Before Christianity was accepted as a state religion, Armenians have had a theater. But at that time no one would ever guess that at the beginning of the 21st century the whole nation would be “acting”. And I don’t mean to insult our great actors – Petros Adamyan, Sos Sargisyan, etc. By saying “acting” I don’t mean the real talent, I mean the ability to “pretend”. It seems that everybody pretends nowadays. The government “pretends” that they take care of the nation, the opposition “pretends” that they want to start a revolution to change power, John Evans “pretends” that the most important thing for him and his country is democracy, the tax inspection “pretends” that they fill the budget, dashnaks are “pretending” that they are fighting against corruption, Artur Baghdasaryan “pretends” that he his fighting against ballot stuffing (but the moment his brother’s care is taken to the penal zone, he will forget about election fraud), deputies “pretend” that they write laws (I’d be more inclined to believe that H. Abrahamyan is writing a dissertation than to believe that deputies write laws), And the people by looking at all this “pretend” that they live.
However, in the aspect of “practical art” everything in extremely unfavorable conditions in our country but we don’t feel the lack of genres. For example, when the president started to “act” like a born Yerevan resident it sounded like a “comedy”. It is false when Geghamyan plays the role of “Socrates” or “Seneca”. It is a tragic comedy when Vahan Hovhannisyan starts to speak on others phones. And the “Legal State” completely reminds us of an Indian movie. Stepan Demirchyan is a failed cartoon, the oligarchs with their skinheads remind us of “action” movies, Tigran Urikhanyan – “child’s fantasy” and Tigran Torosyan – “melodrama”. The Armenian villages and Garnik Isagulyan remind us of “soap-operas”, Gurgen Arsenyan – “Fun stuff”, and the newly born parties are surrealism.
And as nothing in this world is done without reason let’s try to understand what those mass “art skills” originated from. Indeed, we all are a result of the Soviet Union no matter we are opposition, government, ANM or Marxist Davit Hakobyan (no matter how much our respectable deputy-speaker Vahan Hovhannisyan hates this country he has to realize that all of us even him were born and educated in this country). And if at that time the Soviet Union “pretended” that they believe the Lenin ideas and concept the ANM would “pretend” that they are democrats. And we all perfectly know that all the democrats, “if they don’t borrow money from they neighbor” they finally end up resigning. I don’t know why the talent of “pretending” got so spread in Armenia (probably in parallel with information technologies) but one thing I know for sure – the “talent of acting” got very developed and disseminated in Armenia, like like a mobile phone. That’s a fact. And let none of us seek for other ears, we all got the same ears because we all “pretend” that we live in a free and independent country (“Bush’s”, “Putin’s” ears might hear this).
However, from the second when the teacher stops “pretending” that he’s teaching the student, when the policeman stops “pretending” that he is protecting citizen’s security, when the judge stops “pretending” that he’s fair and just, when the statesman stops “pretending” that he/she loves her/his nation and when the mediator really helps instead of hindering, I will forget about the ears of “Bush” and “Putin”. This means we will start to live in a free and independent Armenia.