Mikael Minasyan, Armenia's former ambassador to the Holy See of Vatican and the Republic of Malta, has published an article in 168.am.
Panorama.am presents the full text of the article below
Armenian women can curse, and they are really good at it. This discovery was perhaps the biggest surprise on social media this past year, and this refers to very real Armenian women living in Armenia and abroad. Of course, it’s the level of mutual intolerance that a shock delivers any public discourse impossible.
Clearly, this is a global phenomenon that did not occur overnight but has gradually gained momentum. In 2015, the Pew Institute conducted a survey to find out if people can write a public comment, if that comment might offend another group of people. Some 35% of those surveyed said they could. In other words, one out of three people believe it is normal to post something on a social media, knowing for sure it might offend someone. Taking into consideration the polarizing policy in the world and Armenia, it is no accident that the numbers of such people and the degree of aggression in comments have hiked since 2015.
On the one hand, a divided, polarized and hostile society is extremely predictable. On the other hand, it is extremely vulnerable. Societies have become internally hostile, clashed and weakened before suffering defeat from an external enemy. This has many precedents in history, starting from the Roman Empire and leading up to our days.
To understand the societies you are dealing with explore its urban legends. In this sense, Armenia operates on medieval morals:
- The purpose of the struggle between the government and the opposition is to eliminate each other politically and morally. If you don’t curse at or eliminate your opponent, you are neither a real government nor a real opposition.
- The foreign relations discourse does not go beyond unfeasable dreams or unrealistic notions, and the person who proposes an idea about advancing Armenia’s interests immediately becomes pro-Russian, a pro-Western or pro- something else.
- In regard to the Artsakh issue, Azerbaijan borders Artsakh, but we Armenians have dug the trenches among ourselves. Those trenches enclose the political parties of peace and war, patriots and traitors, patriots and bigger patriots, traitors and bigger traitors, as well as people who are ready to make concessions and concessions-over-my-dead-body attitudes.
The society is polarized, and the public evaluations are at extremes:
- In Armenia, people are either heroes or criminals.
- In Armenia, the government is either always right or always wrong.
- In Armenia, the opposition is either in prison or a cheap puppet.
- In Armenia, a beloved artist is either posthumous or lives abroad.
- In Armenia, a businessman is either a benefactor or an oligarch.
As for oligarchs, we Armenians declare our wealthy compatriots abroad as heroes, but refer to the local manufacturers and businessmen in Armenia as internal enemies or “nation’s leaches”. Instead of seeking more effective mechanisms for social justice, we proclaim that nobody should live well until everyone lives well. It’s like the well-known joke when the widow of a participant of the October Revolution asks the Bolsheviks what the people are fighting for, the Bolsheviks say people are fighting to make sure there are no wealthy people. After that, the widow says her husband was fighting to make sure there are no poor people.
Examples are plenty and destructivism continues. It sure is one way to live —by hating, dividing, labeling and discrediting. After all, you can eliminate, align, remove, empty and desert everyone, but what happens after that? Does that make us happier? Based on the happiness index, it doesn’t! Armenia has always been in the list of the unhappy, holding the 116t...
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