creativity and innovation were suppressed, then why is it not now? It turns out that there is a demand for blood against the background of content emptiness. In that case, at what expense should the progress be?
It seems that the current government should have avoided today’s public sentiments. The demand to “hang” on the past, the demand for instinctive blood, is the most dangerous for the current government
for One stage, one moment unnoticed, and the demand for blood from the past will apply to the present as well. This is the historical trajectory of blood demand. And it is just as irrational and just as unrestrained and, of course, mostly unfair. It is the famous effect of the guillotine placed in the square.
In these months, substantive and behavioral changes have taken place in our public sentiments. If you have noticed, among the dignified, proud and dukhov qualities, the dukhov was quickly adopted and found viable by the masses. It became a way of life and began to be used not only for good and righteous purposes. It is necessary to make the transition to the next phase of dignified and proud citizens as quickly as possible. It is not easy, because dignity requires a certain awareness, self-awareness, legal awareness, a value system, ultimately, knowledge, and institutional solutions are also needed here. For example: the introduction of an institution for the protection of workers’ rights in the form of trade unions or other structural units is important. By the way, our group wrote about its necessity back in May, as an important step in properly formulating the post-revolutionary developments and giving them a structural form. It is not done. Of course, this is only one of the steps in the direction of forming dignified and proud citizens.
Institutes of public opinion are still in the embryonic, social network stage. This easily leads to widespread and even open use of “public opinion” manipulation mechanisms. More and more often we see the strengthening of the role of social network opinion at the expense of state institutions, at the expense of their weakening. Let’s record this as:
a newly emerging serious problem. Literally, trials are held on social networks, judgments are made, destinies are decided, mines are closed, indulgences are granted, laws, decisions are suspended, etc. All this requires great attention and seriousness.
Reminiscent of the reality of post-Gaddafi Libya, footage of thugs hanging from car windows stopping a Ministry of Defense bus, the march of those demanding judgment under Sharia laws in the spiritual capital of Christian Armenia, the unhindered and encouraged calls to hang and burn X and Igrek are a warning about possible wrong developments.
At the same time, one should always remember that it is not a difficult thing to make a hero into an anti-hero and vice versa, given a certain amount of time and resources, and weak societies welcome such transformations adequately.
Alignment of views
There was a large outflow from the public sphere to “My step”, which also greatly affected the map of Armenian political society. Here it is worth recalling an old problem that the adequate, progressive figures of all previous governments faced when renewing the personnel bank. most of the literate, progressive young people became bureaucrats surprisingly easily 1-2 months after entering the government cabinet. Very quickly they lost the merits for which they were brought to this or that branch of power: new thinking, new outlook, ability to think freely. They became bureaucrats with all the attributes. Let’s leave aside their clothes, lifestyle and environment
thinking and professed values were changing and becoming bureaucratic, fearful, limited, devoid of any flight.
The same problem exists today. People who have gained authority in public life with their thinking and principles are very smoothly transformed into a member of the “My Step” Council of Elders or a deputy. Why? The problems, for the solution of which a year ago they fought a fundamental struggle, today are easily overlooked and treated according to the expediency of the party at the moment. Why? You were rich with your freedom, weren’t you? After all, the country needed you for your inner freedom. Why are you becoming an institutional ruling party? There are other people for that: technocrats, civil servants. And individual freedom, freedom of thought is the resource that can provide progress in a country without oil.
It is necessary to record a problem of serious practical significance. The ruling parties in Armenia devour individuals. It is necessary to understand why leveled thinking and leveled behavior so quickly overcome individuality, and to find its antidote. Maybe it is based on not having a state for many centuries. But this hypothesis has no practical significance, it is just an attempt at justification. It is much more practical to accept that the ruling monster parties should be avoided. ANM, created from brilliant individuals, became evil in the end, RPA, which consolidated 80 percent of the country’s intellectual resources and capable individuals, became unacceptable. CP, formed under the banner of new, new air, new opportunities, for some reason, is quickly becoming the institutional obstacle to all that.
Let’s try to find solutions
The answer to the question of what will happen in Armenia directly depends on the question “what will be the atmosphere in the country?” A more direct connection is hard to imagine.
It is necessary to change public sentiments. To pose a problem, to replace the demand for blood with the demand to create, to act. To encourage the formation of the proposal and program idea with different mechanisms. The fact of a weak society cannot be abused. You can’t constantly sell cheap emotions to the public. Cheap tricks have a short-term effect, but each time it’s a big step towards a bigger hole. If this is done, the great uncertainty that has settled on the earth like a stubborn fog will only be softened and dispersed.
Who can do that?
The masses and the atmosphere can be influenced by the authorities at this time. They still can. What should the government do? as the first and most important prerequisite, the government must have a point of view. The government should deliver to the public not speeches, words, words, but its point of view, options for solving specific issues, approaches. The government should invite the public to these discussions, make them a participant. A participating society should be transformed from a passive observer. But, I repeat, the government itself must first have a point of view. An opinionless government is the shortest way to have a dangerous society.
Broad-minded people outside of power can also have some influence on public sentiments
people and circles. But there is a prerequisite for them too. the sense of responsibility. Their platforms need to be structured in order to be heard, to break out of the logic of the universal noise of social networks.
Otherwise, only the speeches of the government, which is gradually separated from reality, and the voice of those who oppose the government on a commercial basis will be heard. And the society will again remain excluded from the processes and abandoned, captive to the ideas artificially imposed on it.
Therefore, it is important to form a new consolidating idea to reject the current atmosphere. Present a point of view to the public, propose solutions and demand its active participation. Who would do that?