Tuesday, 26 November 2024

E Editorial

Pashinyan's hammer

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During the pre-election campaign, Pashinyan went to rallies with a steel hammer and threatened to hammer his opponents, if needed. And who were his opponents? Pashinyan directly stated on a class struggle being waged in Armenia, and his intention to take revenge for the oppressed class on "those who rob the people” of their property.

In fact, there are no classes in Armenia as such in the classical sense. Neither are there classes any more in the developed Western countries, and that is why modern "leftists" are trying to find social classes or other groups to replace the classes. Marxian theory of class struggle has become outdated in that sense, since the industrial revolution, as a result of which people from villages appeared in cities and were exploited as workers is already in the past.

Nowadays many people believe that we live in the post-industrial period, and in particular in the West there are no more working class in the sense implied by Marx and Engels. Their roles are now played by the immigrants, the blacks, the LGBT community, and other marginalizes groups, i.e., those left out of life. Relevant adjustments are also made in the theories of modern “leftists.”

No modern economy was built in Armenia, and we are still far from such developments, however we are not even an industrial society, and we do not have a working class, because we do not have factories, trade unions, we even do not have any layers with a class feeling. In that case, what class struggle was Pashinyan talking about? Probably, by the class struggle the poor, in many cases people on the brink of poverty are implied. Many believe that we are living in the post-industrial period and, in particular, in the West there are no longer working classes in the sense that Marx and Engels implied. The masses below the threshold, see in Pashinyan a fist punishing the middle class and a small number of rich people, with a hammer in his hand.

In the last thirty years, some of the most urgent issues in Armenia are those on social injustice - "robbery", "unfair privatization", and "corruption." A large part of the society is looking for wrongdoers for social revenge and its bad life, it is also a self-justification for their condition, which has subjective and objective reasons. Social demagoguery is the core of the incumbent government's propaganda, and it does not matter at all that the Civil Contract, in its pre-election list, unlike the opposition, included real oligarchs and classic “robbers."

It is natural that if the process of redistribution of property starts in Armenia, it may be the last blow to the economy and will have serious consequences for the incumbent government in the first place. However, populism and demagoguery allowed the incumbent government to reproduce itself. And what will happen next is a matter of time, the incumbent government lives on a daily basis.

Apparently, there will be no class struggle in Armenia, but such "justice" will be established, which will not leave a stone unturned, unless, of course, Pashinyan's hammer knows its size.

The Armenian Center for National and International Studies

Yerznkian 75, 0033
Yerevan, Armenia

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www.acnis.am

  

The views of the authors do not necessarily reflect those of the Center.

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