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04.10.2007

ON THE COMPLEX OF INFERIORITY AND “TECHNOLOGICAL SYSTEM”

   

Gagik Terteryan

In our days we can’t avoid facing the self reproaching moods, even reaching to national self-humiliation prevailing in our society. Such tendencies of complex of inferiority are sometimes grounded by “historical” references. It is especially stressed up lack of “state” thinking, betrayal in decisive situations and continuous defeats. Even the victories are sometimes presented as mere “moral”, with shade of uselessness attributed to them.

We are far from only glorifying and extra coloring the Armenian history. We are also sure that self-reproach is one of the preconditions of development. However, the tendency of self-humiliation gives rise to objection and concern, as from the standpoint of the nation’s development such an approach is quite inefficient. In this context let’s notice that the history of the Armenian nation is somehow alike the history of any nation representing any old civilization, where one can find examples of loyalty and treachery, manifestations of strategic wisdom and political sort-sightedness.

The issues of victories and defeats are the subject of special interpretation. According to experts, the big number of victorious battles won by Armenians has gained a worthy place in the history of international art of war. Our histories also deserve special attention and in this sense it is not shameful to learn from the others. Let’s bring an example: at the Crimea war /1854-1855/ the cavalry, made of the representatives of the English aristocracy, following the order of the commander Lord Kardihan, took the offensive through a canyon which was deployed by Russian artillery and infantry in the three sides. The charging squadrons were almost completely destroyed. In the history of the art of war this incident is known as “the charge of light cavalry” and is a classical example of a serious mistake of the command. However, the British treated the problem in quite a different way: today “the charge of the light cavalry” is considered to be an example of brevity of the British aristocracy. It is considered that the Anglo-Saxons may lose single battles but not the war. As we see, it is also conditioned by the fact that the Anglo-Saxon elite interpret their /and the others/ history in compliance with national interests.

The “absence of state thinking” thesis deserves special observation. It is obvious, that without that way of thinking the Armenians would hardly have survived up to our days. In particular, the freshest evidences of that reality are the mode of actions our society and political elite pursued under the conditions of geopolitical cataclysm following the collapse of the Soviet Union defeated in the Cold War: in the most difficult situations, often thanks to making the only right step, it was possible to preserve our statehood and defeat the enemy excelling us by its military and economic criteria.

Let’s get into details: the collapse of the Soviet system and the formation of the Third Republic gave birth to very serious problems. In the process of formation under the conditions of war and economic collapse were destroyed quite natural for the period social guaranties and the educational system having essential role in the society’s development. These dramatic realities were not without human tragedies, and it goes without saying that gave no way to enthusiasm. The actions of the newly formed political elite, which had no experience of state governing, caused extra anxiety. At the same time, we should fairly mention that our society was lucking another more power elite, which would take the whole responsibility of unexpected developments of the period on its shoulders.

Today it seems that the most serious state formation period is in the past. Together with obvious success, there are also many unsolved problems in almost all the fields. Moreover, some opinions are voiced that the methodology implemented today and prospective way of thinking may be not enough to give those problems proper solutions: according to the political elite and analysts, volitional steps are necessary to be taken for the further development which are to include elements of “spiritual revolution.” In this sense let’s mention that at present any political operation, including the success of “spiritual revolution,” is first of all conditioned by the perfection of the technologies of realization.

In his works devoted to political developments Arnold Toynbee says that the competitiveness of the “West” is partly conditioned by its ability to keep its “technological secrets” and to develop technologies. Here, perhaps, there is need of explanation: the term “technology” doesn’t only refer to the fields of natural science and techniques, but also to all the fields of human vital activity, where are included both the seeming little trifles of everyday life and philosophic approaches. That complex makes a system made of quite different technologies, which has long been ensuring the conditional “West’s” primacy and to which /fairly speaking/ aspire to reach the rest of the world.

Of course, the western technological system is far from being ideal. It often gives birth to quite fair complains. Today many suggestions and claims are voiced to recomprehend and make reforms in the system. However, there is such an impression that in the present situation works the mechanism of self-preservation installed in this system beforehand, or in another words the mechanism of self-development and perfection. And even if the humanity refuses to consider the western model to be priority and makes an attempt to make a new world order, one may be sure that without grasping the “western” experience that project will be incomplete and will cause more problems than we have today.

In the above mentioned context perhaps it is worth mentioning one more circumstance, which is not spoken about much from the standpoint of political ethics. The authors of the western technology system are mainly the nations belonging to Indo-European civilization, which make the main part of the Christian world, including our nation /of course, it doesn’t mean that the western way of thinking or the West in general are not comprehendible for us/. That’s to say, as the inseparable part of that civilization the Armenian nation is compatible with the western technology system. The aspiration of our compatriots to make roots and their ability to succeed in more systemized countries is partially conditioned by that.

Thus, there are all the preconditions to suppose that “spiritual and technological” revolution is not unreachable for our society. To solve this problem we should just get rid of the complex of inferiority pursuing and hampering us. To solve this problem we should also implement some technologies. In particular, it is more than urgent to reinterpret our history by means of up-to-date terminology. The second technological stage supposes installing the results acquired by up-to-date information methods in the social consciousness.


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